I knew that probably made me seem like a grumpy hard-ass but, well… maybe Iwasa hard-ass about a lot of things. Somebody needed to be.
The last—the very, absolute fuckinglast—thing I needed was one more thing to be responsible for.
When we got inside, I quickly spotted my older brother Knox standing in the corner with his boyfriend, Gage, and ourneighbor, Norm Avery. I nudged Emma and Hawk to follow me as I made my way through the crowd.
“Hey.” Knox lifted his chin. “You get Aiden off to Olin’s okay?”
“Yeah.” I unzipped my parka and stuck my gloves in the pockets. “He’s already messaging me play-by-plays of the hockey game and selfies of him with Olin’s dog.” I rolled my eyes. “Tomorrow, the New Puppy Campaign is gonna be dialed up to eleven, so brace yourselves.”
“Oh, it’s begun. He already told me Sally Ann doesn’t like playing fetch anymore and needs a puppy friend to ‘make her feel young again,’ like I’ve done for Knox.” Gage glanced soulfully up at my brother and batted his eyelashes. “I mean, he’s not wrong. Just think how I’ve changed your life, baby.”
“Jesus,” Knox grumbled. “Poor mutt doesn’t know what’s coming.” He grabbed Gage by the belt loop and hauled him closer, dropping an arm over his shoulder as Gage laughed.
“So, Webb.” Gage chafed his hands together expectantly. “How are you gonna spend your Aiden-free evening? Drinking? Debauchery? Nonstop revelry?”
Gage’s teasing was like sunshine—warm and light, the perfect counterpoint to my brother’s heavy sarcasm—and not for the first time since the two of them got together last fall, I wished I’d married a woman who fit me as well as Gage fit Knox.
But my ex-wife and I hadn’t been that way, even on our best days… and I had less than zero desire to get involved with anyone else.
“Clearly,” I agreed. “I mean, does it get more wild than the Little Pippin Hollow town meeting? And then later on…” I leaned in like I was imparting a secret. “I might really lose control and get a full eight hours of sleep, because no one will be standing by my bed at 2:00 a.m. to debate the existence of alienlife in the universe.” I pursed my lips. “It takes a lot of stamina to party like me.”
Gage snickered. “You make getting older seem so… appealing.”
“Ugh.” Em shuddered. “And you make parenthood seem so…long. No breaks, even in the middle of the night. No, thank you. Not for me.”
I shrugged. I didn’t think about shit that way. Sure, this wasn’t what I’d envisioned when Amanda had first told me she was expecting eight-ish years ago. I’d imagined there’d be two of us to divide the labor and share the worry and… well, to be honest, I hadn’t really known just how much there’d be to worry about.
But I wasn’t complaining. I had a great life and hardly anything to complain about.
Every day, I worked the same land my great-grandparents had worked, so I could leave that land for Aiden and my great-grandkids.
I had an awesome family, including the extra members we’d collected over the years.
And I had a son who was by far the smartest person I knew, even though he sometimes did incomprehensible things like dunking his french fries in maple syrup or insisting yet again that Mr. Williams—overly cheerful, ridiculously earnest, annoying-as-fuck Luke Williams—was the best teacher ever, despite all evidence to the contrary.
The poor kid had no taste, but I had hopes that he’d grow out of it.
“And what’s it feel like to have a kidlet who’s disappointed when he hears there’s a second snow day?” Hawk’s lips twitched in amusement, no doubt remembering the way Aiden had stomped around gloomily that afternoon.
Figured that the only kid in the Hollow who was sad for a day off wasmine.
“He’s a little scientist,” Emma defended fondly. “I think it’s cute.”
“It’s not cute. He’s just overly attached to his beloved Mr. Williams,” I scoffed. “He’ll get over it.”
Knox and Gage exchanged a look.
“Speaking of getting over things, isn’t it beyond time thatyougot over this whole… thing you’ve got against Luke Williams?” Knox demanded, with that big-brother superiority I hated.
I folded my arms over my chest. “The wholethingthat involved him letting my kid go home from school with my ex-wife, without informing anyone, so that we all searched frantically for him for hours? No,” I shot back. “I don’t feel over that.”
“But you know it wasn’t Luke’s fault,” Gage said reasonably. He ticked off his otherreasonablearguments on his fingers, “The principal told him to do it. He had no legal reason to?—”
“Yes, yes, I know.” I huffed.
It turned out I still had the capacity to feel some of Hawk’s overblown outrage after all… mine was just directed at my neighbor.
“So, then?” Gage prompted, tenacious as always. “What’s the deal? Why pick on Luke when you’re usually so… fair?”
