Page 92 of Gin and Bear It

I rest my hands on the counter because I don’t know what to say. I never expected an apology from him, ever. Or that he’d see exactly what was going on, even in retrospect. I feel too exposed, even though I appreciate the fact that he’d say all this when he doesn’t have to.

“Thank you. But we were kids,” I say eventually. “It’s not like we were mature enough to understand that.”

“Yeah, but we aren’t kids now. We don’t have to be enemies.” He methodically scrubs a sheet pan with more focus than I’ve ever done in my life.

“You mean you want to hang out?” I ask, both of my eyebrows shooting up. “And do what?”

JD rests his hands on the edge of the sink, his brows furrowing. “I hadn’t thought that far, to be honest. I didn’t think I’d get to this point.”

I snort. “Wow, great.”

“Well, what would you want to do?” he asks. The back door opens and Bubba and Lady come trotting in. Bubba makes a beeline straight to JD, snuffling his hand. “What do you do on the weekends?”

“Uh, hang out with Jada. Work on my music. Sometimes we go to the movies or Sarah Jane’s or the park or something.” I give Bubba a pat on the side, then Lady nudges him out of the way for her turn. “What do you do?”

“Similar things, but with Katrina. We take Bubba for hikes.”

“Do y’all want to come to our place for dinner? Like just us?” Wes asks, finally dropping the act that he’s not eavesdropping. “Waylon and I do that all the time with our friends, but we can do brother shit, too.”

“Who’s doing what?” Waylon asks, coming into the kitchen. The dogs abandon us and go to him.

“We’re all hanging out because JD and Ash decided to stop fighting all the time,” Wes says, pouring water from the kettle into a French press with practiced ease. “So we should grill or something.”

Waylon blinks. “Oh. That’s great. We should really do that.”

I rake a hand through my hair, reaching new levels of relief that I didn’t know I could feel. Waylon’s initial iciness after marrying Jada was more painful than I want to admit. We exchange a look—Jada hasn’t come running to him, unhappy, so I guess he wants to mend that little rift, too.

The four of us, hanging out. We haven’t done that since we were children and were forced to be in the same space.

Maybe this could be a good thing. It might be exactly what I need to keep moving forward.

TWENTY-NINE

JADA

Time really starts to fly at some point in the middle of the summer. The bar renovation goes from constant construction headaches to design ones, which I greatly prefer. Ash and I fall into a rhythm together, going to work, hanging out, and hooking up whenever we get the chance.

Before I know it, we’re just outside of Nashville at an event space for Danika’s wedding. Danika’s taste is questionable, but this feels different than that. It feels thrown together. The decor looks like they grabbed whatever loosely matched from a party store and threw together some centerpieces in the cocktail hour space we were herded into. A few of them don’t match, and some of her friends are rushing around, trying to fix things.

The flowers are spare, too, like they were trying to cut corners. But instead of adding less expensive filler flowers, they just threw a few bundles of individual flowers into vases. The balance of each arrangement feels off.

The communication between the staff handling the pre-wedding drinks is a mess, too. One of her friends keeps running between the kitchen area and the bar, huffing and complaining that the drinks are too weak.

I don’t know what vibe Danika was going for, but I’m assuming she didn’t want it to be chaotic.

I don’t get it. I got the hotel, so she didn’t have to rush the wedding to fulfill the requirements for the inheritance. She could have taken all the time she wanted to put together the event of her dreams. Why is it like this?

“JJ!” Maryse rushes me, as she always does, and almost tackles me with a hug. I give her a long squeeze. When she finally releases me, she looks at Ash with narrowed eyes. “Ash.”

Ash grins. “Hi, Maryse. Good to see you again.”

“Hm. Likewise.” She extends her hand and Ash shakes it, his smile widening.

Little Malcolm follows soon after, giving me and Ash the same treatment as his sister did. They’re both dressed in subtly coordinated outfits, with Maryse in a cute, green dress with a sequined bodice and swishy skirt, and Malcolm wearing a green tie.

Kendra and Big Malcolm find their kids and say hello to us, too. Maryse and Malcolm go off to look at the fountain in the entryway.

“This is…” Kendra looks around, swirling her glass of wine.