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“I can imagine her saying that, actually,” Ted said.
“You go and get into it, and I’ll join you soon.” Joe waved him to the table. “I’ll bring your drink.”
The bachelor party participants were standing around a table.
“Last night in a real town, boys?” Jack was saying as Ted joined them.
Ignoring the cursing, he looked around and noticed a sign.Shit, it was karaoke night.
“We’re not doing that, are we?” Ted nodded that way.
“Of course. You just need lubrication, Teddy Bear.” Jack slapped him on the back. “I can’t, of course, as I need to maintain a certain level of dignity in this place.”
“Why? Your brother owns it, not you. And why is it okay for me, the owner of one of the biggest tourist draws in town, to make a fool of himself?”
Jack flashed his teeth. “It’ll make you seem more real. You need to unbend sometimes.”
We have to take three sedatives to ask him for anything personal.Mandy’s words slipped into his head.
“Says who?”
“Most people.”
“I’m not uptight.”
“I’ve only known you a handful of days, bud, and can see you’re the meaning of the word,” Newman said with his easy smile.
Jack and Luke simply raised their beers in agreement.
“I’m busy.” Ted tried not to sound offended. “Really busy.” This, plus the stuff Mandy had said about him, was enough to give a man a complex.
“It’s about a balance, Ted.” Fin stood across from him. “All work and no play makes for a serious-minded, grumpy Teddy Bear. We like you, so we put up with that shit. Not sure about the ladies however.”
“I’m not dignifying that with an answer.”
“He gets the ladies,” Ethan said, “because one of his workers at the lodge told me that.”
“What the hell are you doing asking my staff about me?” He didn’t roar the words exactly, but it was a near thing.
“Just talking, bud. You know what that is, right? Conversating.”
“Is there a particular reason I’m the topic of conversation right now?” Ted felt cornered.
“We’re all damn near perfect, you’re not.” Jack shrugged. “We’re helping you come up to the mark.”
“You want to arm wrestle it into me?” Ted said with a sickly sweet smile.
“I don’t think so.” Jack smiled back. “But we could go for a nice long trail ride and talk about it like women do. You know, really get in touch with your feelings. Rory told me I needed to do that a bit more. This could be my chance.”
Everyone around the table howled with laughter; Ted refused to, so he hid his smile in the beer Joe had handed him, and raised a finger… the middle one.
“Don’t bite, bud, they back away then,” Buster said to him.
“Sure, like that actually works.”
Dylan Howard arrived and slapped him on the shoulder as if he knew what had been happening.
“Daddy!” Everyone raised a glass. “Get that man a beer, his life is about to end!”
