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I take it and smile. “Nice to meet you, Cleo.”
“Hey… Asher, I’m the quiet one, so don’t expect a thrilling conversation from me.”
I raise a brow at his honesty. “Okay… got it.”
Tahlee glances around, letting out a small giggle. “And Cade is here too. He just went to get some drinks… I think. I’m not sure, honestly… he disappears a lot. I think he might actually be Batman.”
I burst out laughing as everyone else nods in agreement.
Brianna giggles beside me. “I think I’ve only seen Cade a handful of times in the couple of years I’ve known this group, and we come here all the time. I wonder if he isactuallyever here, to be honest.”
“I think he’s in the bathroom, snorting, if you know what I mean?” Dane quips, sniffing excessively for emphasis.
Tahlee slaps him across the back of his head while shaking hers. “You’re an idiot.”
“I think I hear Lucas,” Nash states.
We all spin around. Paisley and Lucas are walking to the edge of the stairs with a stroller. Nash jumps up and heads over, grabbing the bottom of the stroller to help Lucas ease it down the small number of steps.
“Thanks.” Lucas offers.
“So glad you guys could make it,” Nash states.
“Sorry we’re late. Everything seems to take so much longer when a toddler is involved.”
I snort under my breath. I remember those days vividly. I want to tell him it gets easier the older they get, but it doesn’t. Wrangling a seven-year-old, in my opinion, is just as hard.
Paisley leans out, hugging Brianna, while Lucas nods to Dane and Asher.
“Where’s Cade?” Lucas asks, making me smirk because of the conversation we’d only just had about him.
“Does anyone ever know where Cade is? He’s here somewhere,” Cleo states. “Now you have someone I want to meet.”
“Yes, me too. Honestly, I never thought I would see the day. Nash, for sure, but you, Lucas? A dad? Paisley, you really have tamed the beast,” Tahlee teases.
“All right, all right, calm down, ladies. I wasn’t that bad.” Lucas groans, and we all glance at him incredulously because he was, well, a manwhore before Paisley came along. Even Paisley looks at him skeptically, and she’s his girlfriend, which causes him to shrug.
“Okay, so maybe I wasthat bad. But when you know, you know. And Paisley is worth everything. She and Jackson… they hold my heart.”
“Aww… you sappy sack of shit,” Dane mocks.
“This will happen to you too, Dane. You mark my words,” Tahlee teases.
Blake makes his way over from the bar, bringing a tray of drinks. My eyes shift to how his shirt tightens around his biceps, and it’s all I can do to not let out a soft whimper. “A celebratory round. Lucas, I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye at work, but I am happy that you have found your feet with Paisley. She makes you beam. And a better man to be around.”
“Here, here,” Nash states, taking a drink.
“What do you mean a better man to be around?” Lucas chuckles.
“You are pretty damn mopey when you’re not with her,” I add with a smirk.
Lucas turns, smiling at me like it’s just clicked that I’m here. He invited me to come and is the first person from the company to invite me to a work function outside of work.
I appreciate that more than he knows.
But our relationship has always been more relaxed than Nash and mine and more like Blake and me. Lucas and I have a good time working together. So I am honored he invited me here to meet his son for the first time with everyone else.
Lucas Laughs. “Okay, I see how it is. I know I was miserable to be around for the last two years at work, guys. I apologize for that. But I was missing a part of me, two parts actually, but I have them back now.”
