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“I warned them not to be jerks, and now, they’re just giving me a bunch of shit. That’s what we do. All in love—keep that in mind when they heckle you later while you’re bowling. Everybody gets it. It won’t just be you.”
If London was any example, the “shit” came from more than his family. After we rented shoes, Hudson said bye to her and I gave a little wave before we headed over to the family’s reserved lanes.
“Depending on how many come, we get two to four lanes. Looks like two today.”
“Hey,” a guy said, falling in step with us. He looked shockingly similar to Hudson, yet older. “I paid for your games, already.”
“Thanks,” Hudson said.
“I’ll add it to your tab.”
“That’s what he always says,” Hudson told me. “Running joke. Coen, this is Sparrow. Sparrow, this is my older brother, Coen. I apologize in advance.”
“Hey!” he protested.
The one with the raccoons?I wrote.
Coen looked over my shoulder.
“That’s me,” he said before Hudson could answer. Ignoring his brother, he slid an arm around my shoulders and stole me. “Let me introduce you to everyone—everyone who’s here anyway. Don’t worry, we don’t expect you to remember all the names.”
“Where’s Jen?” Hudson asked from behind us.
“Busy with the kids again. You know how it is since the divorce last year. I’m telling you… She’s pulling away from all of us.”
“Or maybe she didn’t want to see Gaines and Elise bickering again. What is it this time?”
“Who the fuck knows.”
I noticed Coen steered clear of the couple in question. When Hudson had given me the rundown on his siblings earlier he’d mentioned adversarial had been Gaines and Elise’s modus operandi lately, though in the past they’d been attached at the hip, stars in their eyes since they met almost twenty years ago in high school. Elise was as much his sister as Jen was, since she’d been in his life since he was four.
“Okay,” Coen said. “So these are our cousins: Sadie, Daisy, Chasin, Jase, Jordie and the twins—Harley and Marlowe.” He pointed to them as he said their names and each waved or said hi. In turn, I smiled and nodded as they were introduced. Though it had been weird for Hudson to “warn” them, I was thankful they all knew why I didn’t say anything.
Hudson pulled me away from his brother and tugged me close to him. “Hands off.”
Coen smirked at him before saying something about finding balls and heading toward one of the racks. I didn’t think he meant bowling balls, though.
“Hey, come sit with me,” his cousin, Jordie, called, patting the seat next to him, then going back to putting on his bowling shoes. “I’m more interesting than Hud.”
“And so it begins,” Hudson muttered.
I glanced up at him, my brow furrowed in question.
What begins?I signed.
“Since I warned them I was bringing you, these assholes…” he indicated to Coen and his male cousins, “think it’s open season.” He glared at them, pulling me tighter to him. “She’s mine. I’d say to get your own, but I know no woman will have any of you.”
“The hell you say,” Jordie chortled, accompanied by the heckling from the rest of the crew.
“Keep in mind, this is only a few of us,” Hudson warned me. “But it’s too late to run now.”
I was still stuck on,She’s mine. The words ran over and over in my head while I sat at one of the tables behind the lane and put on my shoes. Not dissuaded by Hudson, Jordie come over and plopped into one of the two empty chairs.
“I remember you from the restaurant the other day. Nice to officially meet you.”
Nodding, I reached out a hand to shake. As much as he’d teased his cousin, Jordie kept the contact brief. “Oh yeah, he couldn’t keep his eyes off you for a second, kept talking about taking you out. I guess the date went well.”
I glanced up at Hudson. It had gone well…until it hadn’t.
