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“Not a chance, kiddo. You’re in the slammer.”
“If I’d known about the trip, I probably wouldn’t have done what I did last night,” he says thoughtfully. “Maybe.”
“Yep. Totally my kind of kid,” Liam says with a grin.
Chapter13
Drew
“What’s London up to this evening?” Liam takes a pull off his beer. He picked up our cousin, Hudson, and me and brought us over to Keaton’s garage so we could hang out and watch Keaton work on a new project while we drink beer and shoot the shit.
It’s not a bad way to spend an evening, and we try to do it at least once a month.
“She and Caleb are having mom and kid date night.” I watch Keaton grab an Allen wrench and then bury his head in the business end of a 1960-something Corvette. “Is Sidney in Nashville recording?”
Keaton’s wife is a country music superstar, and they split their time between Seattle and Nashville. I’d heard that Sid was recording this week, but Keaton shakes his head.
“She’s inside, writing songs over Zoom with a collaborator. We’ll head to Nashville after Montana.”
“So, are you really serious about this London chick?” Hudson, sitting on a tall bench with his feet swinging back and forth, asks. “Don’t get me wrong, from what I’ve seen, she’s hot, but she’s amom.”
“And?”
Hudson frowns. “She’s a mom. It feels like a lot to take on, you know? Not bad, just a lot.”
“They’re a package deal, and that’s the way it should be. You guys know that my mom had the girls when she met my dad. That worked out for them.”
They nod, and Liam lets out a breath. I eye him warily.
“Just say what you have to say.”
“Okay,” Liam says, and his face is completely serious, which isn’t always typical of my best friend. He’s usually the jokester of the family. “Drew, it wasn’t all that long ago that you mentioned to us that you didn’t have any plans to have any kids. Sure, that could have just been talk, but you sounded pretty serious about it.”
“At the time, I had made up my mind. I guess I couldn’t see myself having kids because I hadn’t met anyone worth having them with before. And I hadn’t met Caleb. He’s a good kid.”
“Is he?” Keaton asks, wiping his hands on a rag as he snatches up a beer and walks over to join us. “We heard about the shit he pulled on you guys the other night. Not cool, man.”
“He was great at the compound,” Hudson puts in. “Helpful and funny. He wanted to arm wrestle me. I mean, I won, of course.”
I snort at Hud and take a pull off my beer. “Of course, you did. Look, I hear your concerns, and I get it. If it was any one of you, I’d be saying the same. What he pulled was absolute bullshit and made him seem like a spoiled brat. He’s being punished for it. London and Quinn were both surprised and hurt by it, which tells me this isn’t normal for him.”
“He’s testing you,” Keaton says.
“Pushing buttons,” Liam agrees, nodding. “Trying to see how far he can push you.”
“He’s already pulled the ‘you’re not my dad’line, so we got that out of the way.” I push my hand through my hair. “I’m taking it one day at a time. That’s all I can do. I have to try because I’m completely in love with London, and aside from what happened the other night, Caleb’s been great. I need to feed that relationship a bit because I plan to stick around.”
“Do the guys at work give you shit for fucking the boss?” Liam asks.
“I don’t think most of them know. We don’t do the PDA thing at work, and we haven’t exactly announced the relationship. As time goes on, yeah, they’ll flip me some shit. Or just ask a lot of questions. I don’t mind.”
“Wow, you’re in love.” Liam grins at me. “Good for you. If the kid gets out of hand again, all of us guys will show up and intimidate him.”
“I don’t think he’ll pull that stunt again. He’s pretty mad that he’s missing out on the ski trip because he was a punk.”
“You might be calling us in for help when he’s a teenager,” Hudson reminds me, and I feel the blood drain out of my face.
“Teenager.” I swallow hard. “Shit, that’s not far away. Okay, enough of this talk. Are you two seeing anyone?”
