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This was a guys’ night.
Slone’s wife, Ari, and Banner’s wife, Perry, weren’t here. They were at Banner’s brother’s home.
With both of them newly pregnant, neither one had any desire to come tonight.
I’d had no problem with that, though. It meant I got to spend some time with my boys, sans kids—even my own.
I loved Annabelle a hell of a lot, but there was just something about having an adult interaction without a kid that made me feel like I could breathe again.
Annabelle was the light of my life, but she was a handful.
With her genius IQ, and my not one, it took a lot of brain power on my end to keep up with her. And there was almost a never-ending feeling of inadequacy that came with raising a kid who was smarter than me at six years old.
“Three Blackened VooDoos,” Banner ordered the moment we reached the bar.
The bartender went to work, and I took a second to see if Blue was good on her drink.
It was nearly empty.
So when the bartender handed us our beer, I held up my finger before he could go to the next person.
“I’ll also need a strawberry lemonade,” I ordered.
The bartender frowned. “Non-alcoholic?”
I nodded. “Virgin, please.”
The bartender went to work, and Banner and Slone looked at me like I was annoying.
“What?” I asked.
“When did you turn into such a little bitch?” Slone asked.
I gave him a look that clearly indicated ‘fuck off’ before saying, “Remind me again. Don’t you work in a circus now?”
Banner started laughing. “That video Ari sent last week was the fuckin’ best. He screamed like a girl when they put that snake on him.”
That ‘snake’ was actually a twenty-foot boa constrictor. So I could see why he’d been a little freaked. He’d never been too good with animals, and he’d never in his life been good with anything amphibious or reptilian. Frogs. Turtles. Snakes. He’d been wary of them all.
“I’m not in the circus, moron,” Slone grumbled. “It’s the off season. I’m just spending time with my new wife. Sue me.”
“She was your new wife two years ago,” I pointed out. “Now you’re just getting led around by your balls.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
I turned to find Rebel, another one of our old high school friends, standing behind us with her empty martini glass.
“No,” I answered and reached for her.
She came into my arms with the same giggle she had in high school.
“How have y’all been?” she asked.
“We’ve been great, Reb.” Banner reached for his own hug. “How about you?”
“Livin’ the traveling anesthesiologist life and runnin’ a bar in my spare time.” She beamed before turning to Slone and giving him a hug. “I worked with your mom on the last hitch I did. Did she tell you that?”
He nodded. “She told me all about how you’re rakin’ in the dough. And how your parents want you to come home and you never do.”
