Abby nods. “Exactly.” I feel her eyes on me still while I watch the others get their food. Matt gestures for Abby and me to go, but I shake my head and indicate that he and Hannah should go first, rules of being a host be damned. We’re old friends. We don’t need to stand on those kinds of protocols.
With a shrug, he turns to Hannah and guides her to the food with a hand on the small of her back.
“What’s wrong?” Abby asks softly.
I glance at her and shake my head. “Nothing. Matt said he wants to talk to me about something, but didn’t say what.”
She giggles. “Ah, I see. And now you’re twisting yourself into pretzels trying to figure out what it is. Matt should know you hate having information dangled in front of you by now. That’s just mean.”
“Right?” I say, giving the word all my pent up exasperation. “It’s a dick move.”
“Absolutely,” she agrees, and I know she’s mocking me just a little bit, but I don’t even care.
Fortunately, I don’t have to wait much longer. Once we’ve gotten our food, conversation quiets down while everyone digs in. Matt’s in the corner of the living room, propped up by his shoulder against the wall while he eats, watching the others gathered around the coffee table, the women all at one end, laughing and talking, Coopman and Carter watching them with amusement and occasionally interjecting their own comments. I join him, setting my beer by the wall, taking a bite of mashed potatoes, and watching the others as well.
“So,” he says after a moment, drawing my attention to him. He’s still focused on his plate, though.
“So,” I repeat, wondering if he’ll actually get out what he wants to say instead of making me wait until after the gift exchange or if he just lives to torture me. Honestly, it could go either way.
He grins. “You’re ready to kill me right now, aren’t you?”
I shrug. “Pretty much, yeah.”
A bark of laughter. “Sorry, man. I wasn’t even thinking about how you hate having things dragged out. I just wanted to make sure we got a moment to chat tonight.”
I make a show of looking around. “Seems like now’s a good moment.”
Nodding, his face grows serious, and once again he looks everywhere but at me. “So Hannah got a job with Earth Ambassadors.”
“Right. I think you mentioned that recently. Part time, right?”
He nods again. “Yeah. For now. They want to bump her up to full time.”
My forehead wrinkles. “But she coordinates all your marketing, doesn’t she? Plus running your social media?”
“Right. Yeah. She does.” He sucks in a deep breath. “This is her dream job, though, working for them. So, um …”
“So you’ll need someone to handle your marketing for you,” I fill in. “You want me to put a proposal together for you?”
He finally meets my eyes, surprise, calculation, and something else fighting for dominance on his face. “Huh.” He looks away. “I actually hadn’t thought of that.” Setting his fork on his plate, he brings his free hand up to rub his jaw. “I was actually going to offer you the job. See if you’d be willing to be my head of marketing.”
I blink at him a few times, not quite sure I heard him right. “You want me to work for you?”
He looks at me quickly. “I’m not an asshole boss or anything. I thought maybe it would be fun. We could travel together. You could come along on some of the trips to give you more of an idea of what I offer and the best ways to market it. Abby could come too. You had fun on that first surf trip we went on a few years ago. You even rode a few waves. You could get better. Help you stay in shape.”
Holding up a hand to forestall more of this really strange sales pitch he’s giving me, I shake my head. His face falls. “Whoa, whoa. Hang on a sec. I’m just trying to catch up. Of all the things I thought you might want to talk to me about, this was nowhere on the list.”
He cracks a smile. “Oh yeah? What was on the list?”
I chuckle. “Hannah’s pregnant and you want me to be the godfather. You need a loan. You’re in the doghouse and need a place to crash. You’re shooting blanks and want a sperm donor.”
His eyes bug out of his head on the last one, and he gives an incredulous laugh. “And what would your answer be to any of those?”
“Yes, how much, anytime, and I’d have to think about that last one for a long time. Talk to Abby. And Hannah. There are a lot of sticky details in something like that.”
His shoulders relaxed, he shakes his head, a smile still spread across his face. “Nice to know I can count on you in almost any situation, man.”
I shrug and pick up my beer. “Sure.”
Serious again, he turns to look at me. “And about the job?”
Another shrug. Do I want to work for Matt? Would I want to give up the client base I’ve built to focus on one company exclusively, knowing that my efforts directly impact its bottom line? Not gonna lie, getting to go on surf trips pretty much whenever would be a fun perk.
“I have to think about it, man. Do you have salary details and job duties written up anywhere that you could send me? I need to talk to Abby too before making any big changes like this.”
“Right,” he says, sounding a little choked. “Of course. Yeah. I’ll email you the details tonight.” He blows out a breath like he just finished a heavy set in the weight room. “Thanks, man.”
I grin. “Don’t thank me yet. I haven’t said yes.”
He grins back. “But you didn’t say no.”
CHAPTER NINE
Daniel
I’d forgotten how crazy get togethers with this bunch of weirdos can be. Lance, Chris, and
