“Did he really?” Penny asked Daphne.
Daphne had been at the same resort as us during James’bachelor party. It’s where she and Rob had officially met. So she’dunfortunately seen all the shenanigans first hand.
I winced when Daphne slowly nodded.
“Look, we all went a little overboard that weekend,” Masonsaid.
Bee tried to glare at him through her laughter. “What doesthat mean?” I couldn’t tell if she was actually upset or she was doing anoverexaggerated glare because of her intoxication.
Mason laughed. “It was a bachelor party.”
She continued to stare at him. And even though it looked likeshe was seconds away from exploding with laughter again, the last thing Iwanted was for Bee to be upset with Mason because he was trying to cover forme. The bachelor party had actually been very tame and very lame.
“I’m sorry, okay you guys?” I said.
Tanner clapped me on the back. “That’s a good start, Matt. ButI have an idea. James, you should just get him back. It’s best to just get even.Who has some drugs?”
James shook his head. “I’m not going to drug Matt.”
“Leave it to me then,” Tanner said.
“I don’t want you to drug him either.”
“Noted. I’ll think of something better.” Tanner snapped hisfingers. “Revenge is a dish best served hard, if you know what I mean.” Heraised his glass.
I literally had no idea what he meant. Served hard?
Bee giggled.
“You mean cold?” Rob said.
Tanner looked confused.
“The phrase is revenge is a dish best served cold,” Rob said.
Tanner shook his head. “I don’t think that’s how it goes.”
“That’s definitely how it goes. Who serves a hard dish?”
“Dishes are made from glass. They’re all quite hard, Young Robert.Have you never been hit by one?” He started to wave down a waitress, as if hewas going to order a plate to break over Rob’s head.
I grabbed Tanner’s hand to lower it. We didn’t need awaitress to bring over any plates for him to throw at Rob.
“I’m trying to help,” he whispered back.
“By offering to beat Rob with plates?”
“By fixing your friendships. And yes, possibly teachingRobert a lesson along the way.”
I looked over to see everyone staring at us. I cleared mythroat and removed my hand from Tanner’s arm. This conversation was ridiculous.We were all fine. Tanner was pushing buttons unnecessarily. And I still neededto have that conversation with James before it got any later. “James, can Italk to you for a second?”
“Yeah, sure.” He went to stand up, but paused when his phonestarted ringing. “One second,” he said.
“Hi Ellen, is everything okay?”
There was silence as he listened to her.
“Pumpkin, did you steal Ellen’s phone again?”
Penny shook her head with a smile.
“Mommy and I are out right now. Be a good girl and let Ellentell you a bedtime story.”
He listened to Scarlett intently.
“She does do the voices. I’ve heard her do them.”
He smiled at whatever her response was.
“Is everything okay?” Penny mouthed silently.
James nodded. “Okay, pumpkin. We’ll be home in a few minutes.Love you too.” He hung up. “She’s refusing to go to bed without us reading herbedtime story. And she’s keeping everyone else up too. I think Ellen might havea revolt on her hands.”
Rob laughed. “Sophie and Scarlett are going to be such ahandful when they’re older.”
Rob was right about that. Scarlett was a little baller forrefusing to go to bed without a proper bedtime story. And Sophie seemed likeshe enjoyed a good revolt too. It was possible she was the one leading thetroops.
“We should probably go get Sophie and RJ too,” Daphne said. “It’sgetting late.” She grabbed her coat off the back of her chair.
“Is it okay if we have that chat another time?” James asked.
No. Not really. But I just nodded. They were goinghome to Scarlett right now. Nothing bad could happen to her tonight.
Rob, Daphne, James, and Penny said their goodbyes.
“Have fun on your date tomorrow,” Penny whispered and gave mea quick hug. I watched her duck under James’ arm and giggle at something hewhispered in her ear.
“You okay?” Tanner asked.
Now he was concerned about me? Moments after trying to getJames to drug me?
Luckily I didn’t have to answer him, because Bee was laughingharder than ever, drawing everyone’s attention to her.
“So just me?” Bee said, but I could barely make out the wordsthrough her laughter.
I hadn’t caught the start of her conversation with Mason, butit looked like the two of them were having the time of their lives.
“Yeah, our mom definitely didn’t walk us to the bus stop inhigh school,” Mason said. “We usually rode with James. Or I drove myself.”
Bee finally stopped laughing long enough to breathe. “Not allof high school. Just until junior year when I finally snapped.”
Mason was staring at her with stars in his eyes. “Your mom isamazing.”
“More like mortifying,” Bee said and covered her face.
Mason lowered her hand and kissed her temple.
I turned away and took another sip of my scotch. Out of allmy friends, Bee looked the most like Brooklyn. Sometimes it was hard to look ather for too long. I wondered if Mason saw it. But I didn’t think so. UnlikeJames, he hadn’t had a crush on Brooklyn. And I wasn’t even sure if Jamesreally had either. I was pretty sure he had only pretended to like her to messwith me. But I’d never know. Because I’d never bring her up.
I swirled the ice around in my glass. At least I wasn’t the thirdwheel tonight. Because Tanner was here too. I actually preferred hanging outwith Bee and Mason the most because they didn’t have any kids. It was justadults talking. I loved my friends’ kids, but I didn’t need to talk about themnonstop like parents always seemed to.
“What was Mason like in high school?” Bee asked me.
I shrugged. “The same.”
Bee laughed. “I’m pretty sure I had an awkward stage betweenfirst and twelfth grade. Unlike you guys with your amazing Caldwell genes. Ihope our kids get them.”
I was pretty sure my fingers tightened on my glass. Notyou guys too. It was hard enough being the only single one. I didn’t wantto be the only one without kids too.
Mason laughed.
