The guys pondered that.
Brad nodded. “A big game of Scrabble should do it. What do you say, guys? Can we get everyone, ladies included, for a party?”
“She has off next Tuesday and Wednesday,” Mack offered, both excited and unnerved to bring Cass to a crew party. Something only the guys and their significant others attended. Once or twice the guys had brought a sibling as well. But not Mack.
To his surprise, that hurt a little, so he shoved it deep down inside and focused on the things he could control. He thought about how Cass would handle a competitive game with the others and grinned. Then grimaced. “Damn, my face hurts. Don’t say it, Tex.”
Tex gave a wide grin. “What? That your face hurts me too? Because it’s killing me!”
Reggie groaned.
Brad socked him in the arm.
“Ow!”
“Bad jokes get beatdowns. Remember that.” Brad left and returned with a bag of frozen peas. “Here. Put this on.”
Reggie looked at Brad. “Sure, help yourself.”
“I did.” Brad stared at Reggie. “Hmm. You know what this calls for?”
Reggie got that stern look that signified trouble, his eyes glued to Brad’s. “I do.” He turned to Tex. “Clear the table.”
Mack laughed. “Not again.”
Tex hurried to clear the coffee table, and Brad and Reggie got on either side of it, on their knees on the ground, and set their elbows on the table. Then they clasped hands.
Arm wrestling for the seriously strong. Though big himself, even Tex liked to take a seat and watch the muscleheads on the floor go at it. At Mack’s look, he grinned and shook his head. “I’m too pretty to get broken. Bree likes me all in one piece.”
Mack chuckled and said, “Best of three, you idiots.” At the glares he received, he corrected himself. “I’m sorry. You morons. One, two, three…”
Reggie won in the last round, but they congratulated Brad for having the strength to beat Reggie at all. Personally, Mack thought it a healthy thing Reggie finally lost. Lately, he hadn’t been spending all his time at the gym, mourning a lost love. Now the guy was happy and healthy, spending time with his fiancée and her adorable six-year-old. And the dog…
“Hey, Reggie, where’s Frank?”
The pit-mix puppy was so ugly he was cute and still scarred from an accident, having been hit by a car.
“Oh, my sister has him. Lisa’s dating Stephen now.” Reggie sighed. “She thinks Frank is a good-luck charm, for some reason, and keeps taking him over to Stephen’s when they spend time together. It’s weird.”
“What? That your fiancée’s ex-husband and your sister are hooking up?” Tex asked.
Reggie glared. “They’redating. I think it’s weird she keeps bringing a dog on her dates.”
“I found two kittens I’m fostering,” Mack said, since he’d forgotten to tell them. “Copo and Impala.”
“Cute names.” Brad grinned. “Though I’d have gone with GTO or Shelby.”
“You would.” Mack sneered. “You know little about cars. Or how much Chevy outshines them all.”
“Up yours.” Brad started talking out his ass while Tex interrogated Reggie on exactly how Reggie had known it was time to propose to Maggie.
Brad and Mack eventually tapered off as one and all understood Tex had seriously bit the love bug. With Reggie already engaged, Brad planning to ask his pregnant girlfriend to marry him after Christmas, and now Tex thinking diamond rings, Mack knew he needed to start spending more time apart from the guys. No matter what they said, they were clearly moving on.
It hurt in a way, but Mack had already sensed the need to move on, the subtle cracks of distance in their four-man crew spreading.
Though he smiled with the others and congratulated Tex, a part of him mourned what had been. Yet another part was excited for what might come to be.
Chapter Fifteen
