“If he’s not, Oksana will insist on driving them here. At one point he said he’d need time to wrap his head around it. But after we talked and talked and talked some more, he said he’d close up early and come home. And he’s bringing Rance.”
“What?” Andy’s eyes widened. “Why?”
“It’s the right thing to do,” Marybeth said. “I’ve been thinking about Rance this whole time. He and Lucky grew up as twins. This’ll rock his world, too.”
“Sure, but?—”
“I agree with Marybeth,” Desiree’s breathless delivery betrayed her agitation. “Rance is about an hour into his shift at the Buffalo. He rode in with Clint so Lucky and Oksana are stopping by there to pick him up. Somehow they’ll convince Clint to give him time off without saying why.”
Sara glanced at Kieran, who looked like he might be having a panic attack of his own. He’d hooked two bottles of pale ale between the fingers of one hand, a precarious setup since he was freaking out. In his other hand, he white-knuckled a can of beer. He’d already put a dent in it.
“Lani,” she said in a low voice. “Take those bottles from him.”
“Got it.”
He glanced down as Lani slipped the bottles away. “Thanks.”
“Thank you for bringing them.” She spoke to him in her big sister voice.
Sara wrapped both hands around his closed fist and the dented beer can. “I doubt you could actually crush it, but you could make a mess.”
“Huh?” He looked at the beer can as if he’d never seen it before. “Oh.” Loosening his grip, he examined the dent. “Yeah, that’s not good. Don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Want me to take it?”
He nodded. “Might choke on it.”
“He’ll be as nervous as you are,” Desiree said.
“I’m not nervous.”
“It’s okay to be?—”
“I’m terrified. What am I going to say? What if we have no bleedin’ idea how to talk to each other and we just sit there in silence?”
“You won’t.” Desiree met his gaze. “I promise.”
“How do you know?”
“Rance. No one sits in awkward silence when he’s around.”
That brought a rueful laugh from Lani. “That’s for sure. Sometimes you just want to—” She caught herself and shrugged. “He’ll keep things going.”
“He will.” Desiree’s tense shoulders dropped slightly. “Lucky’s instincts were on target.” She accepted the frosty bottle Andy handed her. “Thanks, my love.” Taking a sip, she looked around the room. “Now we need to consider the venue.”
“If it’ll be this room, it’s my opinion we should all clear out except for Sara.” Andy checked Desiree’s reaction.
“Yeah, they don’t need a cast of thousands hanging around.”
“We can move the party to Rowdy Roost,” her dad said. “That’s easy enough.”
“Or…” Desiree looked at Kieran. “You could have your meetup in there.”
“In where? What’s Rowdy Roost?”
“A game room.”
“A game room on steroids.” Sara’s anxiety level lowered a bit. “I think that’s brilliant. If they run out of things to say they can play darts.”
