They piled out of Melissa’s car and pulled on their gloves as they walked toward the fire pit. With the heaters and the blaze Curtis already had going, they were probably overdressed, but that was the beauty of layers.
Jenna recognized some of the guys she’d met at Sunday Supper. André, Ryan, Brett, Sean. Brett’s girlfriend was snuggled in his lap, and Sean’s sat next to him with a marshmallow on the end of a roasting stick. Curtis was talking with a group of three guys she didn’t know, and then her eyes landed on the man sitting with his back toward them. She knew the coat from working on the ranch the other day and made a point to lead her friends to the empty chairs on the opposite side of the firepit.
“Hey! You made it!” Curtis interrupted his conversation and waved. “Ryan brought drinks, there’s food on the bar next to the house!”
Anne beelined for the keg, and Jenna followed close on her heels. If she was going to have the guts to do what she needed to do tonight, a little liquid courage couldn’t be underestimated. She pulled a plastic cup from the stack and waited her turn to fill up.
Once she let the foam settle and topped off, she sat down between Melissa and Anne. Curtis had brought the three guys she didn't recognize to the wooden bench next to Country's chair, and Rhonda had already claimed the smoke was following her in order to split from their group and sit closer to them. Jenna sipped her beer and leaned close to the fire, taking off her gloves so she could feel the dry heat on her fingertips.
"I can't believe you weren't going to invite us out here if we didn't win." André lit a cigarette and took a long drag.
Curtis laughed. "Motivation."
Boyd grabbed a roasting stick from the patio stones. "It's only motivation if we know the stakes ahead of time, bud."
"I forgot to tell you!"
"What excuses do you have, really?" Country motioned to the house. "Can't you prioritize your team over your wife and kids?"
The beer felt sour in her stomach. Why did it have to be him to make that comment? It was just a joke, but it felt like so much more than that considering what she had to tell him tonight. Maybe she should just get it over with. She could ask him to talk with her for a second—pretend she had something to share about the ranch or something—and then spit it out. Gentry, remember when we broke up all those years ago? It wasn't because I didn't want to be with you. It was actually the opposite. I wanted to be with you so much that I freaked out when I got my test results back. Turns out there was a reason I was always so short and my period didn't start till I was sixteen! Isn't that hilarious?
Maybe he would laugh and ask why she hadn't told him sooner, and then she'd ask why he hadn't called her back when she'd tried to reach out a month later. They could laugh off the whole misunderstanding and move on.
Jenna set down her beer and unzipped the front of her coat. She was going to suffocate. She was going to suffocate and die in the fresh Canadian air in front of her friends and some hockey players she barely knew.
"Those lamps put off a lot of heat, eh?" Ryan watched her struggle to pull off her scarf.
"Mmhmm."
Rhonda grinned. "Jenna got a little over-ambitious with the layers."
Country held his hands out to the fire. "She's always freezing. It's a survival mechanism." Jenna’s heart stumbled as Country cleared his throat and turned to Curtis. “Unlike you, I didn’t stipulate a W for my gift tonight.” He reached under his chair and pulled out a gift bag covered in pink pacifiers.
Curtis barked a laugh. “Did you steal that bag from my house?”
Country handed him the bag. “Your wife has over fifty in there. This was the best one.”
Jenna tried not to think about what that choice represented.
“Why didn’t you remind us it was his birthday?” Tina smacked Ryan’s shoulder, and he pretended it actually hurt.
“It’s not until next week, you still have time to buy me something pretty.” Curtis flashed a smile, then pulled bright neon fabric from the bag. The whole team erupted as Curtis’s face lit up. He held up the most garish ski coat Jenna had ever seen, and she couldn’t help but laugh.
“That’s so damn beautiful.” André pretended to wipe a tear.
Curtis struggled to speak over the din. “Where did you find this?”
Sean’s cheeks turned pink.
Tyler hugged his girlfriend Emma a little tighter. “Mama Thompson handmade that coat.”
Curtis’ jaw dropped. “She did not.”
Emma nodded. “She stores Sun Ice fabric from the eighties like your wife stores bags.”
Curtis unzipped the coat and shoved his arms in, then strutted around the firepit, trying out the pockets to hoots and hollers. He froze and whirled back toward Country, throwing up his fist.
Jenna’s lungs felt like they were being juiced like lemons. The celebration around her slowed, the sound of their laughs and cheers fading to a dull roar as she stared at the slip of pale orange paper in Curtis’s hand. A two-dollar bill. Not just any two-dollar bill, one with a loon that wasn’t even in print anymore because it was from 2002 when Country and Curtis were in grade seven. They’d traded that bill on their birthdays every year since she’d known them.
