“Grab that table before we lose it,” I told him, handing him his beer. There was only one large table left in the bar area, otherwise we would need to move to the dining room. Luke raised his brow but didn’t comment on my quick getaway.
“Wyatt’s right behind me. I just got off the phone with him,” he said when we got to our table. “I wanted to check with you before he gets here. How’s Lydia doing?”
“You talk to her all the time,” I laughed.
“Yeah, and she tells me what I want to hear every single time. You live with her. You have better insight.”
Not as much insight as I’d like. “She’s good. She seems happy, but it’s not like we’re sitting down together to talkabout our feelings every night. She’s been working on a project for SD Ink though, and I think she’s really into it.”
“She hasn’t mentioned going back to New York?”
My head snapped up. Panic clawed up my throat, and I had to cool my reaction before I gave anything away. “No. Not to me. Why, did she say something to you about it?”
My bouncing foot shook the floor beneath me. I put my hand on my knee to stop it from shaking. Was Lydia talking about packing it up again?She came home, regrouped, and now she’d be gone again.Just when things between us were finally good.
“No. I checked with my dad too. She hasn’t said anything. I just don’t want to be blindsided if she up and leaves again. I like having her home. I want her to be here to meet her nephew. Be the fun auntie to Jane and Veda.”
I let out a controlled breath slowly. I had to physically unclench my jaw, which I didn’t even realize I had tensed.
Wyatt walked up to the table just then, followed by Wes.
“Hey, man.” I greeted them each. Wes took a seat beside Luke, both of them opting to face the door like they usually did. Wyatt started for the bar, so I told him to add his and Wes’s drinks to my tab.
He grinned at me proudly and nodded his head. “Alright, brother. Thanks.”
Reid rolled in with his hair damp and messy, dirty jeans, and a hoodie thrown over his shoulder.
“Christ, kid. Did you just get off a jobsite?” It was after 8:00 p.m. on a Saturday night; I couldn’t imagine what job he would be working on that went that late.
“Yes,” he grumbled, stealing the last seat at the table. Wyatt came back and put down his drinks before going to aneighboring table, using his classic smirk and wink to flirt his way into stealing a chair. Reid downed Wyatt’s beer without stopping to breathe.
“What the fuck, brother? That was mine,” Wyatt complained.
“I earned it,” Reid shot back, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “I just came from your house. Whit pulled out all the plumbing in your bathroom and replaced it with PVC. I reinforced some walls where he had to cut through to access things. Finished the drywall, mudded the walls. Don’t you know I hear water coming from somewhere when it should have been shut off.”
“Where was it coming from?” Wyatt asked, his brow furrowed.
“The fucking basement. It was pouring down there. I found a secondary shutoff and had to call Whit back in to figure out what the hell was happening.”
“Why didn’t you go home and take a shower before coming out? You look like a mess,” Luke said.
Reid glared at Luke and reached for Wes’s beer. Wes just chuckled and slid his beer over to Reid. It wasn’t like he really wanted it anyway. Wes would nurse that drink all night before switching over to something nonalcoholic. “It was either change into whatever I had in my truck,” Reid said, gesturing to his current outfit, “or go home and shower. Ideally with my wife. And I wasn’t leaving that house again for the night.”
“And you chose us.” I grinned, knowing it was going to annoy him even more. “How sweet.”
He rolled his eyes and took a large sip from his second beer, this time refraining from guzzling it down in one gulp.
“I’ll grab you both another round,” I said to Wyatt and Wes. “I’m going to throw in an order of chips too. Does anyone want anything else?” I asked.
“I’ve got the food tonight,” Luke said, pulling out his card. It was common for us to split the tab that way, but it irked me that it was Luke who offered. He was the most familiar with my financial troubles, even though he didn’t know the full extent of it. All the other guys knew things weren’t great to some degree, but I wasn’t exactly flaunting my troubles around town. Still, Luke offering to pay felt like a misguided form of pity to save me the embarrassment of getting my card declined… again.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got it. Whatever Lydia’s been doing lately seems to be working. Things have seriously picked up at the shop.”
“Nah, you already got the first round of drinks. Let me,” he insisted.
“Seriously, Luke. I’ve got it,” I said, just shy of snapping at him.
He opened his mouth again, but Wyatt cut him off.
