“You know,” Anna said, smiling, “I always thought you’d move on to something calmer after that, but nope, you went straight to another action movie.”
Luke grinned. “I do love a good explosion. Keeps the audience awake.”
Josephine chuckled. “Well, we appreciated the adrenaline rush. It’s not every day you get to watch someone you know save the world.”
“And he only had to blow up half a city to do it,” Topher added, deadpan.
Luke shot him a mischievous grin. “I can’t believe it. Topher Brodie watching movies. PlayingJeopardy!? Making meals and not glued to his work? Thisisan alternate reality.”
Josephine’s eyes twinkled. “And these two are responsible for all those Halloween decorations outside. Can you believe it?”
Anna’s jaw dropped, and she turned to us. “Wait,you twodid that? Topher, arranging holiday decorations? Now I’ve heard everything.”
Topher raised his coffee mug in a mock toast. “Well, to be fair, my assistant did most of the heavy lifting. But we provided, uh,creative direction.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “It was all Topher. My ‘creative direction’ mostly consisted of pointing and saying, ‘more pumpkins.’”
Topher grinned, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “Yeah, the real highlight was Kathleen’s battle with a spider web. It was legendary.”
I groaned. “Don’t even start.”
“Oh, Ihaveto.” He leaned in, mock serious. “She walked into it and somehow, in under five seconds, managed to look like a Halloween mummy.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help laughing. “You weren’t much help. You stood there for a good minute, saying, ‘I’m pretty sure it’s notreal, Kathleen,’ while I was fighting for my life.”
Topher chuckled. “Hey, I was offering moral support.”
I shot him a playful glare. “Oh, right. You just stood there like a director yelling,More drama! Make it more believable!”
We burst into laughter, lost in the memory, and when I finally looked up, Anna and Luke were staring at us wide-eyed.
I cleared my throat. “I guess you had to be there.”
Luke shook his head. “First meal prep, now holiday decor. Next thing we know, Topher’ll be baking pies from scratch.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Topher said. “One miracle at a time.”
We laughed, and as the evening wore on, Josephine stood up, stretching with a satisfied sigh. She gave Luke and Anna warm hugs. “You kids behave now. I’m off to bed. Don’t stay up too late reliving the glory days.”
“No promises,” Topher said.
As Josephine left, the guys naturally veered into what was apparently one of their favorite topics: their rowing days at Brown, when they were both athletesandmasochists.
“Do you remember that one race where we were so wiped afterward, we had to crawl to the showers?” Topher said with a grin.
Luke laughed. “Right! The only thing that saved my grades that semester was the fact that I physically couldn’t fall asleep in class because my muscles were too sore to relax.”
Topher chuckled. “And remember that one guy on the team who rowed until his hands bled? That guy was alegend.”
Luke gave him a look. “Yeah, I remember. That guy was you.”
Topher smirked. “Well, someone had to show the rest of you what commitment looked like.”
Luke shook his head. “Or what insanity looked like.”
Topher laughed. “Speaking of insanity, remember that time I rowed so hard I threw up mid-stroke and kept going? There was no way I was letting my team down.”
“Ha! That’s nothing. Don’t you remember when I puked so hard it splashed into the opponent’s boat during a sprint? They were so freaked out that we won the race. Nowthat’slegendary.”
