“First class, baby,” Letty said. “Alright, we’ll get out of here and let you guys talk, before Scott fidgets a hole in the ground.”
Scott, who was tapping his foot, immediately stopped. “I’m not fidgeting,” he said. “I just ate too much, I’m metabolizing.”
“Uh-huh,” Letty said, bringing Carver in for a hug. “Love you, dude, good to see you. You gonna stop avoiding all of us now?”
“I literally just told your mom I’m gonna try to make it out here more often.”
“Good, yeah, talk to her. Don’t talk to your mom. Just drive right by your parents’ house, maybe honk a hello to be polite.”
Carver, surprised, drew back from her. “So she filled you in, then, I’m guessing?”
Letty nodded in a restrained, almost masculine way. “Your mom gave ours the okay, apparently.”
“Shit, alright.”
“I think she thought my mom might tell us either way, and this way she at least knows we know.”
“Makes sense,” Carver said. “And?”
Larry shrugged. “I have to say, I wasn’t completely surprised. Well, I was and I wasn’t.”
“Same here.”
Sana looked like she was doing her best not to wear any particular facial expression.
“Doyouknow?” Carver said to her, with a lurch of nerves.
Sana flashed her teeth in a winning smile. “Know what?”
“Okay, alright,” he said, bringing her in for a hug too. “Welcome to the family, officially. Please ignore the precedent set by your wife and avoid spreading this around.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she insisted.
“Good, just like that.”
From behind her, Letty shot Carver an apologetic grimace, and he shook his head to both reprimand her and tell her not to worry about it.
Scott hugged them both goodbye, then, and he and Carver both wished them safe travels and smooth sailing. They watched them head to their car, then Carver said to Scott, “Let’s go sit by the water.”
“After you,” Scott said, and Carver led him around the restaurant and through the grass toward the edge of the dark water, to a tree-shaded knoll overlooking the marina. From here they could see a wide swath of the sound and dozens of docked boats bobbing in its dark water.
Carver sat down in the grass, and Scott followed suit, eyeing him.
“What,” Carver said.
“I never see you all loose like this,” Scott said. “At least not with other people.”
“Yeah. I feel weird,” he admitted. “It’s like being on drugs without the drugs.”
“I think that’s just being relaxed.”
“Is that it? No wonder you’ve all been telling me to relax my whole life.”
Scott laughed.
“I do worry that it’s just endorphins,” Carver admitted. “Like after I finish a race. Or my brain’s trying to protect me from really feeling something, and in a couple months I’ll snap.”
“You should probably —” Scott cut himself off.
