“Wake up, lazy bones.” Oh yeah, and there was the other reason Friday morning sucked. Enzo, also known as Mr. Sunshine because he wasn’t happy unless he was up before dawn. I cracked one eye open and hoped he understood I was glaring at him. “Your phone’s been going off for a while now. Seems like someone misses you as much as you miss him.”
“Shut up and give that here,” I growled as I lurched for the phone. I realized my mistake as the contents in my stomach sloshed around and the room started to spin. It was probable that I was still drunk. God, I hoped not, because I couldn’t take this hangover getting much worse.
Rather than trying to make sense of the strings of letters filling my phone screen, I pressed Calvin’s speed dial, holding the phone away from my ear as it rang.
“You’re alive,” he answered on third ring. “I was starting to think I’d have to call your brother to have him check on you.”
“Jury’s still out, but I think I’ll survive.” Enzo reappeared with a bottle of water and some ibuprofen, moving him to the top of my list of favorite brothers. “Sorry I didn’t call you last night.”
Calvin chuckled. “Babe, do you not remember texting me last night?”
Oh shit. I put Calvin on speakerphone and started reading through the messages, groaning at how sloppy drunk I’d been. “I’m so sorry, Cal. I hope I didn’t wake you up; I know you had a long drive last night.”
“Luckily, we were still on the road. But you did give me some fascinating reading material,” Calvin teased. “But don’t worry, I won’t hold anything you said against you.”
Fuck. What had I said? I scrolled back, seeing some very creative ideas of kinks drunk me wanted Calvin to help me try out. I gagged when I read drunk-me telling sober Cal that I wanted him to pee on me so I could try and figure out what that was all about. Hell to the no. Some people might get off on that shit, but sober me knew I wasn’t one of them.
“We’re just about to the rink for Ryan’s first game but I wanted to make sure you were awake.” Cal’s voice softened. “You’re okay, yeah?”
“I’m fine.” At this rate, the reason I wouldn’t be at some point would be him obsessively asking if I was okay. “I might die before the end of the night, but mentally, I’m fine.”
“You’re not going to die.” Cal laughed again. The asshole seemed amused by my pain. And I could call him that because he wasn’t here to see whatever look I supposedly get on my face when I mentally call him an ass. “Drink more water and get something greasy for breakfast. When you think you’ve had enough water, drink more. And ask Enzo to grab you a sports drink.”
“How’d you know Enzo was already up and hovering?”
“He seems the sort. Plus, I’m pretty sure you and Tony left the bar so plastered neither of you will be coherent before noon.”
“How in the hell do you know that?”
“Eli called and let me know he’d poured you into a cab,” Calvin responded as if it was totally normal for his buddy to call and rat me out. I was a grown ass man and didn’t need Eli babysitting me. “Boy, you need to calm down. Now.”
The commanding tone in Cal’s voice had me closing my eyes and taking deep, steadying breaths. I wasn’t sure I’d ever understand why that worked but I was glad it did.
“Before you get upset, no, I didn’t ask Eli to keep tabs on you.” Of course Cal knew what I’d been thinking. Sometimes, it seemed he knew before I did. “He texted me when you came up for a fourth round and asked if something had happened between us.”
“Fourth? There was only supposed to be one round. I’m going to kill Tony when he wakes up. He swore he wasn’t going to get me drunk.”
“You were the instigator,” Enzo hollered from the other room. “And pipe down before you wake up Tony. You know he’s going to be a bigger bear than you.”
“I’m sorry, Cal. I guess I should thank Eli for looking out for me if I was so hammered I didn’t realize how many rounds I’d apparently bought for everyone.”
“Not me,” Enzo responded. Eavesdropping little shit. “I’m resistant to your powers of persuasion.”
“Now you are,” I yelled back, not mentioning the time Tony and I convinced Enzo to climb the entertainment center after Papa hid the remote from us.
“Focus, brat,” Cal commanded. Great, now my dick was waking up and I didn’t have the energy to rub one out. “Yes, I think thanking him would be a good idea. We’re here so I’m going to let you go. I’ll call you after the first game to check that you’re still upright.”
“Thank you, Cal. I love you.”
“Love you too, brat.”
I wound up missing Calvin’s call after the first game of the day because I was up to my elbows in shrimp. Literally. Freddie was still dealing with the Angela drama and swore he’d be in before the lunch rush started. I hoped his way of “dealing with things” meant calling a lawyer but I wasn’t holding my breath. Out of all of us, he was the one who still acted like a good Catholic martyr. He’d be miserable until the end of time, because that was better than being divorced and going to hell. If you asked me, he was already there.
“Have you heard from Freddie?” Mama asked as she looked over the prep list to see what else had to be finished.
“No, he called Tony this morning and asked if we could help him out. Said he needs to make some calls about Sophia,” I told her. I wasn’t sure how many of the details Mama knew and us boys had always done our best to not worry her.
To the best of my knowledge, she didn’t know how bad things were with Angela forgetting to pick up their only child from the sitter, who was now threatening to quit because it was taking a toll on her own family.
