“No, not regret.” I let out a breath. “But I have work to do.” I went up past her and closed myself into my bedroom. Normally I didn’t work in here, but I couldn’t be around Caitlin. I’d taken my eyes off my duties for a few hours and someone had gotten hurt. I couldn’t let that happen again.
TWENTY-ONE
CAITLIN
“Maybe this was a bad idea—we should just go,” I said for the third time as Fiona dragged me to the entrance to Buckman’s, a ridiculously popular burger and ax throwing place.
“Nothing doing. You need to get out and blow off some steam and I’m here to make sure you do it,” Fiona said.
“We all are,” Aurora added. “Seriously, this place needs to set up women-only nights. You have no idea how satisfying it was to throw axes while I was pregnant.”
I smirked at that. While I hadn’t been in communication with Aurora while she was pregnant, I could definitely imagine her taking out her frustrations on a target.
We walked inside and Aurora waved her hand at the hostess. “Jen, tell her how great this place is when hormones are raging.” The woman definitely looked pregnant, but I had no idea how far along she was and couldn’t begin to guess.
“Oh, absolutely. And…” She leaned closer, as if she was about to tell us a secret. “I have actually taped photos of he-who-shall-not-be-named to the center of the target to use as incentive.”
I choked out a laugh, shaking my head at how she was referring to her husband. “Does he know?”
“Absolutely. I make sure to leave them up for Roger to find in the morning. He said that he always checks the amount of damage to the photos before talking to me, so he knows how to behave,” Jen said, laughing. She and her husband, Roger Buckman, owned the place. “I’ll take you to your table, the others are already here.”
We followed her to a long table where Sofia, Amy, Zoe, and Shannon were waiting. “You made it!” Zoe said and I grinned at her enthusiasm.
“Oh, she tried to get out of it,” Fiona declared. “Although she wasn’t as hard to convince as that time Shannon and I dragged you to the Squeaky Wheel. Come on, let’s get drinks. What’s everyone having?”
I joined them, once again surprised at how friendly everyone was to me. As Jen went around the table taking everyone’s order, I was contemplating the biggest margarita they had but when she got to me, it suddenly didn’t sound good.
“What can I get you, hun?” Jen asked.
Momentary panic set in and I couldn’t decide what to order. “This is going to sound weird, but can I have a virgin daiquiri and an order of loaded potato skins?”
“Not weird at all. Do you want the sour cream dipping sauce to go with it?”
“Definitely.”
With our orders placed, we decided to play our first round. Turned out that Amy had been on a tournament team in college and was currently the reigning champ around here. She’d even brought her own axes, in a wood box with handles. She was the one to help me get started.
“Okay, you want to stand comfortably on both feet—behind the foul line—and keep your weight evenly distributed,” she started. Then Amy demonstrated how to hold the ax and how to step. “Some people prefer one hand, but for me, I have better control when I use both hands. Ready?”
At my nod, she threw her ax and I watched it rotate before it hit the target in the bull’s eye. “Whoa. That’s amazing.”
Amy grinned and retrieved her ax. “Your turn.” She demonstrated the stance and threw again, and then stepped behind me.
I followed her instructions, lifted my arms, took a deep breath, and let the ax go. It flew across the room, rotating end over end and embedded in the target just below where hers landed. I stared at it in shock.
“No way that was your first time,” Fiona said, standing outside the throwing cage with her hands on her hips. “That is so not beginner’s luck.”
I stared at the ax and then burst out laughing. “It’s definitely beginner’s luck,” I declared.
“Do you want to try again?” Amy asked and I was already nodding my head. Amy pulled the ax out of the target and brought it to me.
This time, she didn’t help me. I assumed the position and lifted the ax over my head, careful to hold it the way she showed me. I took in a deep breath, let it out slowly, and threw the ax.
It sailed across the open area and embedded in the bull’s eye. A cheer went up from the women followed by congratulations.
Our food and drinks were delivered and we sat down to eat. We ended up putting all the appetizers in the middle of the table for everyone to try. The two favorite dishes were the deep friend macaroni and cheese and the potato skins.
“I don’t know about the rest of you, but give me a greasy, carb-heavy meal and I’m in heaven,” Sofia said and we all agreed. I was pretty sure Aurora was taking notes and I would be loath to admit that some of the apps tasted better than what Marc made. Granted, Bite and Brew generally offered much better food and many of the customers who came through their door didn’t fit Buckman’s demographic. I grinned trying to picture Mitch and Charles here.
