“Dude, what the hell?” I asked when I found Hunter in the sea of blond men.
“Meg was giving me a hard time about excluding them,” he said irritably.
“I don’t have games for the kids planned,” I warned. “And I have a nice restaurant booked.”
“Maybe see if they’ll deliver. We can just take the kids to the town square and let them run around.”
“We need more organization than that,” I protested.
“Keg! Keg! Keg!” several of his adult brothers shouted on their way to the bus, carrying cases of alcohol.
“Absolutely not!” Hunter barked at them. “You will not be drinking around the kids. I will not have any drunk teenagers. Yes, Isaac, I know it was you in the club room, drinking the liquor. Don’t think you got away with it.”
His teenage brother gulped and hid behind Garrett.
“So, this is going to be a dry bachelor party,” Garrett said and gave a long-suffering sigh. “Lovely.”
* * *
The restaurant saidthey were happy to deliver to the town square. I could tell the kids were hungry, though. I gave the restaurant my credit card information over the phone and asked them to prepare some snacks before cooking the rest of the food.
“Are we eating soon?” Alfie asked me. The Svenssons had given him a matching shirt, and he was squished in the bus seat next to me.
I ruffled his hair. “Remy’s dropping us off at the restaurant to pick up the food. Do you want to help me carry it?”
“Yes!” he said in excitement.
To the Svenssons’ credit, Hunter had trained the kids well. They all lined up to pick up one of the containers of food the restaurant had prepared and lugged it down the street to the town square, where we were setting up.
“I’m not exactly sure that I’m going to survive this bachelor party without alcohol,” I admitted to Hunter as he loped beside me.
He grinned at me. “The restaurant gave me a bottle of the scotch you ordered,” he said, lowering his voice.
“Just dump out a soda can and—oh shit, look out!”
I jumped as an ax fell out of the sky andclangedto the ground next to me.
“Holy shit.”
“Is someone trying to kill you?”
I wondered for a split second if it was my father.
Then the door on the side of the building opened, and a familiar curly-haired woman ran out.
“Oh my god!” she cried. “Sir, are you okay?” She peered into the evening light. “Shit, Sebastian, is that you?”
I picked up the ax. “This yours?”
She took it sheepishly. “We’re having a bachelorette party upstairs.”
I leaned over and kissed her. “And I see you have booze. I might have to crash your party.”
“Didn’t you book that new restaurant that just opened?” Amy gave me a questioning look.
Alfie and several of the Svenssons ran back to us. “Are you coming to the bachelor party?”
“We had some additional company,” I said ruefully.
