Chapter Nineteen
Where. The. Hell. Was. Marlee?
They’d had plans to catch up at Brek’s. So far, he was the only one catching up. There was no Marlee to be found.
No Marlee picking up her phone.
No Marlee answering his texts.
Which meant an Eli who was getting more and more concerned by the second.
“You said they all took off together?” Eli asked, swiping his thumb across the rim of his untouched beer.
“Said it three times now.” Brek mixed up what appeared to be two fingers of whiskey on the rocks. “Didn’t change in the last twenty minutes.”
“They weren’t with Babushka?” Eli was pretty sure Babushka could get Marlee to do anything at this point.
“Nope.” Brek shook his head.
“You’re still not the least bit worried?” Eli wasn’t an especially jumpy guy, but he was officially in a relationship, and call him crazy, but once they’d sealed the deal that afternoon, his nerves went haywire.
“Nope.”
“They’re supposed to be here.”
“Yep.”
“They’re not.”
“Nope.”
This was ridiculous. Eli was ready to be a search party of one if he had to be, since no one else was taking this seriously. Well, no one being Brek. He had no idea where Jase was, and Dean was meeting with clients.
He just needed to find her, check in, and make sure she was okay. Then he’d be better. The silence felt louder when Marlee wasn’t there.
“Uh-oh.” Brek glanced at the door.
A crackle lit the air in the bar. The kind of crackle that usually preceded life-changing news.
Eli turned, hoping it was Marlee.
It wasn’t Marlee.
Jase shoved through the masses. He sat his ass on the bar stool next to Eli. “Heather’s pregnant.”
Say what? Eli didn’t say anything, just stared at his buddy. They were dropping like flies—marriage, parenting… Pretty sure they’d all start driving matching minivans.
“She’s pregnant and she hasn’t said anything to me.” He pointed to a bottle of Jose Cuervo. “I’m gonna need a hit of that before I go home and she delivers the news. Officially.”
“How’d you find out she’s having a baby if she hasn’t told you she’s having a baby?” Eli asked.
“Babushka. She’s planning a bridal-slash-baby shower and she’d like to know if we want to do girls only or girls and boys.” Jase scraped a hand down his face.
Oh, well. That sort of made sense. In a world where nothing made sense.
“What did you decide? Because if you make me go to a bridal-slash-baby shower, there better be fuckin’ beer.” Brek grabbed the bottle of tequila from the backlit shelf.
“I didn’t know you were trying to get pregnant,” Eli said. Although, given the fact Jase wanted a shot of tequila, maybe it wasn’t so planned.
