“He’s right,” Fox chimes in. “But I’m happy you’re happy, man. Truly.”
“Me too,” Locke adds.
Hutch pats me on the back. “I knew you two would figure your shit out.”
I roll my eyes, but secretly, I’m glad too.
“My boy! He did it!” Lawson slings his arm around me, squeezing my neck tightly, and I try to push him off, but it’s no use. He tips a beer to his lips, taking a swig. “All right, who’s next?” He looks at Locke. “You and Nessa getting hitched anytime soon?”
The veteran grins, shoving his hands into his pockets. “We’ll just see, won’t we?”
I watch him carefully, getting the sense there’s maybe a little more truth to his words than he wants to admit, but I let him have his secret for now.
“Still bummed you and Chloe moved out of the building,” Locke says, changing the subject. “How’s the house?”
As if we didn’t have enough going on this summer, we added buying a house together for the first time to our plates. I’m not sure if we’ll be staying in Seattle forever, but for now, it’s home. It was high time we made it so and got a place that’s trulyours.
“Great. Auden and Lilah did a fantastic job on it.”
Fox and Hutch bump fists, clearly proud of their partners.
“And it’s still close to Rory’s clinic, which is nice for Percy.”
“And me,” Lawson says, clinging to me. “You’re even closer to me now.”
I groan. “Don’t remind me.” I finally shake him off. “And get the fuck off me.”
“Aww, come on. Just love me! Remember when I scored the game-winning goal and you kissed my cheek? Why can’t you love me like that all the time?”
I roll my eyes, ignoring him.
“Well, how about it, boys? We fucking did it. We won the Cupandwe got the girls,” he says, lifting his beer in the air. “To the Serpents Singles!”
We all look at each other, then laugh before holding our own drinks up and clinking them together.
“Serpents Singles!”
“Best fucking club there is,” Lawson adds before taking his drink.
We groan collectively, and I swing my gaze across the room, right to Chloe, who is huddled in a corner, holding Talia.
“Uh, I’ll be right back,” I say to the guys, breaking away from them and heading toward my wife.
“You still owe me a kiss!” Lawson calls to my back.
I flip him off, smiling when I hear Hutch, Locke, Hayes, and Fox all laugh. I have a feeling I’ll be doing a lot more of that, but only after I sort out why my wife’s best friend is crying at our wedding.
Everything okay?I mouth to Chloe as I make my way over. She shakes her head, then holds Talia closer.
“Hey, Tally,” I say to the small blonde woman. “You all right?”
She looks up at me, her eyes red from crying, and she bursts into tears again before brushing past me and running toward the bathroom.
“What’s going on?” I ask Chloe.
She shakes her head, working her jaw back and forth.
“Talk to me, Clover. Tell me what happened.”
