“I do not have bad knees,” I snap back.
“Are you two going to keep bickering or hit the powder?” Elias says as he scoots up behind me.
“I was just reminding the old man here to be mindful of his frail bones,” Ben says, and I scowl at him. He just laughs and takes off down the slope. Elias laughs, and I shake my head.
“You raised one hell of a kid there, G,” he says, pulling his helmet on.
“With one hell of a mouth,” I mutter.
“Yeah well. Be careful. You’re not as spry as you once were,” he says. Then he pushes off before I can push him down.
I am close behind him, though, and as soon as the speed picks up, I let out a laugh. We do several runs, all of us getting more competitive with each go before finally calling it quits and heading to the brewery.
“That was a good run,” I tell Ben. I’m patting him on the back as we all head towards the bar, shedding layers of gear as we go.
“Was it? I hardly saw you out there. Must’ve been behind me,” he jokes, and I laugh with good sportsmanship. My son and I have always had a decent amount of sarcastic banter between us, though it has been a little spikier lately.
“I was lapping you,” I say, going for broke.
“Are the Lacey men at it again?” Jordan asks as he rounds the bar to pour pitchers of beer.
“Two of them are, but the only thing I’m here for is beer. Maybe I’ll kick someone’s ass at darts too,” Elias says, roping his arms around Ben and me.
“You mean I get to leave two geezers in the dust today? And here I thought my wedding day would be the best day of my life,” Ben says, and all the guys laugh.
A couple of pitchers and a mountain of wings later, we are all having a great time. Between ladder ball, pool, darts, and a hockey game on the overhead TV, everyone is occupied. I can now give my full attention to the dart game I’m having with Elias without guilt.
“How did you get so good at this?” Elias asks, missing the bullseye by a mile.
“He’s here all the time,” Jordan jokes from one of the pool tables.
“I am not,” I say, throwing another dart and coming close to dead center. “I mean, I am, but I’m not usually throwing darts. I’m working.”
“These are not the throws of a man who isn’t practicing,” Elias says before calling it quits
“No, they are not,” Ben says, gathering Elias’s darts and stepping up to the challenge. He takes the first shot, and it’s a treble right out of the gate. “You know what else you’re good at that I was unaware of?”
Something in his tone reminds me of when he was a teenager and we would have a go at each other on a daily basis. We are different enough to get on each other’s nerves and alike enough to wear those nerves completely out. Most of the time we get along. Back then, I was trying to navigate parenting alone, but I like to think that we do pretty well these days. Still, I know him well enough to know that something is eating at him.
“What’s that, kid?” I ask, throwing my first dart and landing a treble as well.
“Dancing,” he says, taking his next turn, which knocks my dart to the floor.
“Surely you’ve seen me dance before,” I say, but I’m not stupid. I know exactly where he is going with this. While most of the people in the event hall were too busy dancing and laughing and having a good time to focus on Charlotte and me, Ben apparently caught it. By the way he’s acting, I can’t help it if he picked up on something, despite how discrete we tried to be.
“Not like that. You two were really good together,” Ben says. We go shot for shot, each one inching closer and closer to the bullseye. One of us is going to hit it, and that will be the end of it.
“If the lead knows what he’s doing, he can take his dance partner anywhere,” I say, throwing a dart.
“Chemistry helps,” he adds, throwing another.
I’m getting a little annoyed. She’s only around fifteen-ish years younger than me and his wedding planner, but big deal. It’s not like he’s interested in Charlotte. He’s getting married in less than a week, for Pete’s sake.
I throw my last dart and hit the bullseye. Then I turn to him with a smile. “She’s a nice girl and was fun to dance with,” I say. “Jordan, you wanna take over kicking his ass for me? I’m going to get some air.”
I walk out, spreading the two doors with my arms as I go. They close behind me and the noise is flushed out as the frosty air wraps around me like a chain. It feels good.
I’m not too worried about Ben and me. We bicker a lot and always bounce back. If anything, he has noticed the banter between Charlotte and me, and it just annoys him because I am still playing the field. That’s the way he put it before. Which is funny, seeing as he’s only had two serious relationships since high school. Holly and some girl named Charlie that he was withfor a while, but never introduced to anyone. He always claimed she was too much of an introvert to meet the family.
