Tables had been set up inside and out, so anyone who wanted to sit had somewhere to land.Not that many people were sitting.Most were drifting around with plates in their hands, talking too loudly and laughing harder than they needed to.
Outside, it was worse.Three bounce houses sat in the grass, one of them shaped like a cow because, of course, it was.The massive twenty-four-foot pool was set up off to the side, already full of kids splashing and screaming like they had never seen water before.The stage had been built near the back, complete with amps, guitars, and a microphone stand waiting for the singer Eden liked.
Somebody had dragged the giant beer pong setup from the Social Club out here, and a group had already gathered around the red-painted garbage cans, arguing over rules like any of it mattered.
Alice was everywhere.
One minute she was near the food.The next she was outside yelling at someone to move a chair three inches to the left.Then she was checking the cake.Then she was telling kids not to climb the outside of the cow bounce house.
Wrecker wasn’t far behind her, looking like a man who had accepted his fate but still intended to keep the woman he loved from setting the place on fire.
Even with Alice running herself in circles, everyone seemed to be having a damn good time.
It was supposed to be a graduation party for Eden.
And it was, but it was also more than that.
For the first time in a while, the club felt like the club again.
We were still watching, careful and aware of every car that came down the road and every stranger who stepped onto the property.That wasn’t going away, but the weight that had been hanging around us had eased.
The cameras forTreadwere still rolling, but it was nice not having the camera crew walking around.Thank God for Mac figuring out a way to give the show they wanted without making it hard on us.Half of the time, we all forgot about the cameras.
People were laughing without looking over their shoulders every five seconds.
Kids were running around.
The ol’ ladies were drinking and talking like it had been growing up.
It felt good.Like we were taking something back.
I stood near one of the outside tables with Oliver and Kingston, beer bottle loose in my hand, watching the whole thing move around us.
“It’s amazing the shit the club can get done,” Kingston said.
Oliver nodded toward the clubhouse.“It’s your mom.She’s a one-man army.”
“Pretty sure she wasn’t the one blowing up five hundred balloons,” I gruffed.
“Or getting all that booze and beer,” Kingston added.
Oliver laughed.“As if shopping for booze was some great sacrifice.”
“Cases on cases,” Kingston said, pointing his beer bottle at him.“We got freaking pallets of beer, which meant we had to carry fifty million cases from the truck and into the clubhouse.Give me balloons any day.”
I took a drink and didn’t argue.He wasn’t wrong.
My fingers had hated me after balloon duty, but at least I hadn’t been hauling beer.
“Now we just sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor,” Oliver said.
Kingston snorted.“You say that like Alice isn’t going to find something else for us to do in five minutes.”
“She probably already has a list,” I said.
“She definitely has a list,” Kingston muttered.
A kid ran past us with a cupcake in one hand and no shoes on his feet.
