We had one last hurdle to handle: lunch with Jamie and Michael.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Yes, come on.” I pulled Luke along.
They were already at Parlo when we arrived. Jamie sat on the table with Michael on the bench beside him, the same positions I’d found them last time. Luke carried bags of greasy burgers and fries, and I had a bag of sodas from the gas station in town.
“Hello,” Luke said first when we reached them.
“You’re still here?” Jamie asked Luke, and Michael shoved his hip.
“Calm down,” Michael said, to which Jamie gave a dramatic eye roll.
“If you’ve survived this long at the Brandts’, you must betougher than those prissy clothes would suggest,” Michael said.
“From you, I’m taking that as a compliment,” Luke said.
I grinned at Luke, then stuck my tongue out at Jamie, who did the same.
Luke had been amazing, just digging right in and being at home with my family. I wasn’t blind to how extra they could be, and he hadn’t seemed out of his element for long. Now, here he was, handling Michael as if they’d known each other for years.
“So what’s new?” I asked.
Jamie watched Luke for a long time as we ate, and Michael told me about the odd jobs he’d been doing with Mac’s Demo and trying to make it a bit steadier work.
Luke nudged my shoulder. “You don’t have a cousin to help him out?”
Michael laughed while I swallowed my food, and then I said, “Macismy cousin.”
“Oh. Well, I’m out of ideas, then.”
“What do you do?” Jamie asked Luke.
“I’m a financial advisor at my father’s firm, Genisis Investments.”
“What’s that do?”
“We tell people where to put their money to get the most gains from it.”
“And people pay you for that?”
Luke chuckled. “Yeah, they do.”
“You gonna buy Asher a car?”
“Jamie,” I chastised.
“What? He’s done met your folks. Y’all’re practically engaged. I gotta know he can take care of you.”
“Your Civic is rather old,” Luke said.
“See?” Jamie waved at Luke. “He’ll man up.”
“Stop being a brat, Jamie,” Michael said.
“What? How come you can say shit, and it’s protective, and when I say shit, I’m a brat?”
Michael shrugged. “Just works that way.”
