Can’t today. Sorry.
Declan
I’ve got meetings. Sorry, too.
Linc
See you there.
Luca
You all suck. Any idea for a fourth?
I run my short list of friends through my mind, and one name pops up.
Dutton
My friend Preston is in town. I'll bring him.
Luca
Is this the guy Grace hates?
Dutton
Who told you that?
Luca
No one. Definitely not my wife.
I chuckle, shooting Preston a text to see if he can join me. He confirms just as quickly. Then I set my phone face down so I can get some work done.
First things first. Call a bride to convince her to move her reception to another ballroom, then meet the boys for a game, then spend my evening with Brooke.
Throughout the next hour, it isn’t lost on me how much I wish I could cut straight to after work.
“What’s going on with Brooke?”Linc asks the moment I step onto the court. He passes me the ball, I shoot, I score, and Preston grabs the ball, since he was standing under the hoop.
“Brooke the baker who hates you?”
“Yes.” Linc nods and then adds, “Also the girl whose dad has arrested him many,manytimes.”
When I get the ball back in my hands, I pass it to Linc with a bit more force than needed.
“Fuck,” he says. “I think you almost broke my finger.”
“Stop talking about Brooke.”
And about the fact that her father doesn't like me. It’s already weird as is. I’ve had the urge to ask Brooke how she plans toaddress this switch with him more than once. But she said she had it handled, and I’m going to leave it at just that.
But if I’m being honest, I want to have words with her father. The comment Brooke made yesterday about having too much alone time as a kid, what the fuck was that about? Was her dad even aware that everyone who left him also left her?
No, I don’t know her full story, but I hope her dad isn’t a jerk like mine.
“Oooh,” Luca says, walking up. “Is she a touchy subject for you?”
“She isn’t here, so we shouldn't be talking about her.”
