Page 64 of The Trouble with Runaway Brides

“The guy hasn’t been here the entire time. That screams problems to me.” He shrugs.

“Don’t join in with her. She’s drunk. You’re drunk.”

“Oh, stop being Mr. Good Guy. Be selfish. Do something for yourself for once,” he goes on.

“And make her what? Regret me? I can’t break up her wedding—which I’m helping to plan, remember? There has to be some kind of wedding planner code that says you don’t steal the bride. What if being here is nostalgic and has her in her feelings and then she regrets it after? She’d always look at me as the one who ruined her life. If she doesn’t want to marry him, she has to come to that realization herself.” I cross my arms.

“Well. Okay.” Brinley slides up on the stool. “Why didn’t you just say so?”

“I just did.”

Kenzie comes out of the bathroom and the three of us are sitting in silence, so she looks around. “What did I miss?”

“Nothing,” we say at the same time.

The three of them drink their beers.

“I’m sobering up,” Brinley says.

“You’re not,” I tell her.

“Let’s go over to the lake,” Easton suggests.

“Hold up, I gotta get something first.” Brinley grabs her coat off the pile where we left them on a table in the corner and sneaks back behind the bar again. She grabs the first bottle she sees, hides it under her coat, and tiptoes toward the door. “Come on.”

The three of us get our coats on, and when I turn to leave, Van crooks his finger at me. I walk over to the bar, and he doesn’t look amused.

“I think she’s needed a night like this for a while. To unwind with friends,” he says. “She looks really happy with Kenzie, but don’t tell her I’m condoning her behavior. Just get her home safe, and if I’m not home already, text me.”

“Got it. I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“Thanks, man.”

I walk out of the bar and the three drunk asses are crossing the street over to the lake. Brinley chugs a shot out of the bottle and passes it to Easton, who waves it off. Kenzie takes a swig though. All three of them fall to the ground by the benches beside the lake and stare at the dark water.

I sit on one of the benches behind them and Kenzie glances back. I’m surprised she heard me. She pats the grass next to her, and what can I say? I’m a glutton for punishment. I sit next to her, my knees propped up, my arms wrapped around them, the cold ground freezing my ass—not that these three drunks probably notice.

“Look at the moon.” Brinley points at the sky as if we can’t see it.

“When did we get so old?” Easton falls onto his back. “Weren’t we just graduating?”

“We’re not old at all,” I say.

“No, but we don’t have those important life decisions in front of us anymore. We’ve made our careers and stuff. Now Lance is moving to New York City. In the spring, I’m gone again, and we just reconnected with Kenzie, but she’s a New Yorker too.”

“I’d never get Will to move here, although I’d love to. I can record my podcast wherever I want.”

“In that sense, I guess we’ve grown up,” I admit.

We shoot the shit for a while and they continue to drink, the bottle being passed from person to person.

Finally, when it gets passed to Kenzie for maybe the fifth time, I take it away. “I’m cutting you all off.”

“Boo!” Brinley shouts.

I get up off the grass and wipe off my ass, though it’s numb and I can barely feel it.

“OMG, I never checked my phone for Blake and Geoff.” Kenzie pulls out her phone and laughs. When we’re all curious, she holds it up so we can see a picture of Blake and Geoff playing mahjong with Kenzie’s mom. “She’s probably going to ask them to move in with her now.”

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