Page 20 of The Best Friend Power Play

Chester slurps up the final bits of sauce from his bowl, then licks his lips. Unfortunately for him, that does nothing to address the red sauce on his chin. I lift a brow to subtly indicate to Katie and Culver not to say anything as Chester outlines his European itinerary, getting particularly excited when he speaks about some of the old castles they'll be checking out in Eastern Europe.

"They're almost as old as you g-g-guys."

I smile sweetly, playing along with his joke as I pick up my phone. "Aw. I'm going to miss you both so much. Especially your wonderful sense of humor, Chester. How about one last photo for me to treasure?"

"Sure." Katie beams and brings herself closer to Chester.

She smiles, he does a cheesy double thumbs up, and I finally have something to use as leverage over him…at least for the next twelve hours until they both leave in the morning.

I show them both the photo I took, and Chester groans, picking up his napkin and dabbing his chin. "Thanks a l-l-ot, you guys."

But he's smiling.

We all are.

I occupy an unusual place in Chester and Katie's lives, some type of new relationship status that's part big sister, part substitute Mom. I've had to come down on them whenever they've made typical teenager mistakes or poor judgments—okay, whenever Chester made mistakes since Katie is literally perfect—but I've also tried to have fun with them, too. Exchanging barbs and teasing is one of our love languages, but they both know they can tell me anything and count on me not judging them.

"What about you, Hannah?" Katie asks. "Apart from getting to enjoy all of Culver's yummy food, do you have any plans for the summer?"

"Actually, I do." I get up from the table and retrieve my laptop from where I left it to charge in the kitchen. "I'm going to have a hot girl summer," I announce sitting back down.

In the time it takes me to open the laptop and bring up the spreadsheet, no one has said a word.

"What's a hot girl summer?" Culver asks.

"It s-s-sounds dirty."

"It's not dirty. It's about me having some fun and doing things that I want to do." Then I quickly add, "As long as they're not too expensive and can be done outside of work hours."

"I can f-f-feel the spontaneity from here."

"I think it's well-established that I am neither a good chef nor a spontaneous person. However, this summer, I can try to address one of those two things."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," Katie says as she leans across the table and slides the laptop away from me.

"What are you doing?" I ask, as she snaps the laptop closed.

"You can't coordinate spontaneity in a spreadsheet," she tells me.

I scoff. "You can if you color code it right."

"I d-d-don't say this often, but I agree w-with Katie."

"Oh, do you now?"

Chester gives a firm nod. "You've done s-s-so much for us. Do you. Whatever that m-m-means." He looks over at Culver. "As the man of the house, I'm p-putting you in charge of this."

"Man of the house. Yeah, right." Katie rolls her eyes, then reminds him. "You're the youngest."

"By less than two minutes. When will you s-s-stop using that against m-me?"

"Never," Katies replies with a self-satisfied smirk before leaving the room. When she returns, she distributes four pens and four pieces of paper around the table. "As a fellow list-maker and organizaholic, I understand the need to have all ideas captured in an accessible way. But how about we brainstorm first?"

I shrug. "Okay."

I mean, why not? At least this way, I may end up with something more exciting than trimming a few inches off my hair and socking it to Doyle by taking part in the Festival of Living Pictures—the two items listed on my spreadsheet so far.

"All right, so what are we all thinking?" she asks.

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