Page 54 of That Reunited Feeling

“Will this make me abruncle?” I ask.

“Oh, fuck off,” Connor says over everyone else’s laughter.

“She’d better not go into labor at our wedding,” Walker says. “That would make the day memorable in a way we never intended.”

Walker and Emily, his co-founder of the brewery and pubs business, are getting married in late August at their new brewery resort on an island off Cape Cod.

“We all thought you’d be the last to settle down,” I tell Max. “And now you’re the first one to have a kid.”

“And he doesn’t mean a baby goat,” Connor says. Now it’s his turn to get the groans.

“Yeah, it’s funny how things work out.” Elliot turns to me. “I mean, you were the first one to get married, but now you’re the only single one in the room.”

“Thanks for that, El. You know how to make a guy feel good.”

Max’s news prompts an image of being with Hannah and Dylan, and another kid of our own, to pop into my brain. Ridiculous. But impossible to stop.

And the worst part is how that image makes me feel—all warm inside, like that’s how my life is meant to be, like nothing will ever match up to how happy it would make me.

But there could not be less point in allowing myself to think like that.

We all retake our seats as the server does the rounds with tumblers and scotch.

Connor rests his forearms on either side of his glass and looks at me. “So, what’s it like to see Hannah again?”

The room falls silent. As if Connor’s broken some unspoken rule that she mustn’t be mentioned.

I drum my fingers on the table. “Maybe the real question is why none of you bastards told me she was living there before I came back.”

“Mom wanted it to be a surprise,” Max says, twirling his freshly minted wedding ring.

“Well, it sure as fuck was that.” Probably best I don’t relate the whole naked-on-the-landing story.“Oh. And funny thing. Maggie also hadn’t told Hannah I was coming.”

There’s a simultaneous sharp intake of breath around the table as everyone leans back, recoiling from the horror of it.

“Yeah,” I continue, “we were both pretty shocked.”

“Is Mom playing games?” Elliot asks.

I shrug it off.

No way in hell am I going to tell them about theOverlord Hybridstickets incident. Not only because they’d give me an even harder time than they are probably about to, but also because I’d never throw Maggie under the bus.

“Sooo,” Connor repeats. “What’s it like to see her?”

Maybe the best way out of this is to tell just the first part of the story. “She hates me for never coming back from London and not staying in touch. And she could not have been clearer about that.”

It’s not a lie. She might have come around to kissing me but, as sure as I’ll never sign one of Aunt Maggie’s houseplants in a three-album deal, it’s not erased her hurt.

“Guess Mom didn’t think that part through,” Max says and sips his scotch.

“Awkward,” Walker mutters out of the side of his mouth.

“Yeah. A bit.” Except it’s now awkward in the most spectacularly great way. In a way that we have to hide from Maggie and Jim like we’re teenagers again, trying to make out while not getting caught.

This evening in Brooklyn has been fantastic. One of the best nights out in a long time. Being around these guys always makes me feel that, even though I lost my parents, I’m incredibly lucky to have this amazing family.

But despite how life-affirming the brousins are, just the thought of getting to take Hannah out the day after tomorrow makes me itch to get back.

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