Page 100 of Sleepover

Chapter 49

Sawyer

ONE MONTH LATER

Not long after Elle and I get engaged, Chase and Liv have a gonzo barbecue. Kids are invited, so we take the boys and bring a six-pack of IPA and some potato salad. Chase and Liv throw great parties. I think it’s because Liv is good at the detail stuff—lighting, food, seating—and Chase is good at making sure everyone has a good time, mostly via beer and music. Brooks is there, of course, and Jack—a guy Brooks used to work construction with—and his wife and kids, as well as Eve, who is both the Realtor who got me my rental and, I learn, Liv’s best friend. Plus about a million other people, some of whom I recognize, most of whom I don’t. There are some older people among the crowd, who I assume must be Chase’s and Liv’s parents. It crosses my mind to wonder why they’re there, but my question gets answered before too long when Chase clinks a glass and says he has an important announcement.

He puts his arm around Liv and declares that they’re engaged and planning to get married next June.

“Must be in the water,” Elle murmurs to me. We’re planning a Christmas wedding.

The boys were ecstatic, by the way, to hear that Elle and I were planning to get married. We told them they can have a special part in the ceremony to commemorate officially becoming brothers, but I think their main obsession was whether it would still count as a sleepover if they each had their own room in Elle’s house.

Eve is working on finding a buyer for the house Jonah and I have been living in, and meanwhile, I’m putting the finishing touches on the house’s bathrooms and finally getting around to the exterior painting and roofing projects. But of course I’m leaving myself enough time for furniture-building—the catalog pieces are selling as fast as I can construct them, and I’m loving the extra income. What with the furniture money and Elle’s advance on Splitsville, we’ve added a few new board games to our collection and promised the boys a fun family vacation next summer…

People flock around Liv and Chase, admiring Liv’s ring and congratulating both members of the happy couple, and Elle and I drift over to the food. There is a crazy selection of salads. I sample all of them, but honestly, I think the potato salad Jonah and I made is the best. Or I’m just not one for the super-fancy salad thing. I mean, arugula and sautéed shiitakes with mint? No thanks. I’ll take macaroni or potato or Caesar.

“It’s going to be a long year,” Brooks says, appearing suddenly at my side.

“How so?”

“I’m Chase’s best man.”

I raise an eyebrow. “That’s great, Brooks!”

“No. Not really.”

“Um, why not? Two in a year too much?” Brooks is my best man, too, obviously. But I don’t think either Chase or I are going to expect very much, work-wise, from him. A, because neither of us is going to want a super-fancy wedding, and B, because, well, Brooks. You have to go to war with the army you have. So I wouldn’t have thought a double gig was something to fear.

“No, it’s not that. It’s the maid of honor.” He lowers his voice. “Eve.”

My eyes find her, a wild corona of honey-colored hair atop a beautiful, curvy figure. “Eve? She’s my Realtor. She rented me the house. I mean, she brokered the rental. She’s nice. And efficient. She’ll probably make your job easy. She seems like the type who’ll just take charge of all the detail work, and you can turn your full attention to the bachelor party.”

“I know she’s nice. And efficient.” His eyes dart, looking hunted. “I slept with her.”

I raise both eyebrows. “Oh-ho. That’s the one? Eve is the one you slept with? That’s…”

“Complicated,” Brooks says sadly.

“You don’t do complicated.”

“I know. I would never have done it if I’d known there was a chance in hell Chase and Liv would get together, let alone married.”

Yeah, that would have come as a bit of a shocker. I have to resist the temptation to laugh. How inconvenient, to have a one-night stand that you can never, ever get away from…

“Well,” I say, not even attempting to keep my amusement under wraps. “As a wise man once said to me, you gotta be careful with sex. It’s like a black hole, and before you know it you’ve been sucked into something that even the world’s best scientists don’t know shit about.”

Brooks gives me a lingering view of his middle finger as he stomps away.

Personally? I think it’s less like a black hole and more like a view of the night sky. Like when you see the whole Milky Way galaxy laid out above you, glistening with stars and stardust. My eyes find Elle, across the crowd. I watch her for a moment. Eating absurd salads, chatting with Liv and Eve, leaning in to converse earnestly with Madden and Jonah, her hair brighter than the candlelight. She looks up suddenly, smiles in my direction, a secret, gorgeous smile.

I smile back.

It is a perfect evening. There is nothing I love more than watching her light up the night.

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