Page 45 of Luck of the Draw

“Where’s Dad?” Tina asked, glancing around. Matteo and his wife were deep in conversation with River, and Mom had joined in on the Nonna and Dottie conversation. Matty’s kids were younger, probably too young to be at the brewery, even though it wasn’t open to the public, so Sam had offered to take them on an adventure.

“Does this adventure involve being a getaway-car driver?” I’d asked.

She’d rolled her eyes and said, “You got your jersey back, didn’t you? Dee’s not very good at making getaways. We’ll need to work on that.”

“He’s over there,” Deeandra said, pointing to a corner of the room, where Dad stood with Bear. They were having an animated conversation, Dad’s arms flying everywhere, so either they were on the verge of having a fight, or Dad was about to invite him to be an honorary member of our family.

“Fight or family?” I asked Tina.

“Oh, definitely family,” she said knowingly.

“You guys are odd,” Deeandra said with affection. “But if he and Bear get along, all the better.”

“Hey,” Tina said, looking in both directions before she spoke. “Whose wedding did you crash, Dee? It was one of these couples, right?”

She nodded toward where River and Matty were talking. “Them.”

“Do they know?”

“They do,” Dee said, grinning at me. “It was pretty embarrassing, but we told them after they got back from their honeymoon. River says we should name our first child after him.”

“Which I agreed to for obvious reasons,” I said as I pulled her closer, stooping to kiss the side of her head.

“Ugh, you guys are too cute,” Tina said, shaking her head as if our affection might be a communicable disease. “Maybe I’ll go on a random vacation with a friend and then just stay.”

“Keep it to the East Coast. You don’t want to actually drive Nonna into an early grave.” I gave her a look. “Or you could think about moving here. Daniel’s going to grad school next year, so you could have his job. Or if you’re ready to move next week, you could take my old spot.”

Deeandra swallowed a laugh, glancing at Daniel, who had a plate with no less than four slices of pizza on it.

My attention was on Tina. Because I really did want her to consider it. I knew what it was like living at home, and although there were definite upsides, I had a feeling it weighed on her a bit, like it had on me.

“Maybe,” she said with a shrug. “But I’m not going to decide any time soon. I don’t want to give Nonna an actual heart attack.”

“Fair enough.” I glanced at Deeandra, who was looking across the room at the other members of her club. They were standing around the statue of Beau Buchanan, which Dottie had moved to the tasting room a while back after dressing him in merch and removing the infamous pink crystal dick, which was apparently still in her possession. Okay, I’d seen it. She kept it in a place of honor in her house.

Blue and Lee were with the others, laughing at something someone had said. It turned out that Lee had seen Deeandra at the wedding, and only processed who she was later. So they’d known before Georgie and River.

Dee had graduated from the Bad Luck Club a couple of weeks after we got together. Bear had announced she didn’t need it anymore. Not because of me or her new job, but because she’d gotten her confidence back.

They’d held a Bad Luck luau for her, which was apparently the new tradition for graduates. But she still saw her friends from the club fairly often, and they’d all come, except for one woman who’d left the group under very strained circumstances.

“Let’s go mingle,” I said, taking her hand. “We should talk to your friends.”

She gave me a look as if to say it was no big deal, she could go over there herself if she wanted to, and anyway, my family wasn’t here often—to which I responded with a look that said I wanted to celebrate together, with her friends and mine.

“Oh my God, you’re doing that creepy silent conversation thing Mom and Dad do,” Tina said, stepping back.

“Damn straight,” I said, and because I’d already traumatized Tina—and the boys were over by the food bar, watching in amazement as Daniel stuffed slice after slice of pizza into his mouth—I kissed Dee.

The little sound she made in the back of her throat was something I’d never get enough of.

“Ugh. Gross,” Tina said, but in a voice that suggested she didn’t much mind, and wandered off.

“I’m proud of you,” Deeandra said to me when she broke away. “So proud.”

“I’m proud of us,” I said. And I was. I was proud of what we were building together, and how damn far we’d come in a few short months.

We went to talk to the former and present members of the Bad Luck Club, hand in hand, and we were still in conversation with Blue and Lee when Dottie stood up and cleared her throat.

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