Page 27 of Total Shutdown

Ezra’s face drops, and something unfamiliar tugs in my chest.

“Can I come see it another time? Maybe at your place?”

“Ezra,” Sawyer immediately interjects, “you can’t just go around inviting yourself to people’s homes.” He shakes his head.

“I’m home tomorrow, if that works for you?” I look at Ezra, the invite leaving my mouth before I can process what I said.

His excited eyes flare wide, and I peek up at Sawyer.

“If that’s okay with you?”

“Can I? Please?!” Ezra practically begs his dad, garnering attention from the rest of the table.

Sawyer takes another sip of water, setting the glass back down and running a palm across his mouth. I can see the conflict on his face, and I’m about to offer him a way out when he nods once.

“All right.”

“Awesome!”

Ezra holds his fist out for me to bump, and I reciprocate. The second his smaller knuckles meet mine, I’m thinking through all the parts and tools I can show him. I just cleaned and waxed my bike yesterday, but I guess there’s no harm in going over it again.

“Call me impatient, but at what point do we get to know your secret?” Archer announces from the other end of the table, looking kind of stressed.

“It has to be an engagement,” Sawyer offers. “Or maybe a pregnancy.”

Darcy holds up her left hand. “If I were engaged, would it not be pretty obvious?” Her face then scrunches. “And I’m twenty-three and finishing my post-grad; babies are not on the agenda right now.” Her face drops slightly but then resets to her usual bright self.

“Spit it out, woman,” Jack says.

She glances around at us all. “I’m moving to New York!”

With one slap across the back, Jack dislodges the food caught in Archer’s esophagus.

“With Liam?” he asks, adding another thump between Archer’s shoulder blades as he inhales a deep breath and recovers.

“Yeah, well … me moving isn’t the only thing that’s changed.” Her voice is lower, a touch of sadness to it. “I broke up with Liam.”

I can’t be sure if it’s to curb the coughing fit or buy himself a second, but Archer reaches for his beer and chugs half of it down.

“Wait, I have so many questions.” Jack holds up a hand. “You were living with Liam. Where are you now?”

Darcy lifts a shoulder. “At a friend’s. We broke up, like, two weeks ago, and I moved out. It just wasn’t working anymore. Maybe we’d drifted apart. I don’t know. I guess the final nail in the coffin was when I got offered an associate editor position in Manhattan. Starts in a few months, and I couldn’t turn it down. Oh, that, and I caught him cheating,” she tags on casually, like she’s determined not to let a man get to her.

My kind of girl.

I don’t know whose face looks redder—Jack’s or Archer’s. But I’m guessing they’re both pissed at what her long-term boyfriend, Liam, did.

Darcy’s eyes glaze, and I push back my chair, picking up my plate. I’m not good with emotions since I never know what to say. I take the change in atmosphere as my cue to leave and make myself useful.

“Okay, let me gather up all of these.” I pick up Ezra’s empty plate just as Kendra collects a couple more. “I got it,” I say to her, tipping my head at Darcy. “You stay.”

She smiles and rounds the table, heading straight for Jack’s sister as I make for the kitchen, balancing five plates and two serving bowls in my arms.

I make it to the counter just in time and set the whole lot down, shaking out my aching arms before filling the sink to rinse the plates off.

“You didn’t have to invite Ezra over, you know. I could’ve taken him to a motorcycle event.”

I spin around and find Sawyer standing a couple of feet away from me.

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