Page 59 of Here's to Tomorrow

“Logical Hudson was the one that thought of the family thing, for your information, but then, ya know, No-Bullshit Hudson chimed in. Fucker wins every time.”

“Amen. I’ve met the dude. He’s kind of a dick,” Tucker comments.

“All right, so, exes? Close friends? What?” I ask.

“Close friends.”

“I’m still going with family.”

“Exes,” I say.

“Well, that’s settled then,” Tucker snarks. “I mean, why don’t you just ask her?”

I think on it and eventually shrug. “I don’t feel like I have that right yet. We’re just getting to know one another. I haven’t even told her about Joey yet. It’s all too new and I don’t want to come off as a possessive jerk, or whatever you want to call it.”

“From the five minutes she spent over here earlier, I don’t think Rae would take it that way at all,” Gaige offers.

“I don’t think I can take that chance just yet. I like her too much.”

At the same time, we all take a drink of our sodas, taking a moment to process everything.

“How’s Joey doing? We gonna have a movie night soon?”

“I think you’re way too excited to watch old Disney movies with a seven-year-old,” Gaige says to Tucker. He turns back to me. “But really, when’s the next movie night?”

I love that they love Joey almost as much as I do.

“Joey’s great. Probably a little peeved since I’ve spent the last two nights away from Mom’s, but we’ll just have to do movie night soon to make up for it. Next Saturday or Sunday?”

They look to one another. “Sunday,” they say at the same time.

“Sunday it is. My apartment or Mom’s?”

“Mom’s,” they answer, again at the same time.

“I can grab some pizza if you want so Mom doesn’t have to cook dinner,” Gaige offers.

“You just want her to make extra desserts.”

“Can you blame the dude? Your mom makes the best fucking cherry pie ever. You were a lucky little shit growing up,” Tucker says.

“True. You two need to watch your mouths this time. There were two weeks of Joey saying ‘shit’ and ‘asshole’ after the last movie night.” Both the jerks snicker. “Oh, you think that shit is funny? You do realize that every time I said ‘Joey, don’t say shit!’ or ‘Joey, don’t say asshole!’ that kid made me payfifty centsto the cuss jar? You know how expensive that got? You both owe me at least five bucks!”

At this point in my rant, they’re both laughing so hard, neither one of them is making a sound.

“I think… I think…” Tucker starts, gasping for air and holding his stomach.

“Oh yeah? I think, I think you’re both dicks,” I mock grumpily.

“I think that just made me love that kid even more. Genius!”

I just shake my head, because he’s right. My kid is damn smart for a seven-year-old.

“All right, all right,” Perry says, sitting back down at the table. “What’d I miss?”

“Looks like we’re buying dinner. Hudson’s broke,” Gaige supplies.

Perry laughs politely while Tucker and Gaige are back to their hysterics. I roll my eyes and turn my attention to the rest of the bar as Rae comes out of the back carrying a huge tray stacked full of food.

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