Page 169 of Still Bruised
Foster smiled when he saw their friends step outside, ready to walk in with them. He glanced over and noticed Jude staring at the ground.
“Hey,”Foster whispered to Jude.
Jude cast a look his way.
Foster nodded toward the door.
As soon as Jude’s attention turned, a hint of a smile appeared. The first one all day. He stood a little taller and squared his shoulders. “Let’s do this.”
They walked toward the door. Cary opened it.
Roan and Mia walked in ahead.
Anton and Cary took up the rear behind them. Down the hall, there was a reception table and a couple of women and a man sat there, welcoming those arriving.
Foster and Jude stopped in front of it, the others lingering near.
“Foster Price! I was starting to think you weren’t coming!” their old class president, Felicity Banyon, said before she rounded the table and stretched out her arms. “It’s been too long.”
Foster offered her a smile and a brief hug. Felicity had been one of the few people Foster had genuinely liked while there. If the rumors Foster had heard were true, she’d tried to stick up for Jude back in the day, too. If so, she earned extra points for that. “It has. How have you been?”
“Good, can’t complain,” Felicity said with a broad smile. She turned to eye Jude. “And you look familiar. Do I know you?”
“Jude Margulies,” Foster said lowly.
Felicity’s eyes widened.“Jude?All I remember is black clothes and all that hair covering your face.” She smiled up at him. “I wouldn’t have recognized you if I’d passed you on the street.” She turned her attention to Foster. “Although, I haven’t recognized half the people who walked through that front door tonight. I haven’t been back since graduation, and it’s wild how much people have changed.”
Her gazed drifted to their clasped hands and back up to Foster’s face. “Oh, have they changed.” She smiled at Jude. “I didn’t expect to see you tonight, but you’re one who’s come to mind from time to time over the years. I’m glad you’re here.” She hugged him again. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” Jude said, a hint of a smile on his face. “Real good.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Felicity said. “Well, I need to head back inside and see where my husband has run off to. I’d love to catch up with you both later, though, once you’ve made the rounds.”
“Yeah, sure,” Jude said.
Felicity gently tapped Jude on the chest with her palm before turning to the table. “It was nice catching up with you, Cath.”
“You, too,” Cathy Giovanni—Cathy GiovanniPulaskiaccording to her nametag—said to Felicity before turning to Foster and Jude. “Welcome, guys.” She looked through a box, flicking past name badges and handed one over. “Here you are, Foster.”
Foster eyed it. Along with his name was a color copy of his senior yearbook photo. He released Jude’s hand for a second to pin it to his jacket.
Cathy went back to her box and flicked through some more. “Let me find Jude’s and you’ll be all set.”
“I didn’t graduate. I’m a plus-one tonight,” Jude said, eyeing the sheet of blank nametags lying on the table.
Foster reclaimed his hand and squeezed it.
Cathy looked up from her box. “A little birdy told me you were coming with Foster, so I printed one up for you.”
“Oh,” Jude said, one brow rising.
“You were with us for nearly all of it,” Cathy said. “You belong here, too.”
Foster smiled to himself and glanced at Jude.
Jude eyed Mia.“A little bird?”
“Tweet-tweet,” Mia said with a grin as she flapped her hands like wings.
