Page 72 of Ripped

He shakes his head. “But nothing. I have no excuse other than… it’s a little awkward, that’s all.”

An idea pops into my head. I think I saw Donnie’s birth date marked on one of the cards in Roger’s office. It’s soon—in a few weeks. Any excuse to throw a party, right? If this isn’t the perfect way to help Donnie get in touch with his old friends again, I don’t know what is.

CHAPTER THIRTY

CONNOR

At twenty to one o’clock, Donnie drags us back to the car so we’re not late for the party. I don’t want to leave the park. I’d rather spend the afternoon with him, doing literally anything but go to the party. I’d even go to like, a nutritional diet seminar with him if he wanted.

But nope, Donnie’s all about doing the right thing, so we drive back to my parents’ house, only to find we can’t actually drive to the house. There are cars lining the curb down the entire block and around to the next one too. We finally find an empty spot two streets away and walk back.

How many people did Brad invite? The answer is a lot. But then, my parents know a lot of people. It’s not just all of our extended family—aunts and uncles and more cousins than I can count. It’s also all their friends from decades in the workforce and bowling leagues and knitting clubs and oh my god, the backyard is a zoo. There’s gotta be a fire code violation in here somewhere.

We’re no more than two feet inside the backyard when I’m ambushed and I lose my hold of Donnie’s hand.

“Connor! Where’ve you been?” Alisha, my cousin, crushes me in a hug.

“Yo, dude. You come back and you don’t even let us know?” Nate, her brother, gives me a crushing hug too.

“Hey, Mr. Big City! When’d you get here? How long are you staying?” Candace, yet another cousin, is next in line.

“I just got here yesterday and I’m leaving tomorrow and surprise! I’m here!” I look around for Donnie but he’s disappeared into the crowd.

“Have you lost weight?” Alisha asks, pushing me away so she can give me a once-over.

“Nice thighs. You’re not skipping leg day, are you?” Nate jokes.

“Uh, something like that.” I haven’t lost weight. In fact, I might weigh more from all the spin classes and healthy eating that Donnie’s got me doing. Speaking of, where is he? I crane my neck to see over the tops of people’s heads but there’s no signature salt and pepper hair in sight.

“What’s up? You looking for someone?” Candace asks.

“Sorta. Um, have you seen an older guy? Kinda silver fox-y?”

“Silver fox, huh?” Alisha turns to help me look. “That guy?”

I follow her pointed finger and yep, there’s Donnie with what I suspect is cranberry juice and soda water, talking to someone I don’t recognize.

“Yeah, thanks.” I squeeze between Nate and Candace, ignoring their protests about abandoning them. I can’t abandon them when they trail after me in a single file like lemmings.

The woman Donnie’s talking to excuses herself right before I get there.

“Who was that?”

“A friend of your mom’s. They do some sort of crafting thing together.” Donnie’s eyeing the posse of cousins who’ve followed me across the backyard. “Hi…”

Nate jumps in before I can introduce them. “Hey, I’m Nate. We’re Connor and Brad’s cousins.”

“I’m Candace.”

“Alisha. And you are?”

“This is Donnie,” I say, trying to wrangle back control of the situation. “He’s my boyfriend.”

All three sets of eyes snap to me. “Boyfriend?”

“What happened to that other dude? What’s his name?”

“Miles. What happened with Miles?”

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