Page 92 of She Wolf

“Right boys, first drinks are on the house but then you fancy hockey players are on your own. I got a business to run, can’t kiss your celebrity asses all night. So what’ll it be?”

“I’ll take a bottle of Ripley’s,” Casey says, motioning to the bottles that Ripley designed himself.

“Same,” Theo, Rex, and I say at the same time.

“Fine go take your seats and I’ll be over in a minute. Did my security guy see you come in?”

We shake our heads. “Okay, I’ll tell him my trouble magnets are here.”

After a few minutes, he brings eight bottles over. The labels are the same color as his shirt and the weather-beaten sign outside.

“Here ya go. You hungry?” he asks but then shakes his head. “Of course, you ain’t. Those fine women who raised ya would never have let you leave the house with an empty belly.” He winks at Casey. “You make sure that pops of yours stops by, I’m not finished fightin’ him for your mama yet. Unless your mama,” he says looking at Theo, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he smiles, “is after some company?”

“Hate to break it to you Rip, but she’ll love my dad until her last breath.”

“And rightly so. Thomas Madden was a good man,” he says gripping Theo by the neck.

Then he points a finger at Casey who just grins. “I’ll tell Dad you said hi.”

“You do that. Your brothers not in town?” he asks both Casey and Theo this time.

“Not yet, they’ll be here soon though,” Theo informs him.

“Best get to battening down the hatches. Those young’uns are too much for this old surfer,” he laughs again.

“Have you brought that lady friend of yours this time?” he asks Theo.

“I have. She’s back at the house with this one’s lady friend,” he says tilting his head towards Case.

“No way, you finally found someone to put up with your shit? Congratulations. But what do I say to her, commiserations?”

Casey rolls his eyes while I can’t help but laugh at their interactions.

“Thanks for the beers, Rip.” Ripley slowly backs away laughing his head off.

“Send the boys my way when they get here.” he adds before he’s slipping back behind the bar and seeing to his customers.

No one comes up to us. At. All. Maybe it’s because of the ball caps we’re wearing or because no one is interested. Which is more likely. Caniacs are die hard and probably wouldn’t give us the time of day.

We grab for a bottle each when Casey blurts out.

“I’m going to ask Pixie to marry me.”

Rex is the first to open his mouth. “Really! Wow, congratulations!”

“Thank you. I just wanted to check with you first,” he says looking Theo dead in the eye.

“Why you gotta check with me?” Theo asks confused.

“Well, you’re in the middle of organizing your own wedding and I don’t want to take any of the shine away.” Theo proposed to his girlfriend, Lexie, last Christmas. Lexie is also Anna’s best friend and from what I’ve seen and heard, the girls are deep in planning mode.

“You don’t need to worry about that. I think they’ll love it. When Lex goes to look at dresses, Anna can search for hers too.”

Casey shakes his head, a sad smile on his face. “I don’t really think it’s going to be like that for her man.”

“Right because her family is…” I interject but my words trail off. Rex slumps back in his seat. It’s fucking sad.

My brother lives on the opposite side of the country and I still feel close to him. And my mom? Well, she’s the best. Losing them would be, fuck, I rub my chest.

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