Chapter Four
“Do you wear glasses?”
Ethan scanned the tiles in front of him. “No.”
Baz, Gavin, and Jamie flipped down pieces on their own racks, the clacking of the plastic obnoxiously loud in the quiet of Ethan’s living room. In the kitchen, Jo, Kyla, and Sabrina laughed at some joke he was sure he didn’t want to hear.
“You’re Dawson Leery!”
Gavin shouted, pointing a finger at Ethan.
“Is that the blonde kid with the crying face?”
Ethan asked.
“The one and only.”
Gavin turned his rack to show Ethan an image identical to his own.
“How the hell do you know the names of any of these people?”
Ethan asked.
“Brodie loved that show,”
Gavin said.
“If he’s Dawson, then you must be Dean from Gilmore Girls,”
Jamie said.
“You got me,”
Gavin conceded.
“So Baz is the blonde chick in leather pants?”
Ethan asked.
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Baz said.
“Am I the only one who doesn’t know any of these characters?”
Ethan pushed his board away. When his friends were watching blondes in leather pants fight vampires, he’d been busy learning the names of the residents of Sesame Street. Give him a version of this game with Prairie Dawn and Grover and he’d clean house. “Who the hell brought this game anyway?”
“I did,”
Jo said, appearing in the doorway with Ethan’s granddaughter, Julie, balanced on her hip. “It was supposed to be for girls’ night.”
“This isn’t girls’ night,”
Ethan grumbled.
Jo turned to Julie, dropping her voice as though she was about to say something very serious. “Your grandpa is extra grouchy today.”
“Am not.”
Ethan took the squirming toddler from Jo’s arms. “Don’t listen to her, Jujube.”
“Of course she listens to me. I’m her favorite babysitter,”
Jo said, pretending to be offended.
“And I am her grandfather.”
“Yeah, but you’re a hot grandpa, so it doesn’t count.”
Ethan nearly choked on his own saliva. “Excuse me?”
“Forty-five isn’t even that old.”
“I’m not forty-five.”
For another two weeks.
“Forty-six. Whatever.”
“I’m forty-four,”
he corrected her.
“Even better.”
Jo bobbed her eyebrows suggestively at him.
Ethan rolled his eyes. Jo was a flirt, and she loved to push his buttons, but they both knew there was no chance in hell anything would ever happen between them. She was younger than his own daughter, for Christ’s sake.
“Where is your mama?”
Ethan asked Julie, as if she could answer.
“Mama!”
Julie exclaimed, thrilled to repeat her favorite word. For an entire month everything had been “mama,”
including Ethan.
“Tessa’s running late. Some kind of cupcake emergency,”
Jo explained.
Kyla and Sabrina pushed past Jo into the living room. Baz immediately hooked his arm around Sabrina’s waist and pulled her into his lap, nuzzling into her hair, and Gavin got up to hug Kyla from behind, his chin resting on top of her head. Ethan was happy for his friends, he really was, but he was also out-of-his-mind jealous. The cartoonish heart-eyes they got as soon as their wives entered a room didn’t help.
“So, hot grandpa, tell us about your lady friend,”
Jo prompted as she took over his empty seat at the table and dug into the chips and queso.
“My what now?”
Ethan asked, shooting a death glare at Baz and Gavin. He set Julie on her feet and let her toddle across the floor to the ever-growing cache of toys in the corner of his living room.
“Don’t look at me,”
Baz said. “I have no interest in talking about your sex life.”
“Was I not supposed to tell Jo?”
Kyla asked, looking up at her husband.
“It’s fine,”
Gavin assured her. “It’s not like it was a secret.”
“It wasn’t up for discussion, either,”
Ethan barked.
“Wait, I thought you went to Boston for some kind of business thing,”
Jamie said. “It was a sex thing?”
“Come on. Spill. Ever since these two shacked up, there’s no good gossip in this group anymore,”
Jo said, gesturing to Baz and Sabrina with a queso-laden chip. “Rumor has it, you have a sex buddy in Boston.”
“Keep me out of your gossip,”
Ethan replied.
“Who is she?”
Sabrina asked.
“I wouldn’t mind knowing that myself,”
Jamie said, leaning back in his chair.
Ethan glared at him. “No one. Just a friend.”
“Well, which is it? No one, or a friend?”
Jo asked, her grin growing wider.
“More importantly, are you going to see her again?”
Gavin asked.
“It’s not like that.”
“Her loss. You’re a catch, even if you are a grandpa. And I’m not just saying that because we’re friends. You’re a silver fox in training.”
She gestured vaguely at his head. “Not enough silver yet.”
“I’m in hell. I’m in actual hell.”
“I’m here! I’m here!”
Tessa said, pushing her way into the living room, a tray of cupcakes balanced in one hand. She set the cupcakes down on top of the scattered game pieces and bent to give Jamie a kiss. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing, princess,”
Jamie said.
“Hey, Dad. Welcome back.”
Tessa gave Ethan a quick hug. “How was Boston?”
“We were just about to hear all the details,”
Jo said with a smirk.
“No, you fucking weren’t,”
Ethan said.
Tessa glanced around at their friends. “Is this a sex thing?”
she asked, her nose wrinkling. “I can leave.”
“It’s not a—we’re not talking about this!”
Ethan said.
“But there is something to talk about,”
Gavin said.
“More like someone,”
Sabrina added.
“Definitely a sex thing,”
Jo laughed.
“You are a menace,”
Ethan said accusatorily.
“I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
She took another bite of a chip, then got to her feet and gave Tessa a hug. “I gotta run. My shift at the bar starts in twenty minutes.”
“Thanks for watching Julie this afternoon,”
Tessa said.
“Any time. I love that little squirt.”
She waved at the others. “See you all later.”
Then, with a wink, she said to Ethan, “Bye, foxy.”
“Foxy?”
Tessa asked once Jo had left. “Is something going on with you and Jo?”
“Definitely not.”
“’Cause I thought I might be picking up on a vibe,”
Tessa said.
“No vibe. Not all of us like women young enough to be our kids.”
“I think I should be offended by that,”
Gavin said.
“So the woman in Boston isn’t significantly younger than you,”
Jamie said. He flipped a few tiles on his game board as if they were still playing.
Ethan scowled. “She’s in her thirties. I don’t—why are we still talking about this?”
Ethan snapped, hating that he’d taken the bait and let any details about Hannah slip. He shouldn’t have said anything to Gavin at all.
Tessa scooped up Julie and snuggled her close, ignoring the pudgy toddler hands tugging at her hair. “Then let’s talk about something else. Did you ask him yet?”
she asked Jamie.
“Ask me what?”
Ethan glanced between his daughter and his friend suspiciously.
“No, I wanted to hear what he wanted first,”
Jamie said.
“I didn’t want anything,”
Ethan replied.
“Your invitation was pretty cryptic,”
Gavin said.
“What’s cryptic about ‘come to game night’?”
Ethan asked.
“It was the tone,”
Baz replied.
“It was a text. There is no tone.”
“There was a tone,”
Jamie said.
“Are you all trying to fuck with me today?”
Ethan demanded, a headache gathering behind his eyes.
Tessa’s forehead scrunched and she sank into a seat next to Jamie, setting Julie down to explore the room again. “Dad, what’s wrong?”
Ethan scraped a hand over his face and glanced around at his friends, his family, the people he trusted most in the world. The people who were always there for them. What was he going to say? You’re all great but I’m jealous as hell you’ve found your partners and I haven’t and it’s starting to get to me? Not likely.
“Nothing’s wrong, T. What did you need to ask me?”
“You remember my brother Daemon,”
Jamie said, pausing for Ethan to nod in agreement. “He and Liv have a friend, another Broadway actress, who needs a place to lay low for a few weeks. Apparently, her boyfriend is someone famous—”
“Jackson Hayes,”
Tessa said to the women at the table, who each sucked in a breath, Kyla releasing a startled squeak.
“Who’s Jackson Hayes?”
Ethan asked.
“He's a member of Midnight Storm,”
Sabrina explained.
“I loved them!”
Gavin said.
“I don’t know Midnight Storm,”
Ethan said.
“Come on, yes, you do. Jackson and his brother—twins, right?—and a cousin. I don’t think the other two guys are related.”
Gavin glanced around at his friends, but only the women seemed to know what he was talking about. “They were the biggest boy band for like a decade. Even Brodie used to listen to them. Do you guys really not know who they are?”
“Why do we care about Jackson Hayes?”
Baz grumbled.
“Looks like he cheated on Daemon’s friend and the press are hounding her. Following her everywhere,”
Jamie said.
“Some creep took a picture of her through her living room window,”
Tessa added.
“It’s not safe for her to stay in New York right now,”
Jamie said.
“Poor girl,”
Kyla said.
“Daemon asked if she could come stay with me and Tessa for a little while, but you know Julie’s not sleeping through the night again and our guest room is kind of an explosion of baby things.”
Jamie trailed off, looking at Ethan meaningfully. “I was hoping, since Tessa’s old room is empty…”
“It would only be for a week and a half. Two tops,”
Tessa said. “Just until the paparazzi frenzy dies down.”
“You’d really be helping her out. And us,”
Jamie said.
Ethan dragged his hand through his hair, scratching at the back of his neck. He wasn’t sure how good of a roommate he’d be, but at least playing host would give him a chance to take his mind off of Hannah. And if that distraction could also help out a friend in need, well, maybe that was a win-win situation he shouldn’t turn down. “When does she get here?”
Tessa flew off her chair, wrapping her arms around Ethan and squeezing tightly. “Thank you, Dad. You’re the best.”
“What am I going to do? Turn her away? I’m not a monster,”
Ethan said.
“Just a recluse,” Baz said.
Gavin smirked. “Unless you count the woman in Boston.”