Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
GRIFFIN
Even after everything with Selene and then Maggie, I’d never felt this hollow before.
Frankly, it was terrifying. I’d thought that if I fought hard enough, Jules would realize I was serious about her.
About us. But her not loving me—and ordering me to stay away? Had me seriously rethinking everything.
I’d already let the Captain at my hotshot job know I wouldn’t be returning next season—so that bridge was burned.
And I’d signed a contract with Honeyville.
I could only let so many people down in a year—and I drew the line at groveling to get rehired, only to quit again.
But how was I supposed to live in the same town—no, the same street—as Jules and stay away from her?
As it was, it took all my restraint not to sneak into her room every night and sleep next to her.
Three evenings later, sitting with my brothers and cousins in a booth at Fourth and Goal—our favorite sports bar in Honeyville—I stared at the condensation on my glass of Dr Pepper.
“I can’t believe Charlie made us wear these stupid shirts,” James grumbled from his chair at the head of the table.
Charlie refused to let us leave until each of us had one on. They were all identical—a dark, weathered gray. The front said,
Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. I am a Dupree.
But the back said—
Let’s save us both some time:
No autographs. Not even “just a quick one.”
No, you can’t have my number. This isn’t a meet-cute.
No, Ford isn’t hiding in the bathroom.
Neither is Blue.
Or Liam.
No, we won’t hook you up.
No, we won’t pass along your number.
No, your cousin’s best friend’s dog’s roommate who’s dying of _______ will not be the exception.
No, we are not secretly falling apart behind closed doors.
Yes, we actually like each other. Weird, we know.
Thanks for respecting our night off. We’ll catch you another time.
The Duprees.
“I don’t know.” Bowen smiled. “I kind of like it. Not a single person has approached us yet. This has to be some kind of record.”
“Charlie’s just tired of me getting hit on every time I go somewhere without her,” Cash said. “You like it, right?” he asked me.
I gave him nothing.
“Griff,” he said low, elbowing me in the side. “It sucks right now. But it’s gonna be okay.”
I grunted, barely processing his words. My head was numb. My heart was numb. Even my lungs felt like they belonged to someone else. Maybe I was actually an avatar. Maybe my real body was back in a link unit somewhere, and this body wasn’t mine at all.
“Yo.” Theo leaned across the table and snapped his fingers in my face.
My gaze shot up, a warning growl low in my chest, daring him to do it again.
He jerked his hand back. “Don’t take off my fingers, okay? But you gotta snap out of it.”
“Leave him alone,” James said from his chair at the head of the table. “He’s hurting. Let him deal with it however he wants.”
“Thank you, James,” I said.
“No.” Theo shook his head defiantly. “I can’t handle one more cousin in mourning. It’s too much. Y’all are gonna have to start taking turns.”
Bowen scratched his jaw. “He’s not wrong. It’s freaking depressing. I mean, here we are having guys’ night and you two—” he pointed from me to James “—are acting like a pair of sad sacks.”
“A pair of sad sacks?” James barked, eyes steely. “My wife died, lint licker.”
“Whoo, boy,” Cash said with a shake of the head. “Glad I left my wife at home for a night of this.”
Bowen must’ve had a death wish because he matched James’s steel and firmly said, “Yes, James, Sage died, and it sucks. No way around it. But it’s time to start living again. Do you think she’d want you wallowing like this?”
“Wallowing?” James seethed, jaw clenched, as he started to come up out of his seat.
“All right!” Cash popped up and shoved James back down by his shoulders. “Everybody chill!”
James did as he was told, but I was pretty sure if he had a match, he’d light Bowen on fire.
Theo clapped. “Nice job, Jim-Bo. Proud of you. That’s the most emotion we’ve seen from you in months. Now it’s Griff’s turn.” He slid his knife over to me. “Oh, wait.” He took it back and replaced it with his spoon. “There, that’s safer.”
I huffed. “What do you want me to do with this?”
“It’s the talking stick,” Theo said, like I was a moron for not knowing. “So everyone can get their feelings out in the open without interruption. You go first.”
I sent it skidding back across the table. “I don’t have any feelings to get out in the open.”
Bowen rolled his eyes. Yeah, he definitely had a death wish. “Yes, you do. We all do. Everyone here is feeling some kind of way about something. I’ll go first.” He reached over and picked up the spoon. “I’m nervous—”
“What do you have to be nervous about?” I asked. “You have your woman.”
“Bzzzzzzzt.” Theo silenced me with the annoying buzzer sound effect he always made.
He grabbed the spoon from Bowen. “Griffin, you have to have the talking stick if you want to speak. Come on now. We learned these rules back in kindergarten. Also, no heckling other people. This is a safe space.” He handed the spoon back to Bowen.
“A safe space?” I stared at him. “M’kay.”
“Bzzzzzzzt,” Theo buzzed me a second time. He grabbed the spoon from Bowen once more. “Again,” he said. “You may not speak unless you’re holding the stick.”
I laughed despite myself. “It’s a spoon, noob, not a stick.”
“Bzzzzzzzt,” Theo growled. Oh, I was making him angry. I’d take it as a compliment. It was actually hard to get a real rise out of Theo. “You have two more chances. If you speak again without the spoon, unfortunately, there will be a punishment.”
I couldn’t help it. Pushing Theo’s buttons was one of my favorite pastimes. “What’s the punishment?”
“BZZZZZZZZZZT,” Bowen, Cash, and Theo bleated at the same time. Bowen and Cash laughed, but Theo looked utterly put out.
He exhaled a cleansing breath. “You now have one warning left, and then you will receive the punishment. And trust me, it will be something truly humiliating.”
My lips twitched, desperate to needle him further. But I restrained myself. I needed to know what the punishment was first. I reached for the spoon.
But Theo yanked it back. “Cash gets to pick the penance.”
Cash took control of the spoon. “Drum roll, please.” We all pitter-pattered our hands against the table—even James, though he looked annoyed about it.
“The punishment is….” Cash paused for dramatics.
“Karaoke.” He tipped his head to the empty stage, the mic stand lonely in the dead center, like it was just waiting for one of us to join it.
“One song of your choice. But you must complete the song or take a dip, buck naked, in Lake A while we all watch. Tonight.” It was the middle of January, and we’d seen flurries on our way into the restaurant.
Theo, James, and I groaned. Cash grinned.
That fool did whatever he could to bring music into every situation.
Bowen just shrugged because he actually had a decent singing voice and didn’t mind the attention.
I could sing, according to my mom, but I’d rather get hypothermia from Lake A than do it for a crowd. Theo and James? Completely tone-deaf.
Cash handed the spoon back to Bowen.
“Thank you.” Bowen set the spoon on the table in front of him and rubbed his hands together like this was a real therapy session, and he was trying to gather his courage. “As I said, I’m nervous because…” He glanced at me. So it was about Maggie then.
I gestured for him to hand over the spoon. “You can stop looking at me like I’m going to suddenly freak out that you’re with Maggie. I’m so far past her, bro. All I see is Jules.” At my wife’s name, a pang of loneliness hit, proving it was true. “I promise.” I handed the spoon back to Bowen.
“Okay, good. Because all I can think about is…” He chewed his lip like he was trying to decide if this really was a safe space. “I want to marry Maggie,” he blurted.
It took everything I possessed not to tease, or, as I’d been forbidden to do, heckle him—in jest, of course.
Theo held his hand out for the spoon. “That’s fast,” he said. Then he handed it back.
“It is,” Bowen replied. “Four months. But I love her,” he said quietly, like the words stole his breath. “The forever kind.” He peeked at me.
I motioned for the spoon. “Congrats. Maggie is awesome. I’m sure you’ll be very happy together.” Then I handed it back.
“I’m not going to ask her yet,” Bowen confessed.
“I’m thinking we should probably be together for a year first. That’s a good timeline, right?
” Everyone nodded. Everyone but James, whose head shook disapprovingly.
“But I was wondering…” Bowen glanced at me again.
“Do you think…would you be my best man at the wedding?”
His words hit me square in the chest—in the best way. I didn’t deserve that honor. Not even close. James did. Or Theo. Cash even. Or his best friend, Fletcher. But not me—the tool who’d stonewalled him for two years and moved across the country just to get away from him. Why would he do that?
I had no idea, but the love in his eyes softened every muscle in my body. I reached for the spoon to accept. Bowen held it out for me.
But before I could grab it, James wrenched it out of Bowen’s hand and tossed it over his shoulder, narrowly missing a waiter walking by.
“Hey!” Theo shouted. “That’s the talking stick!”
“Don’t do it,” James said to Bowen with desperate intensity.
“Bzzzzzzzt,” Theo blared.
“Don’t get married,” James continued as if Theo didn’t exist. “As a matter of fact, end things right now before it’s too late.”
Theo slapped the table. “Bzzzzzzzt!”
Bowen stared at James, aghast.
“Love is a trap,” James said.
“Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!” Theo pounded the table, face flushing dark.