Chapter 44 Owen
I shouldn’t be surprised when Brandon sends a group message that we should hang out tonight. It’s something that tends to happen when Poppy and Andi spend the evening together, so I invite my cousins over.
“No blue-eyed date tonight?” I ask Graham, the first to arrive, since he’s been lighter than usual on details in our messages.
He gives Samson a few head scratches while getting out of his shoes and then flops on the couch with a groan. “No.”
“This seems to call for a beer,” I say, marching to the kitchen to get four, knowing the other two are almost here. Graham now has his arm draped over his eyes dramatically. “Maybe I should give you mine, too, you look like you could use a few.”
“I think I fucked up,” he mumbles, not moving.
“Do you want to talk about it now or wait for the others?”
“Might as well wait.” He sits up and holds out his hand for a bottle when the buzzer sounds.
“You don’t have to wait long, at least,” I say, leaving him for a moment to buzz the brothers up. A gray ball of fur trots over to the door, purring, which makes me suspect he thinks Poppy might be coming up.
After a moment, the brothers are inside and Samson jumps into his cat tree after getting a few pets, clearly minimally interested in my guests.
“We need a schedule that doesn’t revolve around when Andi and Poppy are having girls’ night,” James says.
“Did we interrupt something for you?” his brother asks.
James shakes his head. “It’s not about if something was interrupted, it’s about the four of us having our own thing.” Then he gives Graham an assessing look. “Why do you look miserable?”
“Likely because I feel that way,” he replies, rubbing the stubble on his chin.
We all give him time to speak. Even though he’s clearly distressed, there’s something that I love at this moment. We’re all comfortable. There’s not a question if Graham is going to share. There’s not a question if we may or may not be interested in listening. We’re all just here .
“So, you know that I’ve been seeing someone?” he asks.
“The mystery someone with blue eyes?” Brandon asks. “The person you’ve given us no more hints about?”
Graham gives me a look like I can give them details and I shrug saying, “I just saw him at the wedding.”
“My wedding?”
Both Brandon and James look back and forth between Graham and me.
“What did I miss at the wedding?” James asks.
“Nothing, really,” Graham says. “I danced with him once and we talked for a while.”
“Oh my god, I’m going to lose my marbles over here if you don’t tell us the name of the guy you met at my wedding, or what we shall now refer to as the match-making event of the year.”
“Casey, his mom and Andi’s mom are friends from college, and they live in Marietta.” He picks at the label on his bottle which is half full now and takes a deep breath. “I don’t know where else to start, so here we go. His grandmother lives with them and needs round-the-clock care. Casey has been taking night shifts for years so his parents can keep working their regular jobs. Insurance covers day nurses, but the modifications for the house have been a lot so hiring someone isn’t really an option if his parents want to retire in the next decade, or four. But they make sure he always has weekends free.”
He takes a deep swig of his beer. “I’m telling you this because it’s not easy for us to see each other and we try to make the most of that time. Anyway, we’ve been together since shortly after the wedding and the other day we went to a movie and out for dinner. Everything was going great. Then Brad came in with his girlfriend and stopped at the table for a moment, being friendly. And I introduced Casey as my friend.”
Graham drops his face into his hand, making a sound of frustration.
“Damn,” Brandon says, patting Graham on the shoulder.
“I know, it was a stupid-ass thing to say,” he says. “The rest of the night he was withdrawn, and instead of coming back to my place, or even kissing me, he gave me a fist bump, got in his car, and went back to Marietta. I’ve called and messaged a dozen times and he finally responded yesterday with, ‘we’re good, buddy.’”
“Ouch,” James says, wincing. “I’m sorry, Graham. Even I can see he’s not taking it well and we all know how terrible I am with relationships.”
Over the years, I definitely noticed that James was usually single whenever my family visited, so I’m not surprised to hear his admission now.
“So, in short, with one very poorly-chosen word, I seem to have screwed everything up.” He runs his free hand through his surfer-length hair and sighs.
“Well, you just have to see him and talk.” Brandon makes it sound so simple. “When I screw up, I need to see Andi, preferably with daisies, and then I can get my thoughts in order and calm down to apologize. Otherwise, my thoughts spiral with all the ways she might hate me.”
Graham shakes his head. “I don’t think Casey would appreciate me showing up on his family’s doorstep, even if I had a bouquet of flowers for him.”
“He might just need some time. And you might need some time, too, so you can be clear with what you hope to have with him,” I say. “I don’t mean you need to declare your undying love for him and ask him to marry you or anything like that. But you might want to know what you want him to be to you. Do you want him to be someone you introduce as your boyfriend or partner?”
He nods. “It felt wrong to introduce him as just a friend. Neither of us are seeing other people and we’ve been really fucking happy.”
“So tell him that.” We all look at James. “It doesn’t have to be complicated. Apologize first, and then tell him that it felt wrong and you shouldn’t have said it.”
“I tried.”
I think about the space Poppy needed. That we both needed, really, just so we could wrap our heads around what we had experienced at the wedding through becoming coworkers. “Time might not be easy to give him, but maybe it’ll help both of you.”
“Yeah, you might be right.” Another frustrated sigh before he sits up and slaps a hand on his thigh. “Okay, time to talk about something else so I have a break from obsessing and kicking myself for being stupid.”
“Cards?” I offer.
Three enthusiastic yeses sound and we spend the rest of the evening playing poker and using pretzels to place our bets.