I felt the tremble in her body as she held me and I squeezed her tighter, registering that Seth was introducing Tori to his fiancée while I embraced Will’s mom.
Deb patted her under eyes as she pulled away and gave me a watery smile. “Oh, it’s so good to see you, Liam.” She placed her hands on either side of my face and stared into my eyes. “Missed you.”
I squeezed her wrists. “Missed you too, Deb.”
Deb turned and cocked her head toward the back of the house. “Bob is messing with the grill, trying to get Chad to help him figure it out.”
“Chad?” I asked with a laugh. “Good luck with that. I’ll go on back and help.”
Tori returned to my side and I introduced her to Deb.
“Oh, aren’t you pretty,” Deb said, giving her a hug. As she pulled away, she cupped Tori’s elbows to stare into her face. “Very pretty. Isn’t she, Liam?”
“She is,” I said. Tori flicked her gaze to me and then back to Deb.
“This is a beautiful house,” she said. “Thank you for having me.”
Deb made a tsk sound. “Oh, I’m glad you came. The house has been too quiet this week.”
Seth wrapped his arm around Deb’s shoulders. “Don’t worry. Between me and Vince, you’ll be searching up and down for earplugs soon enough.” He winked at her and we followed them into the house.
“Hey, Liam,” Nicole, Seth’s fiancée, said, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Good to see you. Wish it was under better circumstances,” she added in a quieter tone.
“You too. And me too.”
The house had an open floor plan with a large great room that had a three-story view of the mountains at the back of the property. And through those windows, I could see Chad fiddling on his phone as he looked at the grill, confusion written in the wrinkles between his eyebrows. Bob stood beside him, scratching his balding head and looking even more confused.
“Hey, Liam.” Chad’s wife, Naomi, stood from the couch and came over, wrapping me in a half hug.
“Hey yourself,” I said, hugging her back.
“Oh, hi,” she said to Tori.
“I’m Tori.” She went to shake Naomi’s hand, but Naomi held open her arms.
“I’m Naomi, and I’m a hugger.”
“It’s a chronic condition,” Seth told Tori out of the side of his mouth.
Naomi rolled her eyes. “Ignore him,” she said to Tori. “He’s just bitter because he lost his Nerts winning streak to me.”
“I’m not bitter,” Seth said, his mouth in a flat line.
“You’re bitter. Trust me, I can tell. When I beat him at Monopoly, he didn’t talk to me for the rest of the day,” Nicole said, nudging him and causing us to laugh.
Tori grinned back at Naomi. “You play Nerts too?” she asked. “I grew up playing it, but no one else ever knows what it is.”
“Are you good at it?” Seth asked.
“Pretty good.”
“Well, then,” Seth said, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at Tori with challenge in his eyes. “Tori is not invited to play the next round of Nerts.”
Nicole laughed and shoved him. “Why don’t you go help Bob and Chad with the grill and leave us alone to chat?”
“Uh, there’s a reason I’m in here and not out there,” Seth said looking pointedly out the window. “You know I’m not good at that stuff.”
“I got it,” I said, taking the beer Deb handed me. “Thanks, Deb.”
“What do you want, Tori?”
“Oh, water probably. Need to keep my wits about me if I’m to engage in a Nerts battle later on.” She winked at Seth and earned a high five from Nicole.
Seth shook his head and said, “I mean, I’m pretty sure I said you’re not invited.” I knew Seth’s humor was on the dry, sarcastic side and not always immediately obvious to outsiders. But Tori took it in stride.
“I know,” Tori said, and a smile curled her mouth. “I heard you.”
Nicole whooped and Naomi laughed. “Finally, someone who isn’t afraid to challenge Mr. Competitive over here,” Nicole said, bumping her shoulder into her fiancé. “Just be warned, he’s a baby when he loses.”
“‘When’?” Seth asked. “That implies I lose a lot.”
“You’re right; it does.” Nicole raised her eyebrows and took a drink of Seth’s beer.
“I don’t know how much more my pride can take,” Seth said, turning to me. “Come on, let’s figure this grill out before Chad blows up the house on accident.”
“Oh, he’s not that accident-prone,” Naomi said, flapping her hand.
“Really?” Seth asked. “Remember when he insisted he knew how to drive a dirt bike. He climbed on Will’s two-fifty and flew right into the ditch with it?”
Naomi laughed.
“To be fair,” I interjected and pointed the neck of my beer in Naomi’s direction, “I’m pretty sure he was trying to impress a certain someone.”
“Oh, are you and Chad childhood sweethearts?” Tori asked, giving an appreciative smile to Deb when she handed her a glass of ice water.
“Sort of.”
“What she means,” Seth said, “is that she hung around us boys a lot growing up until one of us liked her enough to want to keep her around.”
Naomi playfully swatted Seth. “I’m Will’s cousin,” she explained. “So, I was around a lot growing up.”
“Yeah, and her stalking finally wore Chad down long enough for him to marry and impregnate her.”
“Oh, you’re terrible,” Naomi said with a laugh. She put her hands on his back and pushed him toward the back door. “Go, please, let’s not blow up the house today.”
I hesitated following Seth out the door and looked to Tori.
“Are you worried about leaving her with us?” Naomi asked. She, Nicole, and Deb had already formed a wall around her as if they were protecting her.
“I’m sure she can hold her own,” Nicole added.
Looking directly at Tori, I said, “I know she can.” Which earned me one of her wide smiles.
Outside, Chad was saying, “I don’t get it. It should be turning on.”
“Oh, hey,” Bob said when I clapped him on the back. He gave me a big bear hug.
“What’s the issue?” I squatted to inspect the tank and tapped on it. “This is new?”
“Bought it today.”
I whistled. “Oh, this is new-new. Nice set up,” I said, turning the knobs to light it. When it didn’t ignite, I put my ear close to it and listened for a clicking noise. “It’s not clicking,” I said more to myself. I pulled off the igniter button and Chad made a sound like he was surprised.
“That comes off?”
I showed him the AA battery inside the igniter module. “Yeah, and this battery still has the protective plastic around it. Which is why it wouldn’t ignite.” I unwrapped the plastic and replaced the batter and knob. After pressing it again, the grill ignited immediately.
Seth laughed. “How many idiots does it take to turn a grill on?”
“Four, it seems,” Chad said sourly and drained his beer. “Sorry, Bob.”
“Oh, don’t sweat it,” Bob said, flapping his hand dismissively. “Just glad we got it figured out, because I didn’t have a plan B and no pizza place delivers out this far.”
“The place looks good,” I said to Bob, bracing my hand on the recently stained decking.
“Took a few weekends.” Bob picked up his beer and joined me at the railing. “This cedar ate up a shit ton of stain. We went through gallons and gallons. But it was worth it.”
“I’d say so.”
“Speaking of looking good,” Seth said, causing me to turn around and look at him. “Tori.”
“Tori?” Chad asked, squinting into the sun to look at us from his place on the Adirondack chair.
“Who’s Tori?” Bob asked.
Seth tilted his head toward the great room, where Tori, Nicole, Naomi and Deb had all settled on the sectional in front of the wind
ows that looked outside. “Liam brought that pretty blonde over here, Bob. Hasn’t told us a thing about her. He’s been holding out on us.”
“Tori’s here?” Vince asked, coming up from the side of the yard. He stopped and stared at the windows. “Whoa. You know, drunk goggles are supposed to make people look better than they actually look. She looked hot last night. But she looks better sober.”
“You met her?” Chad and Seth asked simultaneously.
“Who’s Tori?” Bob repeated.
I took a long pull from my beer, trying to think of how to explain the situation. “Well…”
Seth stood and pointed at my hand; his eyes wide. “What’s that?”
“What?” Bob asked.
“Is that a fucking wedding ring?” Vince asked.
“Uh, funny story,” I said. But was it? I hadn’t been worried about how to explain Tori to them until this moment. How did I tell them that, while mourning my best friend, I thought it was a good idea to have a cliché Vegas wedding with a stranger? I didn’t think there was any particular protocol for a situation like mine.
“She was all over him at the bar last night,” Vince said, setting his beer down beside a few others that rattled. “She helped get me to bed, didn’t she?”
How much had Vince remembered? I’d banked on him being mostly blackout drunk, but his memory was more powerful than I’d anticipated.
“But wait, are you married?” Seth asked.
“No,” I finally said. “Not married.”
Seth pointed at my hand again. “Then what’s up with the ring?”
“So, here’s the funny story part,” I said. “We thought it’d be funny to get married last night. Not the legal part—just the ceremony. It was spontaneous. And like I said, not legal, so not real.”
That sent them all into a few seconds of silence. The only sound came from the cicada out in the shrub along the edge of the property.
“Were you drunk?” Chad asked and pushed his glasses up on his nose.
“No.”
“Huh.” Seth finished his beer and stared down at the bottle.
“So, she’s your girlfriend?” Bob asked.
“No,” I said, realizing how ill-prepared I was for this conversation.
“She’s single?” Vince asked, and I knew exactly what he meant by that.
“Right now, technically, yes. But considering we’re both wearing wedding bands, I’d appreciate if you didn’t poach.”
“It’s only poaching if she’s yours,” Vince said, igniting the tension that always simmered between us.
I wasn’t in the mood to deal with him. And also, he was right, and that pissed me off. I didn’t own Tori. She didn’t belong to me. But I’d brought her around the people who meant the most to me. The people who were the only family I had left in the world. During the worst time of our lives. That meant something.
“I thought we were grilling steak, not Liam,” Chad said, and I gave him a grateful smile.
I just wondered how Tori was handling the barrage of questions she was undoubtedly dealing with.
15
When Liam and the others had returned, I’d been talked into two glasses of very good wine and had been told stories about the guys growing up that might embarrass them if they knew.
Surprisingly, not once had Nicole and Naomi asked about Liam and me. I expected to be interrogated, but they’d taken it easy on me. I supposed, given the reason we were gathering, it shouldn’t be all that shocking that the status of Liam’s mystery date had taken the back seat.
I liked Will’s family and friends. Really liked them. I found Bob’s cluelessness charming and the way all the guys jumped to help him with the grill and slicing the meat endearing. The boys had playfully bickered in the kitchen over the right way to slice steak. I loved Deb’s protectiveness; the way she looked at Naomi and Nicole was how a mother might look at her own daughters.
Despite the joking and the teasing, there was an undercurrent of sadness that rippled through everyone. During dinner, a toast by Seth about Will had left everyone somber and quiet. Despite not knowing Will myself, there was nothing uncomfortable about being surrounded by a group of grieving loved ones. These people had a way of being welcoming even as they were mourning the loss of someone who was so deeply loved.
I got the distinct impression that dinners like these were common among this group—in brief moments it felt as if spending time like this together was as natural as a typical family dinner. But then someone would say something that blanketed quiet over everyone. A story about Will, about Will and the boys. Usually those stories began with humor and ended with a moment of quiet contemplation.
Later, after successfully beating everyone—including Seth—at Nerts, I escaped to the bathroom. I was amazed how comfortable I felt with everyone, as if there had always been a place for someone else to join their tight group. No one made me feel like an outsider.
On my way back from the bathroom, I paused in the hallway to take in the gallery wall full of dozens of framed photos. I recognized Will from photos I’d seen elsewhere in the house, but there were a lot of photos of the five boys together on their seemingly many adventures.
“There you are,” Deb said, joining me in the hallway. She slid the dimmer switch up to brighten the space.
“They’re all wearing the same shirt,” I said, tapping on a collage frame with five four-by-six photos of younger versions of each of them, with the same school portrait backgrounds.
Deb laughed and stood beside me. “That was one of their favorite pranks. They shared that plaid shirt between them and when the photos went home, they gave each mom a photo of them wearing the same shirt.”
I moved to another photo of the five of them in a forest, all of them posing like Charlie’s Angels. “They’re all in their underwear.”
“Ah, yes. Right after they graduated high school, they went camping up in Utah for a weekend. They left their stuff in their tent and went for a hike. When they came back later that day, someone had rifled through their belongings and taken all of their duffel bags. So, they only had the clothes on their back, and of course it was too hot to wear the pants they’d worn hiking, so they posed for this pic and I had it framed to embarrass them.” Deb laughed and touched the frame softly. “But it doesn’t embarrass them at all—they have the best stories from that trip.”
We moved further down the hallway to a series of photos with different settings but all with one thing is common. Leaning closer to inspect the photo better, I asked, “Is that Keanu Reeves?”
Deb let loose another laugh. “Oh, yes. Well, no. They thought it was a great idea when they were in high school to buy a life-size cutout of him and include him in all of their adventures.” She pointed to a frame with the five boys on a boat. “They went deep sea fishing and brought Keanu along. Duct-taped a soda to his hand and everything. And here.” She stopped at another collage frame. “They went on a road trip to the lower fifty states and got all of these photos of Keanu with them at all the border signs.”
I laughed, realizing how much better this prank was than the Keanu prank I made on my mom. “Do they still have him? I bet I could make use of him.”
“Oh, I’m not sure where poor Keanu the cutout ended up. He was a little waterlogged and bent to hell from being handled so roughly. I’d be surprised if any of them still have it.” She paused. “Why? What would you do with a life-size paper version of Keanu?”
“My mom loves him. Like, rewatches a Keanu movie every weekend—that kind of love. Before I left for Vegas, I replaced all the photos of my brother with Keanu Reeves’s face, cut out of magazines or online.”
Deb laughed at that. “Oh, that is wonderful. Your mom has good taste.” Her shining eyes looked upon me. “I hope you don’t mind, because I know it’s none of my business. But you’re wearing a wedding ring. And I noticed Liam is, too.”
I looked down at my hand, seeing that she was right. Despite not being accustomed to wearin
g a ring on my third finger, the ring was so comfortable that I hadn’t noticed it was still there. With my thumb on its underside, I twirled it. “It’s kind of a long, weird story…”
“I’ve practically raised those feral humans in there,” Deb said, pointing her thumb at the back of the house where cheers and shouts over a board game could be heard. “I’m not afraid of weird.”
I gave her a smile. “Clearly.” I tugged at the hem of my t-shirt. “I’m in town for a bachelorette party with my friends—one of them is getting married soon—and we spent pretty much the whole weekend playing truth or dare.”
“Ah, well that sounds about right for a bachelorette party.”
“Right. And, well, I always, always choose dares. So, all weekend long, they dared me to do a multitude of things. Like tell a stranger I love them.” I pointed back toward where the rest of the group fought over whose turn it was next.
“Liam was that stranger?”
Nodding, I continued. “And the rest of the dares were pretty harmless, but last night—our last night—they dared me to marry a stranger.”
Deb pressed a hand to her chest. “Oh, my.”
“Yeah.” I grimaced. “I said no. Besides the obvious legal objections, I knew there was no way I’d be able to find someone crazy enough to agree to get married.” I paused. “So, they amended the dare to be to kiss a stranger. Since Liam happened by the bar, I chose him. And, long story short, he got wind of the original dare and we kind of had a ‘why not’ moment. Why not have a fake wedding? A marriage without the actual license. For fun.”
“Oh.” Deb breathed a relieved sigh. “Well, I hope you got photos.” She gestured toward the gallery. “I’d love to add one to my wall.”
“Oh.” I had pulled my phone out to show her the photo Katy had posted—the one I’d surreptitiously saved before removing the tag. But the idea of it living on the wall, among all these other photos, didn’t feel right. This wall was a place of honor. And I didn’t think evidence of my little dare deserved any real estate on it. “Well, it was just a joke. We don’t really know each other.” I didn’t know what else to say.
One Little Dare Page 12
