by Jodie Larson
He walks back through the house, turning off all the unnecessary lights before joining me on the couch.
“I know you’re here alone and it makes sense. Hell, I’d tell you to do the same thing. But I’m here now. I’ll protect you.” Brecken pulls me into his arms and I lay my head on his shoulder.
Sitting here in his arms feels more right than anything I’ve ever felt before. None of my other boyfriends, including Taylor, gave me this much security. Not that Brecken is my boyfriend. He’s…whatever he is, he makes me feel safe.
Once the food arrives, we settle back on the couch, flipping through the movies on Netflix.
“Any requests?”
Breck scratches his chin and opens all the containers. “Something funny. Any good ‘80s comedies on there?”
I scroll through the selections a couple more times before settling on a classic.
“I haven’t watched this movie in years,” I say, grabbing the container for the sesame chicken.
“The Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart blasts from the speakers as the opening credits to Trading Places scrolls across the screen. I can’t remember the last time I sat around and shoved Chinese food in my face while laughing and reciting a movie. Brecken’s a good sport and doesn’t tell me to shut up. In fact, he picks a part and acts out, including terrible voice impersonations.
When we get to the part where Jamie Lee Curtis stands naked in front of the mirror, Brecken lets out a slow whistle.
“Best rack in Hollywood.”
Scrunching up my nose, I swap my chicken for the lo mein. “Seriously? You know she’s almost sixty or something like that.”
“Well, yeah, now she is. But back in the late seventies and early eighties, she had it going on.” He shoves some fried rice in his mouth with his chopsticks and chuckles at my reaction. “Hey, back then they didn’t have censorship because everyone didn’t get all butt hurt and easily offended. So as a young male, of course we’d grab older movies because it was pretty much guaranteed that you’d see some boobs at one point.”
I will never understand the male brain.
After the movie ends, we decide to keep on the Eddie Murphy train and find Coming to America.
We ditch the takeout and snuggle up on the couch, tossing a blanket over our legs as we laugh the night away.
Kade’s paternity leave means a solid two weeks of no work for us. Nothing but free time and screwing around.
By day five, I’m climbing the walls with boredom. Not entirely true. I’m only bored during the day while Lizzie is at work. At night, I find ways of occupying my time—mainly inside Lizzie. With Myles and Tatum busy with their reception party planning, it’s easy to keep her wish for secrecy. It still leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
This weekend I have plans to take her out in public. Not technically a date because then it would put a label on something she’s not ready for. And I won’t do that to her. Not yet, anyway. There’s something between us. I felt it the first time my lips touched hers. It was like the last piece of the puzzle clicking into place. It’s even stronger now that we’re trying this out. I’m not sure how long I can go pretending I don’t want to wrap her in my arms and call her mine.
Pax and I continue our battle on the Xbox until my phone chimes with an incoming message.
Lizzie: You up for some company?
I look at the clock on the wall and realize we’ve basically pissed the day away doing nothing. A little conversation that doesn’t involve yelling at each other to duck behind a building to kill the enemy would be wonderful.
Me: I’m always up for your company.
Lizzie: Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m thinking about the PG kind. You’re off limits for a few days.
Ah. Good to know.
Me: So above the belt fun it is.
Lizzie: LOL! Anyway, I’m done with work and was thinking we should hang out.
Me: Definitely. Come over here when you’re ready.
Lizzie: That a good idea?
Me: If you’re nervous about it, I can invite Tatum and Myles over too. Make it a group thing.
Lizzie: Actually, that’s not a bad idea. Tatum’s mentioned that she needs a break from the wedding reception stuff.
Me: It’s a plan then. I’ll make the call.
“Do I need to bounce if she’s coming over?” Pax asks, pressing pause on the game.
I shake my head and take a drink from my water glass. “Nope. I’m actually calling Tay and Myles to come over too.”
“Huh, interesting. Finally gonna break the news that you’re banging his little sister?” He smirks and takes a swig from his water bottle.
“No, asshole. I wanted to make her more comfortable, so having us all get together is the solution.”
Pax stands and stretches his arms above his head. “Whatever you say.” He scratches his stomach before letting out a burp. “What exactly did you have in mind?”
“Garage time?”
A smile lights up his face. Geez, you’d think I just awarded him a Grammy. “Oh thank God. I’ve been dying to get back behind the drums. This time off shit is for the birds.”
I laugh and shut down the Xbox. “Tell me about it. We whine about having to do it day after day, but when we’re told not to play, it’s all we want to do. Is there something wrong with us?”
Pax slaps me on the shoulder. “Besides the obvious?”
“Exactly.”
We walk into the kitchen and take inventory of our fridge. “Mustard. Mayo. And two cans of beer.”
“Wait, I found some pickles over here.”
“I think those are just old cucumbers.”
Pax sniffs then crinkles his nose. “Yeah, you’re right. We need supplies.”
I nod. “Looks like it.”
Grabbing his keys, Pax turns at the door. “Any requests?”
“Just the usual: chips, beer, pizza.”
He nods. “Let’s order from Eduardo’s. That’s easier than frozen pizza.”
True. I give him a thumbs up and start dialing Myles’ number as the door shuts behind Pax.
“Get. Me. The. Fuck. Out. Of. Here.”
“No hello or hi, how are you?”
Myles groans into the phone. “My mother is driving me crazy. She needs an opinion on everything. What color the napkins will be, the flowers, any decorations, the venue…blah, blah, blah, blah fucking blah.” He sighs. “This is why we eloped. I didn’t want to deal with this shit the first time around.”
I can’t help but laugh at his discomfort. “Remember, this is for her. Not so much you. You’re just a pawn in her little game. Be a good chess piece and fall into place.”
“I hate chess.” There’s a brief pause before he muffles the phone to say something. “Please tell me you’re calling to get me out of here.”
“As a matter of fact,” I say. “I am. Since Kade is holing up at his place, I thought we could get together and hang out like old times in the garage.”
“This is why you’re my best friend,” he says. “What time?”
“Whenever you want.”
“Ma!” he yells over the phone. “Breck needs us. We gotta go.”
“Whoa,” I say, holding a hand up. “Don’t you dare drag me into this. I’m not getting in trouble with your mom.”
“Too late.” Asshole. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
Without another word, he hangs up.
I massage my temples, hoping it’ll ease the headache starting to form. I know I said this would be a good idea, but I have been known to be wrong from time to time.
The first person to walk through the door is Pax, trying to juggle a box filled with growlers from a local brewery and several grocery bags on top. I walk over and help him, making sure to save the beer first. You can still eat chips if they’re crumbs. The beer is irreplaceable.
Once we have things sorted out, Tay and Myles walk through the door. Whatever quiet we were enjoying is gone in an instant.
“Thank you for saving me. I owe you one.” Pax pours him a beer, then Tatum—who politely declines. He shrugs and hands the glass to me before pouring one for himself.
The hoppy goodness lands on my tongue and I hum in approval. Impressive. I love a good IPA and this is one of the best I’ve tried. I wonder if they do tours? If so, we need to make this a priority.
The four of us sit in the living room, listening to the hell that Myles and Tatum are going through with this wedding business. Well, Myles describes it as hell. Tatum only shakes her head and contradicts everything negative he has to say. The more he bitches, the more I see the excitement in his eyes. I think he’s really hiding the fact he’s enjoying the hell out of being center stage. And he knows it’ll please his mom.
“You know what the best part about the whole thing is?” We all look at him, wondering which direction he’s going to go. “We get a second wedding night sex session.”
And he doesn’t disappoint. Tay looks like she swallowed a bitter pill while Myles is acting like the king of the world. I’m so glad these two balance each other out.
Somewhere amid the laughter, Lizzie walks into the living room with a bag in her hand.
“Hey guys.” Her tiny voice almost squeaks as she scans the room.
Pax stands and takes the bag from her. “What’s up? Welcome to the party. Be happy you didn’t walk in a few minutes ago.”
“Why?” Confusion mars her face. She walks over to the couch and takes a seat next to me.
“You don’t want to know,” I say, laughing.
Lizzie looks to Tatum for confirmation. “Just leave it alone.”
A lightbulb goes off in Lizzie’s head and she scrunches her nose in understanding. “Ah. Gotcha.”
Pax returns from the kitchen, handing Lizzie a beer. “What’s up with the chick food?”
After taking a healthy gulp, Lizzie looks at Pax. “Chick food?”
“Yeah,” he says, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. “All the veggies and fruit you brought.”
She laughs, giving me my first real test of self-control, knowing I can’t pull her into my side like I want to right now. Not with so many witnesses.
“That’s not chick food. Besides, you guys have nothing healthy here.”
“How do you know?” Myles asks, eyeing her suspiciously.
She doesn’t miss a beat and waves a hand around the room. “Because they live like college frat boys. So I assumed they had nothing of nutritional value in the house.”
“That’s not true,” I say. “We just found some cucumbers in the fridge this morning.”
Pax starts laughing. “Except we thought they were pickles. Not sure how long they’d been there.”
“Were maggots wandering around? Or was it turning into some failed seventh-grade science experiment?”
Tay turns a light shade of green. “That’s disgusting.” Covering her mouth, she runs to the bathroom and slams the door.
We look to Myles, who only shrugs. “She has a touch of the flu going around.”
Pax and I look to each other. “Are you sure she doesn’t have something else? Like a bout of pregnancy?”
Myles frowns and finishes his beer. “That’s a touchy subject right now. It’d be best to not bring it up.” He stands and heads to the kitchen, effectively ending the conversation.
As soon as he’s around the corner, Lizzie leans forward. “They’ve been having issues getting pregnant. Tatum is really stressed about it, so if you can withhold from mentioning it, that’d be great.”
Damn. I didn’t know they were even trying. Myles has been putting on a show, saying how much he doesn’t want to have kids, loudly proclaiming it whenever he can. I should have seen through it. He acts that way when he’s dealing with stress. It’s his diversionary tactic. Pax and I both nod and promise to not breathe a word about it again.
Walking out of the bathroom, Tatum has more color in her cheeks than when she left.
“Feel better?” I ask.
She looks between the three of us and sighs when she lands on Lizzie’s guilty face. “I’m fine.”
I want to say more, but I know the words won’t be welcome right now. Instead, I stand and clap my hands. “Let’s move this party to the garage. We need to unwind a little. It’s getting way too serious in here.”
“Agreed,” says Tatum. She stops in the kitchen to get a glass of water while the rest of us file into the familiar room we spent most of our adolescence in.
We immediately start taking our places like no time has passed at all. Pax’s mom was more than thrilled when we took his old drum set out of her house. She was on the verge of selling it, which would have put Pax over the edge. He saved up all his money over two summer’s worth of mowing lawns to buy it when we were kids.
My mom didn’t care when I took my bass guitar from my old room. Technically it’s her new sewing room, but whatever. She was careful enough to put it in the closet, knowing how much I loved that instrument. I think we all had lawn mowing jobs those first few summers as pre-teens to save up for decent equipment.
Myles walks out to the car and comes back with two guitar cases in hand. Since Kade isn’t here, Tatum will take his place.
“Can you play Kade’s parts?” I look to Tatum for confirmation.
“Only for the songs I know. Unlike some people, I actually have to practice before I can play. Not all of us can be guitar gods.” She eyes her husband, who pulls her into his arms and places a kiss on her head.
“You don’t have to keep calling me a god.” He smirks. “Well, outside of bed that is.”
Lizzie covers her ears. “Stop talking about having sex in front of me. That’s disgusting.”
We take a few minutes to tune our instruments and plug in the amps and mics while Lizzie sets up on the couch by the wall. I use this opportunity to admire her long short-clad legs as they curl underneath her ass. An ass I know that’s heart-shaped and oh so grab-able. But that red plaid shirt has me thinking dirty thoughts. It’s tied in the front, showing a sliver of skin at her waist. As my gaze travels north, I notice the top two buttons are undone, showing a hint of her ample cleavage. Tastefully on display, not lewd or in-your-face obvious.
Pax clears his throat behind me. I shake off my inappropriate thoughts as I turn to see him shake his head and swing his eyes toward Myles, who’s still messing with his guitar. He’s oblivious, thank God. Tatum, however, is not. She eyes me suspiciously, looking between me and Lizzie.
Shit.
Once Myles picks his head up, everything goes back to normal. Tatum’s curious stare goes away and I go back to ignoring the beauty perched on the couch.
“What should we play?”
Pax leans against the drums. “Something old. If we’re back here, I want to relive the past. Nothing new or dealing with the album. Let’s just go back to doing covers.”
An idea hits me and I start strumming the strings with the obvious choice of song. Pax joins in while Myles bobs his head and grabs the microphone stand, leaning into it like he was Billie Joe Armstrong himself.
Green Day was always our jam, but “Longview” always held a special place in my heart. Most songs don’t feature the bass guitar. It’s always one of those instruments that takes a back seat. But this song thrusts it to the forefront. Kade and Myles always got their guitar solos. I had so very few of them, so we compromised and added this song and a few more to our set so I could take the spotlight for a change.
Tatum joins in with backup vocals, not playing her guitar. I’m sure she never practiced this song before. It wasn’t high on Myles’ list of songs to teach her. Lizzie bounces on the couch, mouthing the words along with us. Man, I wish I could hear her sing. And I mean really sing. Not the stuff she does when she thinks no one is looking. She has a beautiful voice and I wish she’d share it with the world.
We finish the song and high five each other.
“Damn, that was better than I remember it. Maybe Kade’s the on
e who’s been bringing us down,” Myles jokes.
“Doubtful. You’re just better musicians now,” Tatum says.
We take turns playing songs we want, each highlighting our talents. When it’s my turn again, I smirk and start playing “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes.
“Yes,” Myles says, really getting into the song. This time, I actually get to sing. It’s one of the few songs I claim solely as my own.
Lizzie doesn’t take her eyes off me the entire time we play. It’s almost like I can feel her right next to me, caressing my skin as she skims her eyes over my arms and chest.
Hours fly by, taking little breaks to eat the pizza when it arrives and grab more beer. Tatum yawns loudly as she checks her watch.
“Damn, it’s one o’clock. We should probably get going. Your mom has a busy day scheduled for us.” She grabs Myles by the hand and leads him reluctantly out the door.
“Let’s do this again. We need more fun days,” he says, waving goodbye.
After they pull out of the driveway, the three of us start cleaning up the mess we left around the kitchen.
“Lizzie, you don’t have to help. Go home and get some rest. You have work in the morning.” She looks exhausted. Dark circles shadow her eyes as she struggles to keep them open.
“Yeah, okay. Thanks, guys, for having me over.” She grabs her purse and pauses at the door, turning to face me. She doesn’t say a word but doesn’t have to. I know what she’s asking.
Patting Pax on the shoulder, I start to walk toward her. “I’m gonna walk her home.”
He rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “Whatever. Have fun, you two.”
I grab Lizzie’s hand and lead her out the door and down the street to her house.
“Does Pax know?” she asks, fear making her voice shake slightly.
I chew on my bottom lip. How’s she going to take this? “He sort of has to. Me disappearing overnight isn’t exactly something I can play off, considering he knows where I am.”
Lizzie stops walking and blows out a breath. “And I’m sure you need someone to talk to who isn’t Myles.”
