I grab another slab of ribs and drop them on my plate. “We’re really lucky. After the other places we’ve seen, I was expecting a dump, but it’s nicer than a lot of the five-star resorts we’ve been to. They’re sinking a fortune into this place. Arnold Palmer’s even coming out this week to redesign the course.”
Ari snickers. “I called him this morning and told him the course needs lots of sloping greens surrounded by sand traps.”
I’m horrible out on the sand. It’s the weakest part of my game and one of the strongest parts of hers. Of course Ari would try to get them to put in as many traps as possible. “If you need to have the course catered to your strengths, that tells me you don’t think you can beat me on your own.”
She pops a cherry tomato into her mouth. “Beat you? Oh, I’m going to do more than beat you. I fully intend to slaughter you in the Bride versus Groom golf challenge before the rehearsal dinner. The business guys at Ralph Lauren prefer to meet on the course rather than in the board room. I’ve been playing a ton of golf lately, and my game’s as solid as it’s ever been. In fact¸ I won that Pro-Am I was in last week. Come April, you’re going to be sore and battered from the season. I’m going to decimate you.” She smiles deviously.
Charlie snorts. “You two have the most bizarre foreplay.”
“Whoa!” Mom and Pop cover their ears.
“La-la-la-la-la-la. I didn’t hear that!” Pop says.
“Changing the subject, are they sure it will be done in time?” Spencer asks. “It sounds like they still have a lot to do.”
“They just signed a contract saying they will,” Ari replies. “But to err on the side of caution, we’re waiting a few months to send the save the dates. Chase and I will go back down there during his bye week and see how things are coming. If all looks good, we’ll send everything out.”
With an audible hiss, Charlie winces. “You’re cutting it kind of close, aren’t you? What are you going to do if they’re not done?”
“They’d better be done,” I growl. “I’m not delaying.”
Ari has her heart set on this place, and after seeing it in person, I agree it’s perfect. But they have lofty plans and a small window of time to get it all done. My biggest fear is they’ll fall short and we’ll need to start the plans all over again.
Ari puts her hand on my thigh. “Ned and Holly assured me everything will be done at the end of February, which will give them over a month to work out the kinks. It’s going to be perfect.”
Charlie takes a sip of her wine. “I’d start thinking back-up plans, just to be on the safe side.”
“I still vote for a wedding on the ranch in Texas.” Mom reaches for Pop’s hand. “Ours was cheap and perfect. Ribs, and cowboy boots, and wild flowers. You know, a fancy wedding—”
“Doesn’t guarantee a happy life,” Charlie and I mutter in unison. We may have heard that a few million times.
Mom blows a raspberry at us. “Go ahead, mock me. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s true.”
“If you get desperate, you could always do it at the Bahamas house,” Charlie says.
“We looked into that,” I reply. “It’s spring break. We couldn’t get a block of rooms anywhere. We even tried to spread it out over a few resorts and couldn’t make it work. We would have to rent a cruise ship, and you don’t even want to know how much that would cost.”
“I hate being there during spring break anyway,” Ari replies. “It’s too crowded. It’ll be so much harder to maintain privacy.” She glances at me. “That’s why Vespers is perfect.”
“At the end of the day,” Mom says, “the location won’t matter. The details won’t matter. You two will be married. That’s all that’s important.”
I take Ari’s hand and kiss it. “She’s right. I really don’t give a shit about any of this stuff. All I care about is you.”
She leans her head on my shoulder. “You’ve got me, so there’s nothing to worry about. Our wedding is going to be perfect because it’s us.”
Charlie gags. “There’s so much sap in this room you’d think we were in Vermont. Enough with the sticky sweet love fest before I go into sugar shock.” She rubs her stomach. “Speaking of sugar, I need pie. Who’s ready for dessert?”
******
After everyone has stuffed themselves to the brim with pie, Ari and I clean up the dishes. When we finish, we find Charlie and Spencer passed out on the couch in the living room.
“Who knew one tiny person could be so much work?” Ari replies.
Calder squeals in the port-a-crib. Wanting to let my sister sleep, I pull him out.
“Oh man, who knew one tiny person could pee so much?” I hold him against my shoulder with one arm and spread a blanket on the floor with another. “Let’s get you changed, little guy.”
“You’re going to change him?” Ari asks.
I carefully lay Calder on the blanket. “Why not? How hard can it be? I’m going to need the practice.” I point at the diapers and wipes. “Could you grab me those?”
She hands me a diaper. “You do?”
“Damn straight.” I unsnap the million snaps holding his suit together. “When we have kids, I’m doing all this stuff. Diapers, midnight feedings, the whole bit. Don’t think you’re going to have all the fun. I’m going to be a hands-on dad. I don’t want to miss a thing.” Calder coos as I pull the pee-soaked outfit off him. “Unlike most guys, I’m not intimidated by babies.”
I unfasten his diaper, then pull it out from under him. After cleaning him off with a few wipes, I hold up the fresh diaper and try to figure out which way it’s supposed to go.
“Any tips, little guy? You’ve done this more than I have.” I look down at Calder.
His mouth opens into a huge smile just as he pees all over me.
“Nice, dude. Real nice. Apparently there’s no Bro-Code between uncle and nephew. I’m going to remember this.”
Laughing, Ari taps my shoulder. “Why don’t you go shower? I’ll change him.”
“Oh no, I’m finishing this.” I pick up the diaper again and slide it under Calder. I grab a ton of wipes and clean him off. Once he seems pee-free, I attach the fasteners.
“It’s on backward. The Elmo goes in the front.”
“There’s an Elmo?” I look down at him. “You couldn’t have told me, huh? One day, you’re going to come to me and say, ‘Uncle Chase, why do you only give me ugly sweaters for Christmas? What did I ever do to you?’ and I’m going to say, ‘You peed on me!’” Determined to figure this out, I turn the diaper around.
Ari hands me a clean outfit for him. “If you thought the diaper was hard, wait till you try the onesie.”
“This I’ve got to see,” Charlie says, wiping drool from the side of her mouth.
“Go back to sleep. I’ve got this.”
Or at least I’m going to give the appearance I do. Calder squirms around so much it’s hard to get him into the damn thing. One arm goes in, then the leg pops out. I want to just pin him down, but he’s so tiny! I’m afraid I’m going to break him!
Eventually, I get the arms and the legs in at the same time and I start snapping the snaps. Of course by the time I get to the top, I realize I missed one and have to start all over. These things must have been designed by women to make men look like complete dipshits.
Finally, I get it! I throw my arms up.
“Victory over the onesie, huh?” Spencer mutters, half asleep. “I’ve been there. It’s a proud moment. Savor it.”
I pick Calder up and give him kisses on his cheeks, then hand him to my sister. “I don’t know what the big deal is. The diaper changing thing is a piece of cake.”
Charlie cradles Calder. “Says the man covered in pee. Go shower. You’re stinking up the joint.”
I take a quick shower, then find an old T-shirt and workout shorts in my old room. As I jog downstairs, I hear roaring laughter coming from the living room.
“Oh my God, Charlie, look at your hair. I said it then
and I’ll say it again—you are not a redhead.”
“I know, right?” Spencer replies. “Thank God that phase didn’t last long.”
Charlie pushes him off the sofa as I walk into the room. “You told me you liked it.”
“Babe, I was sixteen and you were my girlfriend. What was I supposed to say? If I said I didn’t, you might not have let me—”
“What are you guys watching?” I ask, cutting Spencer off before he says something I don’t want to hear.
“NFL Films asked Mom and Pop for some old footage of you in high school, so I’m helping them out by going through a stack of tapes. And this was mixed in with your games from sophomore year. It’s Ari’s last day at school before she went pro.”
I look at the screen and see Ari and me at podiums at the front of the class, screaming at each other about immigration reform.
Ari drops a bowl of popcorn on the table. “I don’t remember this at all.”
“I do. I was trying to take a calculus test in Sister Betty’s class, and all I could hear was Chase shouting about the unconstitutionality of national ID cards. I ended up getting a C on that test, thank you very much.” Spencer tosses some popcorn in his mouth, then quickly spits it into a napkin. “Ari, you’ve got to warn us when you put that vegan butter crap on there. Yuck.”
She throws a handful of popcorn at him. “It’s good for you. Lots of Omega-3 fatty acids.”
Spencer stands. “I’m going to get some carnivore popcorn. With butter that actually has butter in it. From cows. With cream and fat and melty goodness.”
As he leaves the room, the scene shifts from school to the backyard. The yard is full of kids. The whole school must have been there. A banner spread across the pool house says, “Good luck, Arianna. Nothing but Aces.” My memory is hazy, but I think that was the tennis team’s motto.
“Urg. Who has the remote?” Ari asks as the camera pans to the pool.
I’m floating on a lounger surrounded by girls in bikinis. Jessica Hartley leans on the lounger, twirling a strand of her black hair. Rachel Swanson leans on the other arm of the lounger. From the looks of it, they’re having a competition to see who can push their breasts out the farthest. Monica Mousseau jumps into the pool, and her top floats to the surface without her. Barely covering herself, she pops back up and pretends to be embarrassed, as though things didn’t go exactly as she planned.
I’m not going to lie—high school was fucking awesome.
Charlie flicks my ear. “You were such an ass. They used to fight over you, and you’d just sit there and watch. Girl after girl would parade in front of you, thinking she was going to be the girl of your dreams. Little did they know you had female ADD. By the time you buckled up for the ride home, you’d already forgotten about them.”
“You can jump off your high horse, sweetness,” Spencer says as he comes back into the room with a new bowl of popcorn. “The war of the skanks was your constant entertainment for four years. Without them, you would have been bored out of your skull after Ari left.”
I point at Charlie. “See? I did you a service. You can put your judgy face away now.”
“Don’t try to justify it,” Ari says with an edge to her voice. “You were a pig.”
“I was a horny fifteen-year-old guy. Girls were throwing themselves at me at every turn. My brain no longer worked. My dick was doing all the thinking. I don’t know a guy alive who would have handled it any differently.”
She stares at me with revulsion.
“It was the past. I was a kid. You’ve got to cut me some slack!” I throw a pillow at Charlie. “Thanks for getting me in trouble.”
The video continues on. Mom brings out a cake, and the camera pans around as people send their well wishes and good-byes to Ari. She and I are seated across from each other, and every time the camera passes us, we’re screaming at each other about something or other.
The scene shifts again. It’s now nightfall, and we’re all sitting around a fire in the fire pit. Heather McShea, the head cheerleader, is in my lap. She’s playing with my hair, giggling about something. Ari walks toward the paths behind our houses, holding Kyle Banks’s hand.
“Oh, Kyle Banks,” Ari says. “I totally forgot about him. We had such a good time at the party, or at least I thought we did. But then he never called me.” She drops a handful of popcorn into her mouth.
Charlie backhands Spencer in the chest. “Oh my God, did you see that?”
“See what? Ari walk by with that tool? Yeah, I saw it,” I sneer. “We don’t need to dwell on it.”
Ignoring me, Spencer rewinds the tape. “Oh, I saw it.” He hits Play. “Let’s watch it again in slow-mo.”
“Do we have to?” I mutter.
Ari walks by with Kyle, then my head snaps around and I glare at them as they walk away.
“If looks could kill, Kyle would be blown to bits. Did you have a thing for her back then?” Charlie asks.
I could easily tell the truth, so I have no idea why I don’t. “Of course not. I must have been looking at something else. I bet someone was doing something stupid in the pool or something.”
“Bullshit,” Spencer coughs. “You threatened the life of any guy who even looked in her direction. If I remember correctly, we had basketball pictures a few days after this, and Kyle sat out because he had two black eyes and a broken nose.”
“What?” Charlie covers her mouth. “Oh my God, I remember that. He came into the girls’ locker room, begging me for concealer so Coach would let him be in the picture.” She turns toward me. “He was really busted up.” I can’t tell from her tone if she’s disappointed, shocked, or impressed. Maybe it’s a little of all three.
I glare at Spencer. “Now I know where your son has picked up his complete disregard for the Bro-Code.”
Spencer takes a sip of his beer. “Dude, it was a decade ago and you’re marrying her. I think you can drop the act.”
Ari looks at me with raised eyebrows, expecting an explanation.
I drop my head. I really don’t want to discuss this right now. Especially in front of my sister and Spencer. It’s not that I care if they know, but there’re some moments I’d rather have in private.
“Chase?” Charlie asks.
I guess this won’t be one of them.
“Yes, I kicked the ass of any guy who was into you, who talked to you, who even looked in your direction. In fact, you were pretty much the reason for every fight I ever got into.”
Ari sits up straight. “So let me see if I understand this. You screwed everything with a vagina, and I wasn’t allowed to even talk to anyone?” Glaring at me, she crosses her arms. “Did you have feelings for me then?”
“At the time, I would have said no. Adamantly. Emphatically. Categorically. No way in hell. Now?” I run my fingers through my hair. “I don’t know. Maybe I did and I just didn’t want to admit it. It’s hard to say. At the time, I thought hated you, but I definitely didn’t want anyone else to have you. No one was good enough for you. I didn’t want any of those fuckwads putting their hands on you. None of them would have treated you as you deserved to be treated. They weren’t worthy of you.”
Charlie hits Pause on the TV. “I think this says it all right here.”
The image on the screen is Ari sitting next to the fire, smiling, and me watching her out of the corner of my eye. The look on my face gives it all away. It’s the same way I’m looking at her right now.
Ari crawls onto my lap. “Just when I think it’s impossible for me to love you any more…” She runs her fingers through the hair on the back of my head, then kisses me.
“Get a room,” Spencer jeers after a few minutes.
I flip him off as I continue to kiss Ari. We make out like teenagers, making up for all those years I was too stupid to see what was right in front of me.
Chapter Seven
Chase
“I’m not sure this is the kind of place you can bring a baby into.”
Charlie glow
ers at Bryan. “He’s two months old. He’s going to sleep through the whole thing. Aliens could come down and invade Earth with ear-piercing sirens announcing their arrival, and he’d sleep through it.” She glances over her shoulder at the chain of limos behind us. “Plus, I think the thirty football players are going to be louder than Calder at his worst moments.”
I’ve had my fill of obnoxious wedding vendors. I’ve tried to stay hands-on with the wedding planning, but I totally get why people just hand it over to the wedding planner. Half the vendors act as though they’re doing us some big favor by letting us pay for their services, and the other half I’m confident are sneaking pictures with their cell phones and selling them to the highest bidder the second we leave. I’m sick of this bullshit, and I’m not putting up with it.
I cross my arms. “If they don’t let my nephew in, we don’t eat here and they don’t cook for my wedding.” I glance at Ari for back-up, but she’s still on the phone with her agent. She gives me the one second sign.
Pop puts his hand on my shoulder. “Let’s not be too hasty. I’ve heard really amazing things about this guy’s short ribs. Maybe Charlie could go back to the hotel and we’ll bring her a doggie bag?”
Charlie’s jaw drops. “Pop!”
Pop shrugs. “I’m sorry, honey, but these ribs are legendary and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to come back. I try to get in here every time we play the Braves, and it’s always booked.” He rubs his stomach. “After all the treats I brought you when you were pregnant, can’t I have this? Poppa needs some ribs!”
Ari clicks off her call, then slips her phone into her purse. “Relax, everyone. Once I told them half the Niners were going to join us for dinner, they closed down for the night. Calder won’t be a problem.”
I lean in and whisper, “What was that about?”
“Really good news,” she replies. The limo comes to a stop in front of Brown Suga’, then the driver gets out and walks around to open the door for us. “I’ll tell everyone about it over dinner. Let’s go.”
Love To Love You (Love/Hate #3) Page 6
