“Oh,no, I don’t think you’ve made it clear enough,” I retorted, easily falling backinto our banter. “Maybe you should spell it out for me the way you did last—”
Itwas at that point I realized our end of the table had fallen silent, with everypair of shifty eyes now inconspicuously aimed at us, as though we’d nevernotice them listening in on our conversation. I swallowed, and looking down atmy plate, noticed that I’d been mindlessly taking ears of corn out of the bowl.Six now sat on my plate, stacked like a pyramid next to the burger I’d grabbedbefore sitting.
“Jesus,”I grumbled under my breath, and looked up to ten pairs of eyes scouring rightthrough me. “What the hell are you all looking at?”
“Oh,nothing,” Mel chided in the sing-song voice she never stopped using. Her lipsquirked into a little triumphant smirk and I resisted the urge to kick herunder the table.
“Youbetter be eating all that corn,” Mom scolded, pointing a finger at my plate.“Andmaybeyou want to keep some private mattersprivate.”
Theawkward silence that blanketed our end of the table lasted all but a fewminutes before conversation picked up again. Tabby talked to my parents aboutfarm living, the guys talked to me about life on the road, and my sisterstalked about getting the kids together to go to Hershey Park. It was at thatmoment when their mouths stopped moving in unison, as though a spark struckthem all at the same time, and they turned to me.
“What?”I asked, looking between the three of them while freaking out internally. “Youguys aren’t going to try and blow my hair out again, are you? Because remember thelast time you did that, I looked like fucking Fabio—”
“Sebastian,”Dinah uttered with excited urgency, “you have a kid now.”
Iswallowed. “Well, I mean, he didn’t just happen. He’s been alive for fifteenyears and—”
“No,”Jen interrupted. “You should come to Hershey Park with us. Bring Greyson.”
Ican imagine my face perfectly displayed the horror I was feeling. “Oh no.Absolutely not.” I shook my head adamantly. “I’m not attending Mommy’s Day Out totalk about mani-pedis and tampons while the kids go on roller coasters, orwhatever the hell you guys do. No way.”
“Butyou never do stuff with us!” Mel whined, throwing her head back.
“BecauseI don’t want to talk about how cute Ricky Martin is, or whoever the hell it isyou guys like now,” I reasoned, diving in to eat every last kernel of corn offmy plate. “You guys have a good time and—”
Myears perked up to Greyson’s laugh at the end of the table, and I turned towatch him, frozen and unblinking. He was holding his stomach, leaning over hisplate and laughing so hard, tears were brimming his eyes. Why hadn’t anybodytold me that would be the most amazing sound I’d ever hear? Not even my firstset of DW Collector’s Series drums had sounded as beautiful to me as the purestform of his laughter.
Hewas accompanied by Johnny and Travis, the three of them sounding so similar asthey laughed about whatever-the-hell it was, and Tabby tipped on her segment ofthe bench, pressing her arm into mine.
“Hehasn’t laughed like that in months,” she whispered loud enough for me to hear. “Maybeall year.” Her words caught in her throat, blocked by clotting emotion and sheraised her hand to her mouth before excusing herself from the table.
Iturned to my sisters, and took a bite of corn as I asked, “So, when are wegoing?”
23
tabby
“There she is,”Jess announced my arrival themoment I walked through the door. She pressed a cup of coffee into my hands onmy way to my office. “How was your relaxing weekend off? WithThor?”
“Oh,it was nice,” I mentioned lightly, heading toward my desk and sitting down.
Alexand Jess stood on either side of the doorway, arms crossed and eyeing meskeptically.
“Nice?”Alex scoffed, slowly blinking his disbelief. “That’s a word people use whenthey don’t want to get into it.”
“Yeah,girl,” Jess agreed. “We need more details than that.”
Ifthey were asking me for a more descriptive word explaining the goings-on of myweekend, they weren’t going to get it from me. I didn’t even know how todescribe it to myself, let alone them. Fun? Scandalous?
“Atleast tell us how Thor was,” Alex begged, pressing his palms together. “Prettyplease?”
Howhe was. My eyes snapped open and I shot them with a steely glare.“What? What do you mean?”
Alexshrugged. “How was his house? Did he look just as delicious in his pajamas ashe does in those jeans? Does he cook?”
“Oh,”I breathed with relief, shaking my head. “His house is nice, and he cooksreally well. He was, um … surprising, actually.”
Jessstepped toward the desk. “Wait, what didyouthink he was talkingabout?”
