I laugh. “But my mom throws some epic parties. I’m just glad her connections could help.”
“I see.”
“Did you meet my daughter, Sarah?” Judith asks, swinging me around. “Or her fiancé, Bradly? He’s quite successful, highly educated. He’s an engineer. I thought he was in business but nope, engineering.” Judith giggles and spouts nonsense. I am lost as to why she’s telling me this.
“We met.”
“I introduced them,” Jenny says as if fighting rolling her eyes.
“How did you two meet?” Jenny’s dad asks, making Josh choke and Jenny grimace.
“A wedding, Jenny was the girl next door.” I beam at her. “I thought she was pretty cool until she slaughtered my team in paintball.” I give her the grin, the one she hates. “But then she shot me in the face, and I knew that was it. This is the girl for me.”
She sneaks that eye roll in, though she’s glowing with a wide smile.
“That sounds about right,” her dad says with a laugh. “She’s always been competitive.”
“Yeah, I witnessed that firsthand when we played a fun game of hockey.” I can’t help but laugh.
Her cheeks flush as she sighs. “There’s no such thing as a fun game. It’s win or lose.”
“And you lost,” I remind her.
“By one point and we would have had you if our team hadn’t forced that idiot on us as goalie.” She steps closer, fighting a smile. “I still won in paintball.”
“And I won you.” I shrug and her lips curl. It takes some effort to break my stare from hers.
“We saw the news story about you and that Liam fellow. We weren’t sure which of you Jenny was dating.” Judith laughs as though the comment isn’t completely out of left field and rude.
My eyes dart to Jenny’s dad but his expression doesn’t change.
“I told you the news story was a lie,” Jenny offers an explanation.
“I was there,” Josh adds, annoyed. “Lori punched him out for disrespecting Jenny. The guy’s a loser and she would never date him. That was just some bullshit cooked up by the drama pages. And no one with any intelligence pays them any notice.” And boom, Josh fires back in the same passive aggressive way.
“When I asked you if you were dating Lori, you said no.” Judith glances at Jenny, acting confused but it’s a golden maneuver for a manipulative bitch. I’ve seen this before and I’m not letting it happen to my girl.
“We weren’t dating officially until later. Anyway, it’s all history now. He got a beating and I got the girl and everything is right in the world.” I’m done with this discussion. The next stop on this crazy train is me calling Judith out, and I should avoid that, particularly with the week I’ve had. “You wanna get something to drink?” I ask Jenny. She nods and I pull her away from the crowd. “Why doesn’t your dad have any balls?”
“I don’t know.” She’s visibly upset.
“Well, why don’t you stand up to her?” I ask. “You’re normally such a savage.”
“Because I don’t come out on top. She is better at being evil than I am. And my dad gets angry and sides with her. Happy wife, happy life is what he says.”
“She’s a bitch. You were dead on with the Cinderella stepmom thing. Kinda reminds me of Nat’s mom. Just dig after dig after dig.”
Jenny wrinkles her nose. “Yeah, but at least Judith isn’t my actual mom. Poor Nat. Have you spoken to them?”
“No, they’re due back next week.” I stop and turn so we’re face to face. “Are you going to tell your family about the baby?”
“Maybe next time,” she says. Her eyes dart to the left. “Sarah just got engaged and they want to share the blessed news tonight. I don’t want to overshadow that. Did you tell your parents?”
“Accidentally let it slip mid rant but everyone was so heated, I don’t think they comprehended what I was saying. It was a rough couple of days.” The memory of the terrible things I said to her still weigh on me.
“How is he now?” Jenny asks as I slide my fingers through hers and we walk to the bar again.
“He’s going to live.” It’s the only thing to say. How do I explain that my brother’s so rotten his clothes have become part of him like a crewmate on that creepy ship on Pirates of the Caribbean?
“When do you see him again?”
“When he’s ready,” I mutter, hating the fact I might be a trigger.
A glass tings in the distance