we’re the best of the fucking best,” I boom. Everyone laughs, and with the excitement of opening night giving us all one hell of a high, I walk around the bar and start making enough of my go-to drinks for everyone. “Grab yourself a drink and let’s toast to Dirty Dog!”
“FAMILY DINNER,” I HEAR MY sister bark through my phone, and I pull it away from my ear with her sharp tone. Bam, my five-year-old English mastiff, looks up from his bed in the corner but loses interest quickly. With a huff, he drops his big head back down. “That means the whole damn family, Em. What part of that is confusing to you? You’ve skipped the last eight! Eight months you haven’t been there and don’t think that hasn’t gone unnoticed.”
Dropping my brush into the water next to my canvas, I walk over to the couch in the corner and look out the window of my back room. When I moved out on my own, this room sold me on the small house. Huge picture windows cover every inch of the back wall, giving me a breathtaking view of the woods that surround my property. I’ve been here a year now, and I still get chills when I’m in my painting room.
“I’m busy,” I tell her, which isn’t a lie, just not the full truth. “And it wasn’t eight. I came a few months back.” Six actually, but who’s counting.
“You’re always busy. I know for a fact that you finished up the last piece you had to do for your exhibition next month, so don’t give me that busy shit.”
I sigh. “Just because I finished all of that doesn’t mean I don’t have other pieces that need my attention.”
Maddi’s humorless laugh comes through the line. “You could knock out any of your beautiful paintings in no time. What is going on with you? You’ve been like this for a while now.”
I watch a bird fly around one of my birdfeeders before leaning back on the couch. “I’m just busy, Maddi.” Bam’s head settles on my leg, and I move my hand to scratch him behind his ears like he loves.
“Dad said if you aren’t there, he’s going to come toss you over his shoulder and force your ass to—and I quote—make time for your goddamn family.”
“No doubt he will too.” I laugh.
“Don’t you know it,” she responds, her tone less heated than just moments before.
“I’ll be there, okay?”
“Perfect. Don’t forget we have plans this weekend too!”
My brow furrows, and I try to remember what plans we could possibly have.
“What plans?”
“I swear, Emberlyn Locke! You’re the only girl I know who couldn’t care less that her twenty-first birthday is coming up. We have plans! All the girls. Even Dani’s in. Her parents are watching the boys, and you had better believe she’s ready to turn it up now that Evan’s finally off the tit.”
“You’re so crass,” I interrupt.
“No, I’m not. She’s the one who said it. The second he hit six months and tried to take off her nip with his tooth, she was done. Off the tit, she said. Time to party, she threatened. So Cohen is all-in for a girls’ night out getting his wife drunk off her ass because he says he will reap the benefits when she gets home.”
“That should be interesting,” I comment, not really listening to her.
“You bet your ass. She hasn’t had a lick to drink since right after the honeymoon when she found out he knocked her up again. She might just be all the entertainment of the evening we need.”
“Who else is coming? And what are we doing?” I ask, picking at some of the dog hair and lint on my leggings.
“Everyone,” she responds but doesn’t elaborate and doesn’t answer my other question. That could mean so many things, but since I sadly don’t have many friends outside of Nikki and the close-knit group of kids that make up our ‘family,’ I figure everyone isn’t that big of a bunch. I know it’s pointless to try to get my stubborn sister to spill the beans when she clearly doesn’t want me to know the plans, so I just let it go.
“Sounds like a blast.” I dryly sigh.
“Yup. I also heard from Dani that Nate’s new club is opening this weekend. I can’t wait to check it out! He hasn’t said much, but just by the hype he’s gaining on social media alone, it’s supposed to be a club like no other.”
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