appeared beside us. “Hey, did you bring me any?”
“You know it,” Lex replied, pulling out another box from her magical bag.
“Sweet,” Carmen replied. “Another whiskey, Hud?”
“Yes,” I hissed.
“No,” Lex stated definitively.
“What the hell!” I was a grown-ass man and I still had the agency to order whatever the hell I wanted.
Lex looked up at Carmen and gave her a pretty grin. “Mr. Jameson Gold Reserve has left the building. Mr. Whatever Light Draught Beer You Have On Tap would like a pitcher and I’ll have a Coke.”
I wanted to be angry, but the fact that she knew what whiskey I was drinking had me leveling her over the table as Carmen left for our drinks. “You think you know so much about me, don’t you?”
She relaxed into her seat and crossed her arms over her chest, making her cleavage look… Never mind.
With one brow quirked, she answered, “I know everything about you, down to the fact that you’re one hundred percent, without a doubt wearing dark-gray boxer briefs.”
“Oh, yeah. How do you know that?”
“Because your fly is down, Buster. It’s a good thing you’re sitting or the whole bar would know too.”
I checked my lap and fuck all if she wasn’t right. I hadn’t even fastened my buckle. It was gonna be one of those nights, but at least Lex was there now. So the night wasn’t a total bust.
It had been a long, long time since I’d seen Hudson tie one on like he was. The typically calm, cool, annoyingly collected big brother of our group was now my tour guide down memory lane.
“Look how small he was, Lex.” For the thirtieth time, he shoved his cell phone with a photo of baby Jack in my face. “How is he already seven?”
Thank God I’d already successfully steered him away from the hard liquor and back to beer. Otherwise, I’d probably have been watching videos of the all-natural birth too.
“I know. He’ll be older than me before we know it.” My joke fell on deaf ears. He was in his feelings.
The only reasons I was letting this one-man bender go on was that it wasn’t too late yet, I had nothing better to do, and drunk Hudson was uncharacteristically charming—not to mention elusive. Plus, if anyone deserved to cut loose every now and then, it was him.
He grinned proudly, thinking about his boy. “He’s already smarter than both of us.” He closed the screen and put his cell down. “Do you think I’m a good dad?”
Without hesitation, I answered, “The best.”
“Right? I’m doing the damn thing. Lord only knows how, but we’re not messing him up too bad.”
“Haven’t had to bail him out of the clink once,” I teased.
Jack couldn’t have asked for better parents. Yeah, his dad and mom worked a lot, but they managed their time with him well. Especially considering how Hudson had only had my parents for positive role models and Lauren’s had been so overprotective when she was younger. It was a wonder that either of them knew how to raise a well-adjusted, independent, brilliant kid like they had.
“I miss him,” he confessed.
“You make it sound like he’s in outer space. He’s just across town.”
He shook his head. “No, he’s been in Hilton Head with all the grandparents. Lauren’s folks took him with them to hang out with Judy and David earlier this week.”
Lucky bastard. When Mom and Dad asked me to go up, I’d balked, but now that they were there, I was wishing I’d bit the bullet and driven out for a day. I could use some salty air and sunshine. Especially since Maggie’s doctor had told her that she was no way near where she needed to be for delivery and they were pretty confident Baby Warren was going to keep them waiting.
“Hey, I’ve got an idea.”
His glassy, blue eyes met mine. “What? Now you want Bleep and Blooper to have their own private residence?”
It wasn’t a terrible suggestion. They’d both had shots that week and were still giving me the stink-eye every time I tried to pet one of their bitchy asses. “Not exactly, but we might circle back to that sometime.” I adjusted in my seat and prepared to give him a very convincing argument for a taste of spontaneity, something he knew little about. “What if…”
He rolled his eyes, already expecting the worst.
“What if we get you home to dry out for the night, you play hooky from work for once on a Saturday, and we drive out early