As though the awkwardness had been contagious, my dad’s back shot straight. “Oh shit.” He dropped his hands and stepped away. With his furry gray brows knitting in the middle, he planted his hands on his hips. “Wait a minute. Who the hell are you, young man?”
Laughter bubbled from my throat as they stared at each other, one equally as confused as the other.
“Daddy, this is my boyfriend, Bowen Michaels. Bowen, this is Jack Grey, the man who made me the awkward, bumbling train wreck I am today.”
“Ohhh,” my dad replied, entirely too loud. “So this is the boyfriend.”
Bowen nodded, not looking any more relaxed than he had during their embrace. “Guilty.”
“Wow.” Dad snatched up Bowen’s hand, shaking it vigorously. “So great to finally meet you. For the very first time too.”
As I watched, I wondered if my dad was so happy because I was finally dating someone. Or if he had always been this weird and I’d just never noticed it before.
Bowen cleared his throat. “Well, the first time meeting in person. I may have a slight advantage. I’m not sure if Remi told you or not, but I was the accountant she hired to do The Wave’s taxes this year.”
“Realllly? An accountant? How impressive…and completely unexpected.”
All I could do was shake my head.
My dad was a mess, but I had no doubt an email would be on its way to The Wave’s new manager, requesting a Bowen Michaels burger be added to the menu before his head hit the pillow that night.
“How did you two meet?” Dad asked.
I beamed at Bowen. “Oh, I stalked him. No biggie.”
“Stalking? That must be a fun story.” Honest to God, my dad winked at me and nudged me with his elbow.
Seriously, the man was a maniac. But I loved him for every bit of it.
Aaron bumped me with his shoulder. “I need a drink.”
“Great idea,” Bowen rushed out. “Could you grab me one from the bar too? Your father and I are long overdue for a conversation about justifiable deductions.”
“Ohhh, that sounds exactly like a conversation I would love to skip.” Turning on a toe, I hooked my arm with Aaron’s and all but dragged him toward the bar.
As we rushed away, I caught sight of Mark’s towering figure over the top of the crowd. He’d been cornered by a pack of The Wave’s food and beverage vendors. More than likely for a sales pitch, which I went out on a very short limb to assume was also probably a conversation he would have liked to skip.
“I’ll meet you over there,” I told Aaron, branching off to the right.
The men were still chatting up a storm when I sidled up next to Mark.
“Remi,” they all greeted.
I recognized exactly none of them. But even without the short-circuited brain thing, they probably only knew me from pictures around The Wave and my father’s stories.
“Hi. You mind if I steal this guy for a few minutes?”
In unison, they did the head bobble routine while Mark made promises to catch up with them later. I could tell he had zero intention of keeping them.
“Holy fuck,” he muttered, falling into step beside me. “I love Jack and he is welcome here any day of the week, but we shouldn’t have invited the vultures. Swear to God, one of them just spent five minutes trying to convince me to open a coffee shop in this space.”
“Ah, that must be Dean. He’s the one who sends us those huge baskets of scones and flavored coffees every Christmas.”
“That explains a lot. But the answer is still no. Do I look like a coffee shop guy to you?”
I laughed at the idea of Barista Mark donning an apron at four in the morning while an elevator remix of Metallica played over the speakers in the background. “Maybe stick with what you know.”
He patted his stomach. “Beer and wings it is, then.”
“Oh, hey, after we get a drink, I’ll introduce you to Bowen. Just do me a favor and don’t mention the brain thing. I haven’t told him about my memory yet.”
“Yay,” he deadpanned. “Can’t wait.”
“What’s that attitude for?” We met up with Aaron, who was stuck in line behind my dad’s drinking buddies, and I slipped between my best friends. “Are you pissed about something?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Remi. You didn’t even tell me about the guy. I had to figure it out on my own, and now you want me to meet him?”
My head snapped back and I stared at him, incredulous. Was he seriously giving me shit about dating someone? “Um…I didn’t tell you because I was trying not to rub salt in the wound after you and the bartender broke up.”
“What bartender?”
“Exactly! You didn’t bother to tell me about her, either. I had to find out from Aaron.” I leaned in and whisper-yelled, “Hello, pot, you’re black too.”
His lips thinned. “It’s not the same.”
“Uhh, only because in a month I’ll still remember his name, but other than that, I’m pretty sure it’s exactly the same.”
He cocked his head to the side and stared down at me. “Oh, really? I’ve been home every night for the last month. If it weren’t for you stopping by to water your damn plants, I wouldn’t have seen you at all in that time. What happened to ‘we’re a family’ and your foot-stomping requiring us to have dinner together at least once a week?” He waved a finger between himself and Aaron. “For the record, the two of us have been there. Last week, we did Taco Tuesday, watched a whole-ass movie, and even did this little thing called talking that you seem to have forgotten about.”
Oh boy.
Ohhhhh boy.
This was all very true. I had been spending a lot of time with Bowen. Mostly at his place because, well, he lived alone and had two dogs who depended on him for things like food, water, and opening and closing the back door for potty breaks. But come on. It wasn’t the first time one of us had been in a relationship.
“Okay, fine. You’re right. I haven’t been home much recently. But I’m allowed to have a life. You know what it’s like when you start a new relationship. It’s all so new and exciting. Can’t get enough of each other…or keep your hands to yourself. Do you really want to come home from work to find me and Bowen making out on the couch?”
“At this point, it might be the only way I actually get to see you.”
I leveled him with a glare. “This isn’t fair. When you were dating Andrea, I didn’t say a word about how you disappeared for days at a time.” I looked at Aaron, hoping for backup only to find him staring down at his shoes, his lips clamped between his teeth. “Are you mad at me about it too?” I asked him.
Aaron’s hands rose in surrender. “Don’t drag me into it. I’m just trying to order a drink.”
Seriously frustrated and more than a little annoyed, I leered at Mark. “I’m sorry, okay? I never considered you’d be upset about me finally meeting someone.”
“I’m not upset about you meeting someone,” he snarled. “I’m fucking terrified you’re someone else I’ll lose too.”
My whole body jerked, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aaron’s do the same. There was a lot to tear apart about that statement. At the moment, we were standing at my father’s going-away party—the very one Mark had gone out of his way to not only host, but lure my father to as well. There was one word he’d said that struck me the hardest. Too.