When we arrived home that evening, both Bates’s Jeep and ine’s SUV were parked in the driveway, along with an electric blue muscle car that I didn’t recognize.


    “Great,” I said.


    “Now I have to smuggle this shit in with four people watching.”


    “Good luck,” Norah wished me.


    “Men in theirte twenties can practically smell redce. Plus, that’s Ben who drove the Charger and I can promise you he knows exactly what’s in that pink bag.”


    I let out an exasperated groan as I unbuckled and got out of the car. Norah popped the trunk and I leaned in to gather my things.


    I put the pink bag, which was too big to be stuffed into another one, closest to my body and stacked the rest of the bags on top of it to hide it.


    “Very inconspicuous,” Norahmented sarcastically.


    I walked towards the house quickly and opened the front door to see all four men standing in the kitchen.


    Shit, was my first thought.


    I’ll never make it to the staircase without being stopped. Just as Luca saw me, I diverted and walked quickly towards his bedroom and threw my bags in there. I kicked the pink one under his bed before he walked in after me.


    “How was shopping?” He asked.


    “Shopping was good,” I answered quickly.


    “What’d you get?”


    “You know, just… some stuff,” I said awkwardly, scooting around him to leave the bedroom.


    Bates let out an exaggerated groan when I walked back out to the living room and made my way into the kitchen.


    “We didn’t think you’d be home so soon,” he whined.


    “I told Luca we’d be back before dinner” Norah defended, hugging the man I assumed was Ben.


    He was a lot taller than her,nky with long arms and legs. A redhead, he had pale skin that was littered with freckles.


    “Carrie, this is Ben,” Norah said, introducing us.


    “Hi,” I smiled, reaching out to shake his hand.


    “It’s nice to meet you,” Ben told me, throwing his arm back around Norah’s shoulder.


    “Enough with the pleasantries,” Bates said.


    “Can you guys not go back out for another two hours so we can go get wings and watch the game?”


    My eyebrows furrowed.


    “You can still go get wings, Bates,” I told him.


    “I’m not stopping you.”


    “No, we can’t. Luca and Benny are going to want to stay here with you guys now that you’re home.”


    “They can juste,” ine sighed.


    “Uh, no. Saturdays are for the boys,” Bates countered firmly.


    “Somewhat irrelevant seeing as we’re men,” Luca interjected, walking up behind me.


    “But, speak for yourself.”


    Bates narrowed his eyes at Luca.


    “l’Il drive,” ine offered, grabbing his keys.


    “We can all fit in my car.”


    Bates was pouting as we all walked out to the driveway and loaded into ine’s SUV.


    “Alright, I need directions,” ine admitted, starting the Yukon.


    “I’ve never driven to this ce before.”


    “Sounds like he’s talking to you, Tour Guide Barbie,” Ben said to Bates from the back seat.


    Iughed as I buckled my seatbelt.


    “You’re funny,” Bates replied dryly.


    It took about fifteen minutes to make it to the bar, which didn’t look like much. It was in the basement of a restaurant, with the entrance down a stone staircase on the side of the building.


    As soon as we walked in, I was hit with the smell of beer and cigarette smoke. The disgust must have been evident on my face because Norahughed.


    The dim overhead lighting and glow of the TVs scattered along each wall were all we had to go by as we were led by a hostess to a booth in the back corner of the room, listening to the crunching of peanut shells under our shoes.


    “This reminds me of Friday nights in college,” Iughed, sliding into the faded red leather seat.


    “You and I remember college very differently,” Norah said, sitting next to me.


    “I feel like all I did was sleep and study.”


    “I never picked up a damn textbook the whole time I was in school,” Bates scowled, taking a seat across from us.


    “That was already obvious,” Luca told him, gettingfortable next to me by throwing an arm around my shoulder.


    This made me want to cuddle into him, but I refrained. As everyone was seated, our waiter came over and asked for our drink order.


    “Rum and coke,” Ben told him.


    Norah sighed.


    “Vodka cranberry.”


    “Martini.” was my answer.


    “Water,” was Luca’s.


    “I’ll take a Bud,” ine said and Bates took the same.


    As the waiter left, Bates turned to me, smiling.


    “You didn’t strike me as a gin girl,” he said.


    “Not often,” I assured him.


    I turned to Luca.


    “Water?” I asked him.


    “I don’t make great choices when I’m intoxicated,” heughed.


    “Whisky and impulse control don’t really mix well.”


    “Hasn’t stopped you before,” inemented, overhearing him.


    Lucaughed, shaking his head as though he remembered something embarrassing. I thought about what happened thest time I’d seen Luca


    drunk. I could still taste the whiskey on his lips.


    Stopping myself from thinking about it further, I leaned forward on the table and grabbed a peanut from the bucket in the center of the table and cracked it open.


    As soon as our drinks came out. the waiter took our order for the food.


    “Large te of the mango habanero traditional wings with a side of loaded tots,” Bates told him.


    “And a te of nachos…” He turned to ine.


    “Do you want nachos?”


    ine shook his head.


    “Two tes of nachos,” Bates told the waiter.


    Norahughed.


    “Well it doesn’t look like the rest of us need to order since Bates is eating enough for all of us,” Ben said.


    “I’m not sharing,” Bates told him.


    The rest of us ordered, Norah and I deciding to share a te of boneless honey barbecue wings and Luca ordering a slice of pizza instead.


    “You don’t like wings?” I asked.


    He shrugged.


    “Not all the time. They disagree with my stomach.”


    “They’re not supposed to agree with your stomach. They’re supposed to agree with your tastebuds, that’s all that matters,” Bates interjected.


    Luca rolled his eyes as he reached forward to take a drink of his water.


    I was about halfway through my martini when the food came out. The boys’ hockey game started not long after this, which upied them while Norah and I talked.


    I found myself leaning into Luca before putting my head on his shoulder. He responded with a hand on my thigh.


    It made me feel giddy, like I had butterflies flying around in my stomach. As soon as the game had reached the end of its second period, Luca pulled his card from my purse and picked up the check.


    “We can watch the rest of this at my ce,” he told ine and Bates.


    Outside, he hoisted me into the passenger seat before getting in on the driver’s side of ine’s car, who didn’t seem to mind as he got into the backseat.


    Luca reached across me to buckle me and Iughed, pushing his arm away.


    “I’m not drunk,” I told him, earning a wink.


    We rode home listing to the radio, singing along to young Kelly rkson. I looked into the rearview mirror at one point to see Bates wince.


    I leaned forward to turn down the radio.


    “I liked that song,” Luca muttered.


    Ignoring him, I turned to Bates.


    “Are you okay?”


    “I’ve got to use the outhouse something fierce,” he said, tightly gripping the handle above his head.


    Norah and Ben both began tough hysterically, even ine chuckling to himself.


    “It’s not funny, guys,” Bates defended.


    “That shit went right through me.”


    “Literally,” Norah mumbled.


    “I told you not to order that second round of wings,” Luca said.


    Iughed as Bates shook his head.


    “I’m serious, Ronan. Hurry up and get home.”


    As soon as we’d made it through the gate and down the driveway, Bates was out of the Yukon and practically waddling up to the door like a penguin.


    “You better not use my bathroom!” Luca called after him.


    But Bates was already through the door and inside the house. We made it inside just in time to hear the bathroom door m shut downstairs in the basement.


    “Not that this party is over, but I think we’re going to call it a night,” Ben said, his arm around Norah’s shoulder.


    I reached out and gave Norah a hug.


    “Thank you for letting me go with you today,” I said.


    She smiled as she pulled away.


    “Anytime.”


    We waved at the two of them as they walked back outside to their respective cars.


    “We’re going downstairs to watch the game,” Luca told me.


    “Want to join?”


    I shook my head.


    “I’m gunna get ready for bed.”


    He nodded before following ine downstairs. After I had showered, I changed into a t-shirt and sweatpants and went downstairs where I could hear the men yelling at the TV.


    “Is Bates still in the bathroom?” I asked incredulously, seeing that he wasn’t sitting on the couch.


    Luca just nodded, his eyes glued to the TV screen.


    “You should probably check on him,” I said.


    “I’m okay!” I heard Bates yell from behind the bathroom door.


    Iughed before sitting down next to Luca.


    “The game is going to be over by the time you’re done passing that kidney stone!” ine yelled back.


    “I’m watching it on my phone!” Was the reply.


    Iughed.


    A few minutester, Bates came out of the bathroom.


    “Everything flushed,” he assured us.


    “But you may need to get a plumber out here just to make sure.”


    “Wonderful,” was all Luca said.


    ine began to gag.


    “Holy fuck, I can smell it from here. Close the damn door,” he said to Bates.


    Bates justughed before closing the bathroom door.


    Iughed, finding myselfying my head down on Luca’s shoulder.


    I shocked myself by doing this.


    As soon as I had leaned in against him, I wanted to pull back out of habit. But I couldn’t help the way I melted into his body, cuddling against his side. It was like wrapping up with a nket or getting into a bed with sheets that had juste out of the dryer.


    It felt foreign, but it felt like home at the same time.


    It felt normal.


    “Now it’s my turn to gag,” Bates said, looking at Luca and I.


    “I can’t wait until you’ve gotten a mate,” Luca told him, slinging his arm around my thighs to pull me in closer.


    “All this shit you’ve been giving me wille full circle and smack you in the back of the head.”


    “I don’t think so,” Bates countered, taking a seat on the couch.


    “I’m pretty independent.”


    ine snorted.


    “About as independent as an a five-month-old infant.”


    Iughed, making Bates scowl.


    “I am so independent,” he argued.


    “Where do you think your mate is now?” I asked him, changing the subject.


    He shrugged.


    “Probably out getting wasted and partying hard,” ine said.


    “Oh, hell no!” Bates eximed.


    “She better be sitting between mommy and daddy on the couch watching Paw Patrol or Wheel of Fortune or some shit.”


    “You’re into four-year-olds?” I asked him.


    “Good girls,” he corrected me.


    I smiled.


    “No such thing as good girls.”


    Luca turned to look at me with a raised evebrow, but I pretended not to see it.


    “Have you met your mate?” I asked ine.


    He shook his head.


    “No, starting to get worried,” he admitted, nervouslyughing.


    “Don’t be,” I told him. “It all happens in good time.”


    ine smiled to himself, keeping his eyes on the TV.


    “Yeah, I guess,” he said.


    Luca leaned over and kissed the top of my head before returning his attention to the hockey game.C0ntent ? 2024 (N/?)velDrama.Org.


    And for that brief moment, we were normal-though it wouldn’tst long.