“You made it.”
Ethan picked up a rib. “And I’m about to sample your dad’s ribs.”
“His specialty,” David told him, glancing up when Sadie came back. He frowned at the dark brown bottles in her hand. “Where’d you get that?”
“Ethan here brought it,” she said, setting one down by his plate and taking the chair next to David. She held out the second bottle. “I snagged you one, too.”
He took it and turned it around in his hands. “There’s no label.”
“Winnie made it,” Ethan said and took his first bite of barbequed pig.
“Yeah?” David’s gaze shot up in surprise. “I didn’t know Winnie makes her own beer.”
Ethan swallowed. “I think she tried it just to see if she could pull it off. It’s pretty good beer, but it’s not better than these ribs. Your dad is a genius at the grill.”
“So he’ll tell you, and anyone else who’ll listen.” David took the bottle opener Sadie handed him and popped the cap off the bottle. He took a testing swig. “Not bad. Not bad at all. I never even thought of making my own beer.”
“I wouldn’t think about it now, either,” Sadie put in. “You’re going to be too busy when that baby comes for new hobbies.”
David shrugged and took another drink. “I don’t see why people think babies are so much work,” he said thoughtfully. “It’s not like they do anything except eat and sleep. And Abby’s got the eating part covered, so I should have plenty of time to make beer.”
Sadie just stared at him for five full seconds, then pushed to her feet in a huff. “You’re an idiot.”
She stormed off, and Ethan glanced back at David to see the other man grinning. He raised his beer in a toast. “That got rid of her.”
Ethan chuckled and sipped his beer. “Any particular reason you wanted her gone?”
“Every woman here keeps reminding me how little time, energy, and sleep we’re going to have when the baby’s born. It’s getting on my nerves.”
Ethan wisely filled his mouth with pig again while David brooded. “I mean, I know things are going to change. I’m not a moron. But I don’t know why everyone has to be so damn gleeful about it. And the women who already have babies? All they want to talk about is how painful labor is. Abby’s already freaking out; she doesn’t need to hear about forty hours of labor and fourth-degree tears.”
Ethan winced. He wanted to ask what a fourth-degree tear was, but he was afraid of the answer.
“Why do they do that?” David went on, scowling at his beer. “This party was supposed to perk Abby up, not freak her out even more.”
Ethan cast about for something to say, but all he could come up with was, “Women.”
“Tell me.” David stretched out his legs. “You don’t have one, do you?”
“What, a woman?” Ethan shook his head and picked up his corn. “Nope. Don’t want one.”
“Shit, son. That doesn’t matter.” David shook his head. “Maybe you better make up a girlfriend back in Philly or something.”
Ethan grunted with pleasure. The corn was sweet and crisp, slathered in butter and salt. “Why?”
“Because when Abby and Sadie find out you’re not hooked up with anyone, they’re going to start parading you in front of all their single girlfriends.”
Ethan picked up his beer with a chuckle, then froze when he saw David’s face. “You’re serious?”
“Hell, yes.” He shook his head, pity in his eyes. “I’m telling you, make someone up.”
Ethan was saved from answering when a pretty blonde with Seth’s brown eyes waddled up, her belly leading the way. She laid a hand on David’s shoulder as she lowered herself with some care into the seat beside him. “Honey, I love your mother. But if she tells me about her episiotomy one more time, I’m going to hurt her.”
David winced as he leaned in to kiss his wife. “Sorry, babe. I’ll try to head her off.”
The blonde waved a hand and sighed. “No, don’t worry about it. I’ll just punch her, and that’ll be that.”
David opened his mouth, presumably to try to convince his wife not to punch his mother, when she turned her attention to Ethan. “Who’s this?”
“Ethan,” he said, and extended his hand across the table.
“Abby,” she replied with a smile that sagged just a little at the edges. “You work with David and Seth, right?”
Ethan figured she already knew that. In fact, he’d wager his car that she knew more than David at this point, but he could play the game. “That’s right. Jacob hired me for the summer.”
She shifted in her chair, both hands coming up to rest on the mound of her belly. “How’s it going so far?”
Ethan shot David an amused glance. “Well, I haven’t cut off any fingers yet.”
David grinned. “You pull your weight.”
Ethan toasted him with his beer. “High praise.”
Abby laughed, low and soft, as she gazed at her husband. “From you, love, high praise indeed.” She reached out to grab the neck of his t-shirt. “Come here and give me a kiss.”
David allowed himself to be hauled in, contorting himself so he wouldn’t press against her belly as he obliged her. “Don’t start something,” he warned.
“Or what?” she countered, an impish smile on her lips and heat dancing in her whiskey eyes.
“We’ve got an audience,” David reminded her.
“I don’t mind,” Ethan put in and made Abby laugh.
“Pervert,” David plucked his wife up from her chair and settled her on his lap, ignoring her squeals and half-hearted struggles.
“David, I’m big as a house,” she protested, her pretty face flushed pink.
“You’re gorgeous,” he told her and pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. “Besides, it’s your fault I’m sitting here with half a boner, so you’re obliged to help me hide it.”
Ethan felt a sharp jab of envy as the dimples in Abby’s cheeks deepened, and she laughed and linked her arms around her husband’s neck. “I’ll help you hide it,” she said and waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
David groaned and dropped his head to her shoulder. “I’ve created a monster.”
“And on that note,” Ethan said as he stood, gathering his empty plate and his beer. “I’m going to get a fresh beer. It was nice to meet you, Abby.”
“You too,” she said with a smile, her cheek pressed her husband’s, their joined hands resting on her rounded belly. “Help yourself to the food. Be at home.”
He nodded in acknowledgment before he left them alone. David let out a low laugh as he walked away, and he felt that stab of envy again. And again, dismissed it. He didn’t even know what the hell he was going to be doing with his life; a woman wasn’t in the plans.
Even as he thought it, he saw Honey. She was standing with Sadie on the deck, her back to the yard, clearly engaged in conversation. Her hands were moving, fluttering and waving in the air as she talked, making her body sway with the movement. Sadie laughed out loud, and Honey joined in, the sound filling the air.
He shook his head and detoured to the other side of the deck where he’d seen a large trash can. He dumped his empty plate, set the empty beer bottle in a separate bin marked recycling, and was contemplating another round of ribs when Seth approached.
“Hey.” He handed Ethan a fresh beer and jerked his head to where the women stood laughing. “You didn’t tell her I was complaining about her, did you?”
It took Ethan a moment, then he remembered how Sadie had pulled him away earlier, and the look on the younger man’s face when she had. He laughed as he opened the beer. “No.”
“She didn’t ask you any questions?”
Ethan shook his head. “Not a single one.”
Seth scowled. “She’s messing with me again.”
“Again?”
“Yeah.” He glanced over his shoulder, his scowl deepening when Sadie glanced up, met his gaze, and sent him a saccharine sweet smile. “She’
s doing that thing where she pretends to know something but doesn’t tell me, and I get so nervous I crack and end up confessing to stuff she never knew about.”
“She do that a lot?” Ethan asked, amused.
Seth gave a mournful sigh and turned back to Ethan. “Yeah. You’d think I’d know better than to fall for it by now.”
Ethan saw the smug triumph on Sadie’s face. “She’s got you by the balls, buddy.”
“Yeah.” Seth’s face creased in a sappy, giddy grin. “It’s pretty awesome. You got a lady?”
Ethan shook his head as he took a pull off his beer, the cool liquid like glory going down his throat. “Nope.”
“Nobody special, huh?”
“Nobody at all,” Ethan corrected. “Not interested in dating right now.”
“At all?” Seth frowned. “How come?”
Ethan shrugged lightly, eager to drop the topic. “Just trying to keep life simple for a while. Women complicate things.”
“No shit,” Seth said with a wince. “Listen, if you’re not seeing anybody, Sadie’s going to want to fix you up with her friends.”
“Not interested,” Ethan repeated.
“Yeah, but I’m going to have to tell Sadie something.”
“Tell her no,” Ethan suggested.
Something like panic crossed Seth’s face. “I can’t just tell her no. We gotta come up with a story.”
Ethan sipped his beer, amused at his friend’s jittery panic. “I’m good with just plain no.”
Seth sent him a sorrowful look. “Do you not understand women?”
“Does any man really understand women?” Ethan countered.
“Hell, no.” The reply from behind him had Ethan turning to find D.S., beer in hand. He’d shed his apron and stood proudly in his ‘World’s Best Grandpa’ shirt. “Women are the unfathomable mystery, my friends, that man will never solve.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Ethan said and did.
“He thinks I can just tell Sadie he’s not interested in dating, and that’ll be enough to keep her from setting him up with her friends,” Seth said, and D.S. winced.
“Shit, son.” He turned to Ethan. “That’s not going to work.”
Ethan laughed. “Come on.”
“No, really.” D.S. gestured with his beer. “They’re sneaky, you know. Sneaky and stealthy and conniving, and they’ll count on you not wanting to be rude or make a scene, and the next thing you know you’re taking someone’s friend’s sister’s cousin to dinner and a movie and the worst part is, you’ll think the whole thing was your idea.”
“I don’t mind being rude when the occasion calls for it.”
Seth gave him a disbelieving look. “You told me you ended up taking the job with Jacob because Winnie tricked you into it.”
Ethan grimaced. “She tricked me into applying for it. But I’d decided I wanted it, after all. If I hadn’t, I’d have said no.”
“See?” D.S. nodded sagely. “She made you think it was your idea.”
Ethan scowled as Seth laughed. “Why should they care if I’m seeing someone or not?”
“I don’t know.” Seth shrugged. “Sadie says since she’s so happy in our relationship she wants everybody else to be happy, too. I don’t get why it matters, but there you go.”
“It’s just one more unfathomable mystery,” D.S. put in.
“I’m sticking with ‘no,’” Ethan decided. “They have to take no for an answer.”
D.S. laughed as Seth shook his head in sorrowful pity. “Son, you keep telling yourself that.”
* * *
Honey was having problems of her own. “Sadie, honestly, he was a nice guy. There was just no spark.”
Sadie shook her head, her green eyes sharp on Honey’s face. “I don’t know how you can know if there’s a spark or not when you barely gave the man a chance.”
“Trust me,” Honey muttered. “There was no spark.”
Sadie sighed, long-suffering and beleaguered. “You’re too picky.”
“You’re too pushy,” Honey countered and laughed when Sadie scowled. “Sadie, believe me. If there’d been any chance of romance between Hobie Carter and me, his mother killed it dead when she insisted on going to the movies with us—and sitting between us.”
Sadie scowled. “That old bat.”
“Oh, yeah.” Honey sipped her icy gin and tonic and put Hobie and his mother out of her mind. “I think I’m done with dating for a while.”
“Don’t say that,” Sadie soothed, rubbing her hand up and down Honey’s bare arm in comfort. “We’ll find you someone. There has to be someone.”
“Thanks very much,” Honey said dryly and tried not to feel like a romantic charity case.
Sadie flushed scarlet. “That’s not what I meant.”
Honey waved a hand. “I know. Really, it’s fine. But I’m putting the kibosh on fix-ups. No more.”
“Oh, but—”
“Nope.” Honey held up a hand. “Done.”
“Fine.” Sadie sulked. “Kill all my fun.”
“Don’t you have a wedding to plan?” Honey asked, hoping the topic of her upcoming nuptials would get her friend off the matchmaker train. “Did you find a dress yet?”
Sadie rolled her eyes. “Don’t get me started. I went last weekend with my mom and Seth’s, and it was awful. My mom wants me in a ball gown the size of Lake Michigan, and Seth’s mom wants me to wear her dress.”
Honey snorted out a laugh. “Seriously?”
“She wanted Abby to wear it, but Abby and David eloped.” Sadie sighed. “I want to beat the crap out of her for that. I might, if she wasn’t so damn pregnant.”
“Maybe you can do it after the baby is born,” Honey said soothingly.
“If I end up having to wear that 1980s train wreck of a dress, I might,” Sadie said darkly. “Anyway, the appointment was a disaster, with my mom and Seth’s arguing the whole time, and I didn’t even come close to finding something. Plus, all the gowns I really liked were way outside my budget.”
“Sorry, sweetie.”
“I’ve got an appointment at this place in Lansing next weekend, but I’m not taking either of the mothers.”
Honey blinked. “Really?”
“I know their feelings will be hurt, but I just want to get an idea of what I like without the two of them bickering about it the whole time.”
“You’re going alone?”
Sadie shrugged. “I’d take Abby, but she’s so close to her due date. David would blow a gasket if I dragged her along.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Really?” Sadie’s face lit with pleasure. “You want to?”
“We’ll make a day of it. Get some lunch, do some other shopping. It’ll be fun.”
“And if I find something I like, I can take the moms back with me.”
“Or you could just buy it on the spot and surprise them.”
“Right.” Sadie’s mouth turned down in a pout. “Then I can listen to them whine about how they missed the big moment for the rest of my life.”
Honey chuckled. “Yeah, that’s a problem.”
“It would make me feel so much better if you’d let me fix you up,” Sadie said slyly, and Honey had to choke back a laugh.
“No.”
“What about the new guy?”
“Who?” Honey followed Sadie’s gaze across the deck and spotted Ethan talking with Seth and D.S. She choked on her gin and tonic.
Sadie pounded her helpfully on the back. “Are you all right?”
“Absolutely not,” Honey gasped.
Sadie’s eyes widened in alarm. “Do you need some water?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“But you said—”
“Promise me you won’t try to set me up with Ethan.”
“Oh.” Sadie looked relieved, then calculating. “Why not?”
“Because.” Honey snagged a napkin off the table and mopped at her face.
“Because...?”
Honey sighed as she met Sadie’s gaze. “Because he doesn’t like me.”
“Don’t be silly.” Sadie laughed, then sobered when she got a good look at Honey’s face. “Wait. You’re serious? But...why?”
“I don’t know.” Honey struggled to keep from tensing. “He just doesn’t.”
“Did he say anything?” Sadie’s bright green eyes went suddenly fierce. “Did he do anything?”
Honey almost laughed at the snarl in her friend’s voice. “No. Nothing like that.” She gave a little shrug and a sigh. “He just doesn’t like me.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Sadie folded her arm over her chest, a scowl on her pretty face.
“What’s ridiculous?” Abby asked breathlessly as she waddled over. Her hands cradled the mound of her belly, as though she were trying to take some of the weight off her back.
“Honey says Ethan doesn’t like her.”
“Mind keeping your voice down?” Honey hissed. She rolled her shoulders to keep them from climbing up to her ears.
Sadie winced slightly. “Sorry.”
“Wait.” Abby started rubbing her belly in slow circles as she glanced back and forth between the two women. “Why doesn’t he like you?”
“I don’t know,” Honey repeated, beginning to feel hounded. “He just doesn’t.”
“How do you know? Did he say he didn’t?”
“No.” Honey barely resisted the urge to look over her shoulder, where she knew Ethan stood. “You know how you can tell when a guy likes you?” She waited for the nods of acknowledgment. “Same thing, in reverse.”
Abby and Sadie exchanged glances, then looked back at Honey. “Yeah, we’re going to need more than that.”
Honey shot Abby an exasperated look. “He doesn’t talk to me unless he has to, he goes out of his way not to touch me, even in the most casual of ways. And every time we so much as bump into each other he practically leaves skid marks running in the opposite direction.”
“But that doesn’t mean—”
“Sadie!” Honey fought back the urge to shout. “He doesn’t like me. Forget it, okay?”
“Okay.” Sadie held up her hands in a gesture of peace. “It’s forgotten.”
“Thank you.”
Abby set a hand on Honey’s arm, her eyes warm with concern. “You okay, sweetie?”
Honey and the Hitman Page 11