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“Okay.” He smiles. “Then let me run to my place to grab a change of clothes and pick up some food for everyone. I’ll be back soon.”

I nod and bite my lip. “Thank you. I can’t believe all this drama is intruding on our sexy weekend.”

“Pfft,” he says, waving away my concern. “Nothing can stop us now. Let’s see Trey and Bobby and deal with your parents, and then maybe the four of us can get drunk, and you and I can resume all the fucking.”

Resume all the fucking. I feel those words between my legs.

“Sounds like a plan,” I say.

??

Chapter Nineteen

Joe

I run home for a change of clothes, then stop by the grocery store to grab some food and alcohol because this is shaping to be a long, boozy afternoon. Trey and Bobby have already arrived by the time I get back.

Bobby and Liz are in the guest room, where Bobby sometimes stays. They’ve closed the door and are currently arguing. It’s loud enough to hear that they’re yelling, but not loud enough to discern what they’re saying.

Trey looks a bit worried, but also disheveled in a way I never see him. He’s always so put together at work. Now he appears debauched, and I pat him on the back. “Looks like it’s going well with Bobby, huh?”

“You have no idea,” Trey says. “I’m actually terrified.”

“Why? Isn’t that a good thing?”

“I don’t know. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

“Why would it drop?”

“They always do.”

“I don’t think they do,” I say. “My folks have been happily married for decades.”

“Then your dad got sick,” Trey says.

“Yeah, but that’s just life. It happens.”

“And my sister’s husband died,” he says.

“I mean, he was in the military. That was the risk. It’s not like they broke up.”

“But I know how she felt when he died,” Trey says. “Falling in love and then losing that person. It’s fucking terrifying.”

“It is.”

“And even you,” he says. “You’ve been sleepwalking for years. All sullen at the office, doing nothing but work. When I met you, I never even knew you hadn’t always been the walking dead,” Trey says. “Only now when you’re with Liz do I realize how you are when you’re not depressed. That’s fucked up, man. Your whole personality was different. I don’t want my personality to change if Bobby decides to dump me.”

“I don’t think he will,” I say. “But even if he does, I don’t think you will react like I did. I was married for a long time. And my ex, Kim... It turned out she deceived me about something important. It’s the deception that I couldn’t recover from.”

Trey watches me intently. I never talk about Kim so I know he’s curious for more but doesn’t probe. Doesn’t push.

“Bobby will need you now,” I say. “He will be out. He might lose his family. You can’t freak out on him now.”

“God, I’ve never been this serious with someone,” Trey says. “I have no fucking idea what I’m doing.”

“But you like him?”

He nods. “So much I don’t know what to do with myself,” he says. “But I didn’t think we would be moving in together just yet.”