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“So this guy decided to find you after months away, and your mom decided that he should?” Trey asks

Liz nods. “She’d tell you she wants the best for all of us.”

Trey shakes his head. “Parents need to not fucking meddle. No matter how well they mean, they need to not meddle.”

I look at Liz, who seems completely focused on Bobby.

“I’m so sorry, Bobby,” she repeats as she rubs his back.

“It’s fine,” says Bobby, but he’s looking at his feet. “You didn’t do anything. I... I just don’t know what to do now.”

“Now,” I say as I get up from the sofa, “we eat and then we get wasted. I didn’t go to the grocery store on my way for nothing.” I march over to the fridge and pull out one of the six-packs.

Bobby smiles and Liz beams at me. I was hoping I’d have a whole day to spend with her naked, but this is nice, too.

I let Bobby and Trey help themselves to the beers, then grab two for me and Liz and set them on the coffee table. I sit in the middle of the sofa, next to Trey, and pat the empty seat on my other side as I look at Liz. She giggles and hops off the bar stool, where she’d been sitting to console Bobby. She plasters herself to my side, kissing my cheek and gently stroking the other one. I wrap her tight in my arms, and a feeling of warmth, of contentment, blooms in my chest.

“You two are stinking adorable,” says Bobby, still sitting on the bar stool and taking a swig from his bottle.

“Don’t be jealous, baby,” Trey coos. “Liz doesn’t have much furniture in the living room for all of us to cuddle. You and I can sit on the floor, though.”

“In my defense,” Liz says, “the furniture came with the apartment. I don’t think the woman I’m subletting it from cared much to entertain. Or cuddle.”

We all laugh, and it lightens the mood some.

Bobby’s still nervous and keeps checking his phone.

“You can talk to them tomorrow,” Liz says. “Give them some time to calm down.”

“What if I don’t have a job anymore? If Dad doesn’t want me back at the shop?”

“You’re a grown man who can fix cars,” I say. “You can do that anywhere. Your sister lives here, Trey lives here. Heck, I live here. You can stay with any of us and find work fixing Wisconsin cars instead of Minnesota’s.”

For some reason, my words seem to break through, because Bobby finally smiles. It’s a wide, genuine smile, just like Liz’s.

“You’re right,” Bobby says. “Mom and Dad don’t actually have power over me. I know, it’s such a stupid thing to say, so obvious ... but it’s not easy to have it sink in, I guess.”

Trey leaps off the sofa and hugs Bobby sideways, around the shoulders. “It’s gonna be okay, Bobby. It’s gonna be okay.”

Bobby closes his eyes and squeezes Trey’s bicep.

We are all quiet for a few moments, and then Liz’s other phone suddenly buzzes. There’s a quizzical look on her face.

As she reads the message, her eyes go wide, then her mouth.

“Good news?” I ask.

“It’s my boss. From Qpik,” she says. “The woman I was covering for, the one who’s supposed to come back from maternity leave, just quit. The job is mine if I want it.”

“Baby, that’s amazing! You did such a great job, they’ve been itching to keep you. Congratulations!” I open my arms and she kneels between my thighs, wrapping her arms around me.

“Lizzie’s a rockstar accountant,” Bobby says. “Always been.”

Liz sits down on the floor, between my knees. I stroke her hair and her shoulders, and she rubs her hand up and down my calf. Bobby and Trey look at the two of us with a bit of amused curiosity.

“Yeah. I’m glad accounting pays well and I’m good at it,” she says. “But I think I might want to go back to school. Once I’ve saved some more money, that is.”

“Oh? What would you do?” Trey asks.