Page 78 of Take You Home

He doesn’t want to get his hopes up too much about why that might be.

26

Chester gapes at Nack Bar George, appalled. “What.”

Obie holds up his hands placatingly. “Listen, Kyle‍?—‍”

“No‍—‍” Chester shushes him, smacking his arm for emphasis. “No, I donotwant to hear from you right now. I want to hear fromGeorge.George, could you repeat that last part, please?”

Nack Bar George’s grin is maniacal. Obie takes back everything he’s ever said about the stupid fry cook being his favorite human. “I simply said that I didn’t join the rest of the bowlers out on the Strip because I was busy exchanging my wedding vows with Obie.”

Chester whirls around to face Obie.“You were married to George?”

“I thought you didn’t want to hear from me right now,” Obie says.

In response, Chester smacks him again. Obie rubs his arm, scowling. Currently, he and “Boyfriend Kyle”—along with Trevor, Sasha, and Maggie‍—are all gathered around the Nack Bar, listening raptly to one of George’s famous stories about his many years of tagging along to bowling nationals in Las Vegas.

Obie just wasn’t expectingthisparticular story to resurface tonight.He wouldn’t describe it as scandalous, but it’s generally not one that he tells in mixed company.

Especially when that company includes his fake boyfriend.

“I gotta agree with Kyle here, man,” Trevor says solemnly. “The fact that you and George got hitched should’ve been, like, third-date information.”

“Also, why werewenever informed of this?” Sasha demands. “George, as Obie’s teammates, it’s our right to know every way in which he’s ever humiliated himself. That’s how the sacred laws of the bowling alley work.”

“You’re not helping,” Obie informs her.

“Who said I was trying to help?”

“Also,” Trevor adds, eyeing Obie and George warily, “was this, like, arealwedding? With, um. With a wedding night?”

Obie squints at him. “We both signed the marriage license, yes.”

“I think he’s trying to ask if the marriage was consummated,” Maggie says wearily. “Which I, for one, donotwant to know.”

“Oh, it was a night to remember,” George says, waggling his eyebrows.

Chester chokes. Obie sputters indignantly. “No! No, it wasn’t! I spent the whole damn night holding your hair back while you threw up, because you insisted on taking a shot at every bar from the venue to the hotel!”

“Sounds like youdoremember it pretty well,” Chester says pointedly.

“Kyle,” Obie says, exasperated. “Puppy. Come on.”

“You had hair?” Trevor asks George curiously.

George rubs a sad hand over his bald head. “In my youth, yes. Longer than Sasha’s, even. My poor head gets so cold in the winter now.”

Maggie massages her temples. “So is either of you going to explainthe marriage thing? Or is it just going to be another one of those Redwater Bowl unsolved mysteries?”

Obie sighs, resigned. “So there’s this pancake house.”

Sasha’s jaw drops. “You got married at thepancake house?”

“We were thefirstto get married at the pancake house!” George says proudly. “They gave us a discount and everything!”

“They also promised us discounts on any of our future weddings,” Obie adds. “So they clearly had a deep understanding of their clientele from the start.”

“You hear that?” Trevor tells Chester. “You and Obie can have a discount wedding! That’s a huge deal in today’s economy.”