Jeff nods, his smile so large that it’s contagious. “Unfortunately, the house isn’t within the boundaries of the contest, but they did give me an honorary award and said they’d be working with the city on expanding the boundary line so I can possibly be included in the future.”
“Holy shit,” I say. “That’s amazing, Jeff. Oh my God, you’ve worked so hard.”
He nods again and his eyes well up. He looks at Huxley and says, “Thank you, Huxley. I’m not sure you know how much this means to me.”
Huxley?
I turn around to look at him, and he offers Jeff a simple nod. “I just made a phone call. You did all of the work.”
“Wait, you called the beautification committee?”
“Nothing to make a big deal about,” he says under his breath. “Congrats, Jeff. It’s a well-deserved honor.”
In the most sincere voice, Jeff says, “It means the world to me to be recognized, Huxley. Thank you.”
And then the table falls silent as my mind swirls with this new information.
Jeff heard from them yesterday.
But they did their rounds a week to two weeks ago.
Which means . . . Huxley must have called them before we were together, when we were at each other’s necks with anger and frustration.
And he did that. He called.
He put that smile on Jeff’s face.
“Huxley,” I whisper.
He picks up my hand, places a kiss across my knuckles, and says, “We’ll talk about it later.”
“Please tell us you have some embarrassing stories,” JP says as he takes a seat across from me on a lounger. Breaker joins him.
I glance over at the patio, where Huxley is in deep conversation with Jeff and my mom. Kelsey left a while ago because she claimed she had another engagement, but I saw right through her. She was avoiding JP and his flirtation. Frankly, I was enjoying the show, but Kelsey could only take so much.
Hunkering down with the boys, I say, “I’m not sure the man is capable of doing anything embarrassing.”
“Obviously he’s been able to hold it together so far in front of you. Trust me when I say, the man can embarrass himself.”
“Oh yeah? Why don’t you delight me with a story?”
Breaker and JP exchange glances. “Did he mention the time he did a presentation at NYU about entrepreneurship, and the entire time, his fly was undone?”
“What?” I laugh out loud. “No, he didn’t.”
Breaker nods. “He did. At the end of his presentation, one of the dickhead college kids asked him if he was hot.”
“Oh God.” I clamp my hand over my mouth, giggling.
“Of course, Huxley was confused and answered no and asked why. Then the kid said because he didn’t know why else his fly would be undone unless it was for a cross-breeze.”
I burst out in laughter and draw Huxley’s attention away from his conversation. He eyes his brothers suspiciously, and there’s no doubt he knows what his brothers are doing.
“What did he do?” I ask.
Breaker rubs his hand over his jaw, something I’ve noticed Huxley does as well. “He of course was humiliated. Zipped up his pants, cleared his throat, and then thanked everyone for their time before bolting. Bro was an epic dick for days after, blamed us for sending him out there unzipped.”
“What?” I ask.
JP presses his hand to his chest. “Exactly. Explain to us how that’s our fault. Are we supposed to hover over him like a helicopter mom?” JP shakes his head. “No, not our job. Be an adult man and zip up your pants.”
“Now, before we go into any meeting, we always whisper to Huxley to check his fly.”
“Stop. Do you really?” I chuckle.
Breaker nods. “Yeah, he hates us so much for it, but to hell if we’re going to be blamed again for his mistake.”
“You’re protecting yourself,” I say.
“Exactly,” Breaker says to JP. “She gets it.”
“She gets what?” Huxley asks, joining us, my mom and Jeff at his side.
“Nothing,” JP says. “This is between us. Nothing you need to concern yourself about.”
“If you’re talking to my girl, I’m concerned,” Huxley responds, which of course makes me all weak in the knees because of the possessive tone he uses.
“Ooo, I like this side of him,” JP says. He stands and slaps his brother on the shoulder. “As much as I love talking to your fiancée about your embarrassing moments, I need to head out.”