“I’ll be on my best behavior,” I reassure him. We do our typical handshake to backslapping hug, then I introduce him to Nick, who can barely drag his gaze away from whoever’s caught his eye.
“Lucentio.”
Nick doesn’t blink. “Huh?”
“How about you stick your tongue back in your mouth and use it to tell me what’s gotten into you.”
“She’s perfect,” he whispers. “Who is she?”
Jamie and I glance in the direction of his gaze.
“Sitting on the counter?” Jamie asks. “Petite, light brown hair?”
“Eyes bluer than the sea and a smile brighter than the sun?” Nick adds.
I snort.
Ignoring me, Nick sighs. “That’s her.”
Jamie clears his throat uneasily. “That would be Bianca, who’s just taken a job in the city and moved here. She’s Bea and Kate’s—”
“Cousin.” I groan, shaking my head. “No, Nick. Anyone but her.”
Finally, he peels his gaze away long enough to look at me, distraught. “Why?”
“Because she’s . . .” My voice dies off as the crowd shifts, a rift just wide enough that I see Kate, her head thrown back in laughter, before she tips up her beer bottle and takes a long, deep drink. Her hair’s piled high on her head, an auburn-streaked chestnut mess. Her cheeks are pink. Her shirt’s black but a little see-through. Before my gaze drifts any lower, I make myself look away.
“She’s what?” Nick asks me.
Jamie grimaces, connecting the dots.
I rub the bridge of my nose. “She’s important to Kate. And Kate despises me. Soon as Kate realizes you’re with me, she’ll disapprove of you, and you can kiss talking to Bianca goodbye.”
“I’d rather kiss Bianca,” Nick says, staring at her again. “So how about we pretend we don’t know each other?”
“Wow. Thanks again for the moral support.”
“Hey, come on. Unlike you, I don’t have women fawning over me all the time. I’ve never felt like this about anyone before.”
Jamie frowns. “You haven’t met her.”
“True,” Nick says wistfully. “And now I’m going to go fix that.”
“Wait. Nick!” I reach to stop him, but he’s gone. And judging by the coy, sweet look Bianca gives him as he approaches her, well on his way toward being a goner, too.
Jamie offers me a sympathetic back slap. “How about a beer?”
* * *
—
To anyone else, Sequence is an innocent old-folks game of cards and five chips in a row.
To this crowd, it’s a gladiator arena.
“Sonofabitch,” Toni mutters as Kate drops a one-eyed jack and flicks his chip off the board. “You’re so hostile!”
“I play to win, Antoni.” Kate lifts her eyebrows at me, then takes a deep drink of her cocktail.
“You know you could play offense,” I tell her, tossing down my card and playing a chip to build us a three-in-a-row on a diagonal. “Then maybe this game would end before we’re all in a retirement community.”
“I know this is a novel concept to you, Christopher,” she says airily, “but just because that’s how you play doesn’t mean it’s the only right way.”
Hamza, Toni’s boyfriend, sets down a card and plays his chip right where Kate vacated Toni’s, giving their team four in a row.
Kate’s cousin, Bianca, groans in frustration at this turn of events. Nick stares at her like she hung the moon.
“Yeesh,” Bianca mutters. “I don’t remember it being this cutthroat when we played at the family reunions.”
“Because it wasn’t,” Bea says. “At least, not at Wilmot family reunions. Mom’s side of the family, however, is a whole other matter.”
Kate grins wickedly. “I love O’Reilly family reunions.”
“Someone lost a finger at the last one,” Bea reminds her.
“Eh. They’ve got nine more,” Kate says, plucking a cashew from a nearby dish and tossing it in her mouth. “The fireworks got a little out of hand. It happens.”
Bea laughs disbelievingly, then turns back to Bianca. “You’re not misremembering. Sequence is usually pretty tame. We just tend to get carried away on game night.”
Jamie clears his throat. “I read an article recently about the mental health benefits of play in adulthood. Board games were specifically mentioned.”
“Really?” Margo grumbles, playing a card and setting a chip in no-man’s-land. “Because this feels like the time I drove through the car wash and only too late realized my windows were stuck halfway down.”