Page 5 of Fallen Hearts

“Abso-fucking-lutely. Your dad died; you have zero direction in your life.” He shrugged. “You need me.”

“Jesus, Parker.” Beck laughed. “Make the guy feel like shit, will you?” Beck focused back on me. “I’m staying too.”

As a bartender, Beck’s life in Cedar Falls was as carefree now as when we were in college. In fact, he basically acted just about the same, despite being an actual adult. This place was about to get spicy with the two of them staying on.

“You guys are nuts.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

All three of us looked toward the kitchen door. Cole, the fourth member of our lifelong bachelor group, sauntered inside. Unlike the rest of us slobs, he was already dressed, signature dark-rimmed glasses firmly in place. Looking every bit like the history professor he was, Cole also headed toward the coffee pot.

“So what are we up to?” he asked no one in particular, pouring himself a coffee and sitting.

“Mason is having an identity crisis,” Parker said. “So we’re going to stay here until he figures out what to do with his life.”

“Papa Bennett just died, asshole,” Beck said. “Cut the guy some slack.”

“We’re staying, aren’t we?” Parker shot back. “I’m not completely heartless.”

“Staying, as in, living here?” Cole asked, turning to me. “What about your job?”

“He’s taking a leave,” Parker said. Apparently he was my new spokesperson. I’d always talked a lot less than him and Beck, so the two of them had a habit of jumping in to speak for me. The pair loved to hear themselves talk, so it worked out.

“Until he figures out what to do with the inn,” Beck added.

“Are you thinking of keeping it?” Cole asked me.

“I have no idea what I’m going to do,” I admitted.

“Which is why we’re staying,” Parker said. “You are too.”

“Oh really?” he asked. “And what exactly do you propose I do with my job?”

“Pfft.” Parker made a face. “You like the city about as much as Mason. If he’s leaving, you have no other option.”

“Right,” Cole said, taking off his glasses and polishing them, as if they needed it, with his shirt. “I’ll just quit my job at Columbia despite the fact that I worked like hell to get a tenure-track position. And come back here, to the metropolis of Cedar Falls, and what? Maybe get a teaching position at the high school? So I can live with you degenerates?”

Parker nodded as if it sounded like a perfectly reasonable plan. “Works for me.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Cole said to him. But then, sobering, he asked me, “How you doing this morning?”

“I’m okay. Just a lot to figure out.”

“I bet. And though I’d love to live at Heritage Hill and recreate our college years, I’m headed back Saturday. But I took the week off.”

That surprised all of us.

“You did?” Parker asked.

“I did.” He looked directly at me instead of Parker. “I knew you’d be staying for a bit. It was as long as I could get off in the middle of the semester but?—”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

His answer was automatic. “Of course I did.”

And that was that. No other words were said. None were needed. When we made a pact to stay bachelors together for the rest of our lives, it was only half-jokingly. No four guys had each others’ backs more than us, and this morning proved it.

These fucking guys were everything. And now that I’d lost my only immediate family member, that wasn’t just an expression. They were, literally, all I had.

---