Page 14 of Claim to Fame

Ethan scanned the tiles in front of him. “No.”

Baz, Gavin, and Jamie flipped down pieces on their own racks, the clacking of the plastic obnoxiously loud in the quiet of Ethan’s living room. In the kitchen, Jo, Kyla, and Sabrina laughed at some joke he was sure he didn’t want to hear.

“You’re Dawson Leery!” Gavin shouted, pointing a finger at Ethan.

“Is that the blonde kid with the crying face?” Ethan asked.

“The one and only.” Gavin turned his rack to show Ethan an image identical to his own.

“How the hell do you know the names of any of these people?” Ethan asked.

“Brodie loved that show,” Gavin said.

“If he’s Dawson, then you must be Dean fromGilmore Girls,”Jamie said.

“You got me,” Gavin conceded.

“So Baz is the blonde chick in leather pants?” Ethan asked.

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Baz said.

“Am I the only one who doesn’t know any of these characters?” Ethan pushed his board away. When his friends were watching blondes in leather pants fight vampires, he’d been busy learning the names of the residents of Sesame Street. Give him a version of this game with Prairie Dawn and Grover and he’d clean house. “Who the hell brought this game anyway?”

“I did,” Jo said, appearing in the doorway with Ethan’s granddaughter, Julie, balanced on her hip. “It was supposed to be for girls’ night.”

“This isn’t girls’ night,” Ethan grumbled.

Jo turned to Julie, dropping her voice as though she was about to say something very serious. “Your grandpa is extra grouchy today.”

“Am not.” Ethan took the squirming toddler from Jo’s arms. “Don’t listen to her, Jujube.”

“Of course she listens to me. I’m her favorite babysitter,” Jo said, pretending to be offended.

“And I am her grandfather.”

“Yeah, but you’re a hot grandpa, so it doesn’t count.”

Ethan nearly choked on his own saliva. “Excuse me?”

“Forty-five isn’t even that old.”

“I’m not forty-five.”For another two weeks.

“Forty-six. Whatever.”

“I’m forty-four,” he corrected her.

“Even better.” Jo bobbed her eyebrows suggestively at him.

Ethan rolled his eyes. Jo was a flirt, and she loved to push his buttons, but they both knew there was no chance in hell anything would ever happen between them. She was younger than his own daughter, for Christ’s sake.

“Where is your mama?” Ethan asked Julie, as if she could answer.

“Mama!” Julie exclaimed, thrilled to repeat her favorite word. For an entire month everything had been “mama,” including Ethan.

“Tessa’s running late. Some kind of cupcake emergency,” Jo explained.

Kyla and Sabrina pushed past Jo into the living room. Baz immediately hooked his arm around Sabrina’s waist and pulled her into his lap, nuzzling into her hair, and Gavin got up to hug Kyla from behind, his chin resting on top of her head. Ethan was happy for his friends, he really was, but he was also out-of-his-mind jealous. The cartoonish heart-eyes they got as soon as their wives entered a room didn’t help.

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