I groaned. Damn. I knew it.
“Skye, please tell me you will follow it.”
“Of course I will. It’s different. I am a bit older than Mom was for any of her pregnancies. Anyway, I always ask Laney when I’m in doubt about something.”
“You’re in contact with her?” That was news to me.
Skye nodded. “She’s very sweet, responding to my panicked messages no matter when I send them. She said I can text her any time, but I bet the poor woman didn’t think I’d literally do it all the time.”
Laney had done that for Skye? She hadn’t mentioned it to me. Damn, that woman surprised me every day.
“Aww... look at the cute expression on his face,” Tess said. “We haven’t seen that before, have we? It suits you.”
“I am not cute,” I said seriously.
“Well, I think Laney disagrees with you,” Skye replied. Everyone at the table had shit-eating grins.
“Would you say cute translates to him forsaking his eternal bachelor status?” Tess asked Josie in a fake whisper.
“I vote yes.” That came from Hunter.
“So do I,” Ryker added.
Hunter crossed his arms, flashing me a smug expression. “Man, I’m enjoying this so much. Remember how much fun you made of me when I broke out of the bachelor pack?”
“Vividly.”
“Don’t be mean to him,” Josie said. “Circumstances change. People change.”
Hunter cocked a brow at his wife. Josie didn’t back down one bit.
“Sorry, husband. You’re ganging up on poor Cole. I feel the need to take his side. Someone has to.”
“Lovely to know that I can count on you, Josie. Unlike my own blood.”
“Who said anything about sides? We’re all just having a bit of fun,” Tess said.
“At my expense.”
I looked at Josie, barely able to suppress a smile. “In their defense, I kind of deserve it. By the way, does anyone think that we spend far too much of our working lunches not working on the galas? They’re running too smoothly. Maybe we need a new challenge, don’t you think?”
There was a chorus of no. Even Skye joined in, and we all burst out laughing. Yeah, things in my family usually worked out this way. We met for one thing and got derailed by another topic that somehow just kept snowballing. But these lunches were immensely helpful to make sure we didn’t fall out of touch with each other.
It was only too easy to get caught up in the grind of daily life and speak on the phone once in a blue moon. Gathering for lunch was an excellent opportunity to butt in each other’s lives. Not everyone liked that, but I appreciated it. Sometimes you were too close to your own problems, and it helped to have the family’s perspective. We knew each other so well that nonverbal cues were enough to pick up if something wasn’t okay.
Right now, for example, Skye was telling us how she was filling her endless hours. Her tone was extra cheerful, which clued me in that she was trying to convince herself as much as us.
After she hung up, I exchanged a glance with Tess. So I hadn’t been the only one noticing Skye’s restlessness. That would translate into misery soon enough. Skye was a doer. She had this incessant need to be productive.
“What would you guys say we move these working lunches to Skye’s place?” I asked out of the blue. “She’s gonna get restless fast. I mean... I guess we’d make them working dinners, because we can’t just up and leave in the middle of the day, but maybe we can find an evening where we all have time.”
“Sure, we could do that,” Ryker said. “That way Heather and Avery could also come.”
Hunter looked at Josie, who nodded.
“We’re in. I thought Skye sounded jaded,” Hunter said. “Now, should we order lunch?”
Usually we ate as soon as the working lunch began, but this time, we’d wanted to get the gala details out of the way first. Our assistants brought a selection of food from nearby restaurants in no time.