Shane picks up a baseball and sits on the end of his bed, then throws the ball up in the air and catches it. He does that sometimes when he talks. Like just talking is too much pressure and he has to distract himself in order to communicate. “Bet as a kid, you never thought you’d be banging the same chick as your buddy.”

So, he’s ready to resume our conversation from the car.

I swipe the ball from mid-air. “When I was a kid, I thought all girls were gross, and I was never getting married.”

“I always liked girls.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.” I sit on the end of my bed. “But I never thought I would be okay with sharing a woman with my friend. I’m still waiting to feel jealous or something.”

He pushes his duffel onto the floor and lays down, using his hands interlocked under his head as a pillow. “I guess I assumed I would try it once or twice, but never thought it would be a regular thing. Something about her makes me ready for it all the time, man. I’ve tried to figure it out. She’s cute, but cute was never my hotness factor. I keep waiting for you to tell me you want her to yourself and wondering how I’m going to stay when things change. I don’t want a woman to come between us—well, figuratively. I enjoy having a woman come between us literally.”

“I’m not going to tell you I want her for myself. That’s not how this works.”

“Dude, this isn’t supposed to work at all. At some point, you’re going to need to date the girl you’re going to marry so you can run for office. And if that’s Penelope, then you’ll need me to make myself scarce, so you can have your happily ever after.”

“I thought you were going to live in an apartment over my garage for the rest of my life.”

He finally looks at me instead of the ceiling. “Not with her. I thought about it before, but now I know I’d always covet your wife. It would rip us all apart.”

It feels like his words have weight. Like they’re pushing the air around. “Nothing is going to rip us apart, man. You’re my best friend.”

His gaze goes back to the ceiling. “When you get married, your wife is supposed to be your best friend.”

“Shane.” I wait until his eyes come back to mine. “Nothing will rip us apart. I promise. Do we need to do a blood brother oath or something?”

His grin opens up his whole face. “Nah, I believe you. We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.”

“You want to go shoot hoops?”