“Mommy! Minnie!” he said, throwing his arms wide. Behind him, Tommy, who wasn’t completely sober either, shook his head and laughed as Jared wrapped an arm around both of us in turn.

“The band’s back together, I see,” Minerva said, her voice in that low, disapproving octave, and a smile in her bright blue eyes.

“Carter, Matthew, Scott, I know your mothers raised you better than to come into someone’s home without giving them the greeting of the day,” I said, looking at the flushed faces that had followed Jared and Tommy in.

“Hey, Ms. MacFarland. Hey, Ms. Minerva,” they intoned in unison, and time slipped a little, swamping me with a strong sense of déjà vu. A memory of these same five boys in my kitchen on a Friday night when they were all in college.

“What are you boys doing here? I thought you’d be tearing up King Street until the wee hours of the morning.”

“We would be, but Mr. Responsibility thought we should cut the evening short so we could save our energy for the bachelor party tomorrow night,” Scott pointed at Tommy.

“I simply said that I have a pretty big evening planned for us, and maybe we shouldn’t get shit-faced tonight. We have the fitting in the morning, and—”

“Oh, god. Please don’t run that schedule down again,” Jared complained. “Ma…do you have something in this house that will get this guy drunk?” he asked, gripping Tommy’s shoulder.

“Well, me and Minnie just opened this bottle of Marrow Bone Creek—”

“Yes! That’ll do it!”

Jared grabbed the bottle, brought it straight to his lips, and took three big gulps. I cringed as he grimaced, groaned, and passed the bottle to Tommy. Bleary-eyed, Tommy looked at the bottle with his brows furrowed.

“Don’t be a pussy, Tomás!” Jared damn near bellowed.

“Yeah, drink or pass the bottle,” Matthew cosigned.

“Fuck it,” Tommy said, then tipped the bottle up.

As I watched him take three equally big swallows of the strong brown liquor, I resigned myself to the very real possibility of a long night of drunken, half-naked young men splashing around in my pool. And probably an early morning visit from the cops when my neighbors got fed up with all of the noise. Just like old times.

“Okay, I can see this is about to go sideways,” I said. “Take it outside on the porch. And try to keep it down, okay? You know how Mr. Brothers likes to ruin a good time.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jared said, smacking a kiss on my temple. “Can we grab a couple more bottles of this?”

“A couple means two, Jared. That liquor is for the reception.”

“We’ll keep it classy, Ms. MacFarland. I promise,” Tommy said with a sly smile, and goddamn, the boy was stunning.

“Yeah… I’m sure you will,” I said with a shake of my head.