Cade chuckled. “He came once. It was supposed to be Stephen King night. We were supposed to discuss It. Remember when we all read it together when we were kids? You slept on my bedroom floor for weeks. Then you got sick of sleeping on the floor and paid me five dollars a week to sleep on your floor.” He had stopped chuckling and was just outright laughing at me. “Anyway, they ended up talking about Outlander, which is a good fucking book. But all they were doing was drooling all over the actor that plays Jamie on the show. I don’t need to hear that shit. I don’t need to hear my mother and sisters talking about what’s under some guy’s kilt. Luke and I left. We went to Holloway’s and had a few beers. So, I guess he hasn’t really been to a book club.”

My Auntie Delphine, Mom’s only sibling, owned Holloway’s, a pub up the street from Violet’s shop. My late Uncle Pat opened it years ago, keeping it up and running was a family affair. After Cade’s explanation, I had no idea whether to expect to see Luke. I was thinking not.

“We’re here. Race you to the dip,” I hollered and hopped out before Cade shut the engine off. I sniffed and followed my nose to the coffee table. After taking a seat next to Rose on Violet’s purple sofa I dipped a tortilla chip into the dip.

Rose nodded at me. Her mouth was too full to say hi. I nodded back.

“Where’s Cade? Didn’t you come together?” Violet asked.

I looked up. Wow, there were a lot of people here. I waved to the room. I felt a little embarrassed by my race to the dip but decided it was worth it and let it go. #YOLO

“He’s parking the car.” I didn’t feel bad for ditching him. I’d been gone a long time. I had years of buffalo chicken dip to make up for.

He stormed through the door and pointed at me. I waved, then stuffed some dip in my mouth. Worth it. He sat next to me and loaded up a chip.

“Good, you’re here, Cade. Now we can start,” Violet stated. “We’re going to discuss Beautiful Bastard.”

“You said Storm of Swords was this week,” Cade interjected, mouth full.

Violet raised her eyebrows. Uh oh. “Pretty sure I didn’t, Cade. We’ve been reading Beautiful Bastard all week.”