That Second Chance (Getting Lucky #1)(62)

“Shhh.” Brig waves his hand at Reid. “We’ll get to your mole in a second. Please continue, Ren.”

Still smiling, she obliges. “They said you were hitting on them, but they couldn’t get over the piece of food stuck between your two front teeth.”

“What?” Brig shouts as the rest of us split a gut, my hand falling to Ren’s thigh, unable to control the laughter pouring out of me. She moves her hand down to mine, linking our fingers together. It’s the first time she’s initiated any sort of hand-holding, and I’ll admit, I like it a lot. “What was it? When was this? Was it when I had crab cakes? Jake puts so much goddamn seasoning in those things; they’re fucking delightful but require a teeth check after every serving.” He slaps the table. “Damn it.”

“Uh, back to the whole mole thing,” Reid says.

But Brig is still too focused on himself. “I bet it was last Tuesday. I had the cilantro cake, and I bet that did it to me. Cilantro will get you every time. I should have known.”

“About the mole.”

“Was it last Tuesday I had crab cakes? Hell, my days are getting all mixed up. What did the girls look like?”

“For the record, there is no mole.”

Reid and Brig start badgering Ren with questions, one right after the other, and all I can do is laugh next to her. I lean in close to her. “You brought this upon yourself.”

“Yeah, but it was so worth it,” she replies from the side of her mouth.

I can’t argue with her about that. And for the record, I think it’s extremely sexy that Ren can hang with my family and has no problems teasing them. Large families can be intimidating, especially to only children, but Ren is different. She’s holding her own and even throwing some shade. Life certainly isn’t dull when she’s around.

And in this moment, as I watch Ren battle with my brothers, I can’t help but think how similar she is to Claire. The smile she wears, the laughter in her voice, the light-hearted feeling she carries around. But instead of the usual pang of grief, this realization warms me, reminds me that maybe I’m really not that alone after all.



“Do you have any thoughts?” Reid asks, picking at his plate.

Leaning back in my chair, I take a sip of my beer and shake my head. “Not a lot of ideas. I’ve done some brainstorming, but I feel like I’m falling short. I didn’t think putting together a theme for our Lobster Fest booth was going to be so hard.”

“What do you mean by a theme?” Ren asks with a cute crinkle in her brow.

I lean toward Ren but speak loudly enough for the group to hear. “Every year, every booth sponsors a group in town to raise funds for. The Lobster Landing gets to sponsor the teachers of Port Snow again this year. Each booth is focused around a fall theme. We’ve done some pretty cool things to entertain visitors, sell our product, and raise money, but this year I’m in charge, and I really want to go all out.” I neglect to say why for a reason: it’s not something I want to get into right now in front of my brothers and Ren.

Trying to understand, Ren says, “So you need to think of something that will raise money for the teachers and something that will be fun and exciting.”

“Exactly.”

The tip of her finger taps her chin as she looks up at the canopy of the maple trees providing a natural ceiling. “Pumpkin carving.”

“We did that two years ago.”

“Ugh, okay. Hmm, how about . . . something with a scarecrow.”

Reid perks up. “We can do a dick-in-a-box-type thing with scarecrows—guess which scarecrow is locked and loaded.”

“Are you fucking insane?” I ask, genuinely concerned for my brother. “You’re eliminated from making any other suggestions.”

“What? Why? That was a great idea.”

Stepping in, Brig says, “Dude, it was disturbing. I’m with Griff on this one.”

“Hey. What happened to younger brothers sticking together?”

Brig’s face says it all. “Not when you say fucked-up shit like that.”

“What about apples?” Ren cuts in. “The classic teacher gift is apples, so maybe you can frame everything around that.”

Shit, that’s a good idea.

A really good idea.

“I like that a lot,” I say, pressing my hand to her arm, my mind starting to whirl with ideas. “We can do apple-cider pairings with treats from the shop. We can do a flight of cider, nonalcoholic, and pair the drinks with fudge, scones, and maybe our cider doughnuts. Charge a flat rate, and half goes to the teachers. For the kids, we can do lobster stamp carvings in the apples, and they can decorate their own bags with them.”

“Like how Mom used to make stamps out of potatoes?” Brig asks. I nod. “Dude, that’s a great idea.”

“We can get ciders from Hollows Eve up north. They have many different flavors we can choose from, like cherry, pear, and raspberry apple ciders. Maybe we can strike up a deal with them to get some donations.” I rub my hands together. “I feel really good about this.”

“And you can decorate with apples, do bushels in baskets, maybe a few fake apple trees climbing up your booth. Could be really cute,” Ren cleverly adds.

“Bobbing for apples,” Reid shouts, one hand in the air. “Bob for a discount on your next Lobster Landing purchase.”