11
PARKER
Icould definitely get used to the finer things in life. As I stood at the solid oak bar in the main cabin of the private jet Josh had chartered for the occasion, I decided that this would be my preferred mode of travel from now on.
You wish, bud. I didn’t know how much it had cost him to fly the wedding party over to Italy on this thing, but I seriously doubted I’d ever be able to justify the cost of chartering it for myself.Just enjoy it while you can.
That was probably a better idea. Maybe if I ever got married myself one day and my fiancée wanted a destination wedding, I’d fly on one of these things again, but until then, I was going to have to be happy with commercial air travel.
Hiring a flying five-star hotel wasn’t something I could imagine anyone doing for shits and giggles.Well, not for anyone I know, anyway.
My mind flashed briefly on Cyrus, Logan, and Nash. I knew Chris and Hunter didn’t own private jets and I wasn’t sure if either of them had flown on one before, but the other three probably had.
Okay, so with the exception of them, I don’t know anyone who’d hire something so ostentatious for shits and giggles.In Josh’s case, I got it. First, it was for his wedding. A person only got married once and all that, so it kind of made sense that he’d pull out all the stops for his nuptials, especially since he could afford it.
He made bank in the stock market. For all I knew, he even ran in the same circles financially nowadays as Hunter and those guys. We’d never talked about exactly how much he made, but it had to be a lot if he could afford to fly us over on this thing.
His fiancée was a socialite who was obsessed with Shakespeare, so the wedding was in Verona, and I could already tell that it was going to be super ritzy. As for me, I was enjoying the jet but I was ecstatic about the fact that I was surrounded by my friends.
Huddled around the bar, Josh, Marley, Colt, Reese, and I were having a blast. I would’ve felt guilty about leaving Isabella alone for the flight, but she was in seventh heaven. Almost as soon as we’d taken to the sky, she’d fallen asleep in the luxurious armchair she’d chosen in the cabin behind this one.
Before conking out, she’d even moaned as she lay down, a huge smile on her face when she closed her eyes. I was glad she was getting some sleep. Often when I saw her in the mornings, she was clutching a huge cup of coffee, and from the few answers I’d managed to get out of her, it seemed like she averaged about four hours a night.
It was obscene. People with newborn babies got more sleep than that. At least, I thought they did, and even if they didn’t, kids slept eventually. I had no idea how long she’d been operating like this and how long she would continue to do it.
All I knew was that if anyone deserved an all-expenses-paid trip and the opportunity to relax, it was her. Of course, I’d promised we’d find time to work, and I would keep my promise, but I was also determined to make sure that she had plenty of downtime.
“Parker?” Josh frowned when he said my name, raising an eyebrow and smirking when I glanced at him. “What the hell were you thinking about? You had the weirdest look on your face just now.”
“Me? This is just how I look, man,” I joked, refocusing on my friends and leaving Isabella to the quiet corner at the back of my mind she seemed to have taken up residence in. “I’m with you. We were talking about how much cooler I was in college than you guys.”
He laughed. “Keep dreaming. All I said was that I need to join your gym so I can go back to getting pumped every day. There wasn’t anything about you being cooler. Just that you’re a good slavedriver. I’ve never been that fit again.”
“Join up,” I said. “I’ll whip you back into shape in no time. It worked for Hunter. I’ll even give you the family-and-friends discount.”
He dropped his head to the left, thinking it over. “I might just have to join up for real when we get back from our honeymoon. The food in Italy is incredible. When we went over to do the venue hunting, I almost had to be rolled onto the plane back.”
“How is Hunter?” Reese asked, always the polite one. He pushed his thick glasses up on his nose and smiled. “I kind of miss him, actually. Did he really get married?”
“He did,” I said, grinning when I thought about my brother and sister-in-law. “Hailey, his wife, is the best. You’d love her. When we get back, I’ll find out from them about all of us getting together. I know he’d love to see you guys, too.”
Marley sighed, pretending to pout. “I won’t be able to stay in the city when we get back. I’m already low on vacation time after I put in for all your weddings and my own. And by low, I’m mean I’m in the red. Way, way in the red.”
Colt pointed at Marley with the open end of his beer. “If you’d stuck around, you’d have had unlimited vacation time by now. I don’t have to put in anymore. I just go. Everyone knows I do what I need to do before I head out.”
“Are you bragging?” Marley reached for a bottle of vodka on the shelf behind him. Then he grabbed a shot glass and filled it up. “This is for you, asshole. Consider it you paying your fine for being a pompous jackass.”
“I wasn’t being pompous,” he protested but took the shot when Marley pushed it closer to him. He grimaced as it went down the hatch, then gave his head several firm shakes and scrunched up his nose. “That was horrible. I haven’t had vodka straight in forever.”
Marley held up the bottle. “Are you being pompous again?”
“No,” Colt said, laughing as he grabbed the bottle. “I’m turning the tables on you, island man. The thing I said about vacation time was a fact. I ran into that Jacob guy you used to work with a couple months ago and he asked about you. While we were talking, he mentioned that you would’ve had mad perks by now and incidentally said you’d have had all the time off you wanted.”
“Mad perks, Colt?” I pretended to frown, then nodded at his glass. “If you’re going to keep talking like that, you might as well pour yourself another one.”
He shook his head. “No way. Again, I was quoting. It’s not on me. What about Josh? If anyone should drink, it should be him for making us go all the way to Italy to see him get married. What happened to choosing any of the many locations in the good old United States of America?”
“Are you complaining about being flown to Europe?” Josh shot back. “If so, you’re drinking.”