“Hey! Get your own!” I looked over my shoulder and Luke, Brett, and Mason were walking up. Luke slapped his hand over my face as he got close enough. “We found these ones first.”
“You act as if that’s ever been an issue for any of us before,” I responded.
“True indeed,” Brett replied. He looked around the beach and then started applauding. “Yes sir, Puerto Rico is looking mighty nice.”
“They’re okay,” Luke said with a lackluster dip to his voice.
Mason rolled his eyes. “Oh my god, we get it. Khloe’s hot; you want her, but guess what? Unless you magically figure out how to turn into someone else entirely, it probably isn’t going to happen. So pick up your dick and let’s go find some women you actually stand a chance with.”
Luke looked a touch dejected, but also seemed to be in agreement. We each lifted our shirts off our body and resumed trailing the works of pure art that had passed us by before. They weren’t really trying to get away from us; in fact, all it took was catching up to them to engage them in some conversation. We brought them to the beach tiki bar and bought them some drinks and Mason floated the idea of getting together later on for some ‘group fun.’ They seemed interested, but seemed to have to ditch some of their wet blanket friends first and told us they’d give us a call later on. With the promise of some enjoyable company, the women left, leaving Luke, Brett, Mason, and I to talk and reminisce.
“I thought you were an idiot,” I told Luke finally. “When you showed up on the field as a rookie, talking about ‘baskets’ and ‘paddles,’ I was certain you’d be traded out within the month.”
When Luke first started, he played dumb, like he’d never actually played football before. He kept asking all the guys on the team what different things were and acting as if we were teaching him the game from scratch and he was just some kid who’d gotten lucky out of college. Turned out, he was the most sought after quarterback in the college circuit and that the Hellraisers had got lucky with a No. 1 draft pick that they traded with another team from the season prior.
“Out of everyone though, you were the most willing to help me,” Luke said. “This fucking idiot,” he slapped a hand on Mason’s chest, “tried to get me dropped to third string.”
“You called the goalpost a ‘basket,’” Mason responded. “I wasn’t about to have you hitting me in face with footballs.”
“I was on board with third string,” Brett said. “When you asked me what ‘hut’ meant, I was ready to punch you in your goddamn face.”
After a lot of drinks and laughs, the sun began to set, and by that time Christian had called me to find out where we were to meet up. Christian, Cody, Bram, and Kent met up with us at the tiki bar and we continued drinking into the night.
“Hey guys,” Kent started after a while. “I really promised myself that I wasn’t going to get all emotional and sentimental, but getting married has a way of doing that to you.”
I started to poke him and whine. “Awwwww.”
Kent swatted my hand away. “I’m serious. I’ll admit, I’m scared, but I love Anna and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for us, but I know that I couldn’t have done this without you guys. Having you all here… it really means a lot.”
“To the groom,” Cody said, holding up his cup.
“To the groom!” we resounded, and then everyone threw their cups together sloshing drinks around and even spilling some on the table.
“We’re really the ones who should be thanking you,” Luke said. “Not only is it an honor to be involved in your big day, but spending time on this island is amazing!”
Bram held up his cup. “To vacations on someone else’s dime!”
We all tossed our cups together again, laughing as we cheered. “Hey, maybe tomorrow we should all have a huge game of beach football,” Luke proposed. “If the doctor and the accountant can keep up.”
“Don’t you worry about me keeping up,” Bram said. “You just worry about how you’re going to explain that you lost a football game to an accountant.”
“Damn! The gauntlet has been thrown down,” I barked. “I wanna be on Bram’s team.”
Mason patted Kent’s chest. “You in, Mr. Retired-and-Almost-Married?”
Kent nodded with a bright smile. “I’m down for sure. As long as you guys don’t mind the girls tagging along. Anna told me she wants to get a tan for the wedding, so we were already planning on being on the beach tomorrow, Khloe included.”
“I’ll fucking drink to that,” Luke said. He held his empty glass in the air and a waitress walked over. She was skimpily dressed, wearing a black mini-skirt and a tankini that showed a lot of cleavage. “Can we get another round over here please?”