Her brows rose and she folded her arms across her chest, sinking into the chair across from me. “Listen up, dude. I’m the fun police and you’re about to get arrested for the serious lack of fun in your life right now.”

I chuckled but didn’t say a word. She narrowed her eyes at me.

“I even brought some muscle, should you foolishly refuse this opportunity to rehabilitate.” She raised a finger to her lips and let out a loud, sharp-pitched whistle. Heath came through the door.

“Well, there goes the neighborhood,” I said.

“So do you come along with us peacefully or am I going to have to twist your arm?” Heath said, cracking his knuckles.

“Hmm. You are making this such a tempting offer of ‘fun,’” I drawled.

“I have a whole army out there, including your cousin, so you better come along with us peacefully.”

“Yeah, don’t make me beat the shit out of you again,” Heath said.

“Again? That would imply a first time.” Perhaps he was obliquely referring to the cheap shot he’d gotten in when he’d been as overcome by his shock about Emilia’s condition as I had. We shared a long look. “Maybe you’ve been thinking those wet dreams are reality again?”

Instead of looking angry, Heath only grinned. “Pizza and video games, dude. Relive your adolescence.”

“Some of us never left it in order to relive it,” Kat quipped, shooting out of her chair. “Come on. Grab your keys, let’s go. I call shotgun in your car, boss.”

With a sigh of surrender, I got up, packed up my stuff in my computer bag and left with them.

The pizza was terrible, but the company great. We were joined by Connor, Alex, Jenna and my cousin, Liam. And sometimes people wandered off with their hands full of tokens to play games, then wandered back for some more beer and gross pizza. I’d set my mind to stay an hour and then find an excuse to wander home. Because as fun as they were to hang with, their presence only emphasized the lack of her. And that lack was like a giant, painful hole right now.

I finished up my one and only glass of beer and was about to stand up when I felt a hand slap my shoulder. I looked over. Heath grinned. “Can I have some more tokens, Dad?”

I raised a brow at him. “You don’t get any more allowance til next week.” I stood up. “I think I’m gonna get going…”

“I’ll walk you out,” Heath said, popping up and giving me no say in the matter. Okay, it was obvious he wanted to talk. I knew that he’d been up in Anza visiting Emilia the weekend before. I’d resolved not to ask him about her, no matter how badly I wanted to.

I said goodbye to the rest of the group, who all seemed disappointed I was leaving so soon, but once they realized Heath was going out the door with me, none of them said much—as if they all knew we had things to talk about. As torn as I felt about talking to him, I couldn’t see a way to avoid it.

It was quiet out in the parking lot of the strip mall where the pizza joint was. As it was ten o’clock on a weeknight in the somewhat sleepy city of Orange, it was peaceful. I clicked my car unlocked and turned, leaning up against the door to face Heath. “That was shit pizza,” I said by way of breaking the weird awkwardness between us.

“The games are good. What place do you know of around here that still has a working version of Tempest, Galaga and Asteroids?”

I shrugged, glanced out over the street where the occasional car that sped by. “With a day’s warning, I could have all of those set up in my arcade room at home.”

“Or you could just program your own.”

“I got my own game to work on.”

“How’s everything, anyway?”

“With the game? Great. We’re getting ready to unveil the preview of the new expansion at E3 next week. And then there’s Comic-Con in July.”

“Great.” He nodded, looking down at his feet and then shifting uncomfortably again. “And—and personally? You okay?”

I was silent, unsure exactly of what I wanted to share with Heath. We’d been friends for a long time but lately there had been tension between us, mostly over the way I’d handled things in my relationship with Emilia, whom he’d claimed over and over was as good as a sister to him.

“I’ll live,” I said.

Heath nodded. “There’s something I wanted to say to you…and I know things have been tense between us since Mia got sick…”

I folded my arms across my chest, leaned back against my car and nodded. “Right,” I said in a neutral tone of voice.