Chapter 71

“Actually, Chris, I’m not sure you’ve met my friend Josh,” I segued, taking one step back so they could shake hands and say hi. “And this is his son, Maka.”

“Wow,” Chris exclaimed, scrutinizing Josh more closely, then looking at Maka. “Your son?”

“Yeah, I got kind of an early start,” Josh boasted.

Chris shook Maka’s hand and thanked him for coming.

“What did you think of it?” he asked, sensing he was shy, but gently trying to include him.

“It was pretty good. Pretty funny, I guess.”

A rave review indeed, seeing as how it was basically the first complete sentence we’d heard from the kid all night. Josh placed a proud, paternal hand on his son’s shoulder. Maka blushed lightly, but didn’t shrug him off.

“So are you guys coming to Marzipan’s?” Chris asked.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Katie said, looking at Francisco, who’s always up for an outing once the babysitter’s on the clock, and then at me.

“We haven’t talked about it,” I told Chris. “I’m not sure we knew anything was going on.”