The Boys Are Back in Town Read Online Free PDF

it was simply that Tim was not one of them.
    “No shit,” Will said happily as he took a few steps back toward them and shook hands with Joe. “How've you been?”
    Joe grinned. “Never better.” But there was something in his tone, and in his gray eyes, that gave the lie to those words.
    “Good to see you, Will,” Tim said quietly.
    Will rocked on his feet and regarded the ex–football star, who was just as tall, handsome, and boyish as he had been back in the day. “What about you, Tim? What've you been up to?”
    “I'm coaching at Holy Cross.” Tim smiled, and there was a sparkle in his ice blue eyes. “It's not quarterbacking for the Miami Dolphins, but it's a great way to spend your days. Almost feels like I never graduated.”
    Will nodded. “I know what you mean. I talk to my friends from college and listen to them bitch and I figure, hey, I actually like what I do. That's pretty rare. I'm not complaining.”
    The two of them exchanged a look and Will was surprised to feel a moment of connection with this guy he had never really been friends with. Neither of them had accomplished what they'd dreamed about, but still they counted themselves lucky.
    The pleasantries went on for another minute or so before the entire group went into Liam's together. Will had said hello to Kelly, caught up a bit with Tim and Joe, but as they were stepping into the foyer of the tavern, the woman whose name he could not remember smiled at him shyly, even a bit flirtatiously.
    “Hey, Will. It's been a while.”
    Reflexively, he gave a hollow laugh. “Too long.” He hoped that nothing in his face would give away how completely clueless he was as to her identity.
Tori? Kerry?
She seemed not to notice and he was grateful when she moved ahead to catch up with Kelly.
    Inside Liam's they were enveloped in a cloud of wonderful smells. Waiters and waitresses weaved in amongst the tables, serving steaks that were still sizzling on cast-iron plates that would burn if you touched them. Will hadn't been inside Liam's in a decade, but the smell and the decor were so familiar it was like another sort of homecoming.
    The hostess confirmed that their classmates were gathering in the function room upstairs, and Will followed the others along a narrow corridor to the steps that led to the second floor. As he climbed he heard laughter and music drifting down toward him.
    Will had one final moment of trepidation; then, as he stepped into the room, it evaporated in an instant. He was a little early, but it seemed as though the party had started anyway. Dozens of people had already arrived, some of them eating dinner at the round tables, others mingling in front of the bar. As Will entered with Joe, Tim, Kelly, and the mystery woman—
Terri, pretty sure it's Terri
—a number of curious faces turned to look at them.
    Familiar faces. Older faces.
    His mind was on overload, sifting through them all. There was bookish Delia Young, now sleek and elegant, talking with Todd Vasquez. A group of perhaps a half-dozen men and women were gathered around Chuck Wisialowski at the bar. The faces of the guys—all of them ten years past their glory days on Eastborough High's hockey team—were just as pinched and sour-looking as ever. Laughter erupted from the group, and Chuck took that as his cue to knock back a shot of something. He let out a kind of snarl, the very image of a drunken frat boy.
    Chuck was the only person Will had ever had an actual fistfight with. He had always regretted that his history teacher, Mr. Sandoval, had broken it up. In his mind, forever and always, the guys who had been on the hockey team would remain a herd of slack-jawed goons. It was a prejudice he had accepted long ago. And from the looks of things, the years had not done much to alter either his perception or the reality.
    As Will mentally sifted through the other faces in the room he noticed something else as well—the spouses and significant others. At the tables they seemed