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spices from the buffalo sauce sent a tingle through his nasal passage. He stifled a cough and took his first bite.
    Before starting her dinner, Kara excused herself and headed to the ladies’ room.
    Hunter looked over at Ellen, who grabbed Brendan’s napkin from his lap and applied a playful dab to the jerk sauce at the corner of her fiancé’s mouth.
    “Now that you’re engaged, I can tell you this,” Hunter said to Ellen. “As independent as you always were, I never thought I’d see the day you’d settle down and get married.” He shot a conspiratorial look toward Brendan. “You must see something in her nobody else can see.”
    “Digging for it tends to wear me out, but there’s a price to everything,” Brendan replied.
    Ellen rolled her eyes. “I never realized it before, but if you crack the same jokes over and over, they do sound more clever with time.”
    Hunter had known Ellen for as long as he could remember. Ellen was the type of girl you’d hear about on the national news from time to time, the feature story of the middle-school girl in a small community who wanted to join the boys’ football team. Ellen had several female friends and maintained a feminine side that rendered no doubt about her sexual orientation. That said, while coming of age, she had related to guys as buddies more than flirts. Nonetheless, the guys had managed to view her as nothing less than female. Ellen had never lacked a date in high school. She’d proven a popular female with effortless appeal and brass balls, the Lisa Marie Presley of Hudson High School. The cheerleaders had hated her for it.
    Ellen nudged Hunter, a knowing look in her eye. “Now that your significant other has left the room, why don’t you tell us how your relationship is really going.”
    “We’re fine.” Hunter wiped buffalo sauce from his hands and reached for a wing from the jerk basket.
    “Uh-uh!” Ellen shook her head. “I’m not buying that.”
    “What do you mean? Where’s that coming from?”
    Now Brendan rolled his eyes. “Ellen, let it go. He doesn’t want you putting him on the spot.”
    Hunter gave him a quizzical look. “You’re in on this too, whatever it is?”
    “She has this idea ...”
    “It’s not an idea. It’s nothing much,” Ellen said, “it’s just—”
    “She thinks something’s askew, ” Brendan added, wrapping the final word in finger quotes and drawing out its last syllable in a hinting, teasing manner.
    “I can see it in your eyes, that’s all,” Ellen said, ignoring her fiancé’s jest, a look in her eye that said, Come on, don’t try to hide. “I know you, and I know when something’s off.”
    Hunter took a pull from his beer. A long one to buy himself a few seconds to think.
    “I guess you could say it’s maybe gotten a little, well, distant.” Hunter said.
    “Distant? For her or for you?”
    “For me. As far as I can tell, she’s content. Maybe distant is the wrong word.”
    “It’s lasted six months. That’s a new record for you.” Ellen smirked. “Maybe you’re not used to settling down.”
    Brendan leaned his forehead against his fiancée’s. “Give him a break, Ellen. Considering how long it took you to settle down ...”
    “Fine,” she said. “Point taken.”
    Hunter finished off another chicken wing. He grabbed another napkin from a small pile the server had left on the table and wiped his fingers. He shot Ellen a wry look. “You’ve never been Kara’s biggest fan to begin with.”
    “Speaking of her, did she fall into the toilet bowl? Where is she?”
    Hunter scanned the room and caught sight of her standing at a table near the restrooms, chatting with another couple. “Looks like she ran into someone she knows.”
    Ellen finished a wing and washed it down with a drink. “I like her. I’m not the biggest fan of you and her. ”
    “Babe, don’t say that. And by the way, Kara’s adorable.” Brendan grinned. “Not as adorable as you, of course. You’re