“What did I do to Dair?”
“Brainwashed him into believing in love.”
She moved toward me suddenly, eyes narrowing, a sharp finger jabbing into my chest. “Brainwashing is what turned you off of love. Maybe you’re just getting a much needed reprogramming.”
I warded her off with my hands, giving her a wide berth as I maneuvered around her and stepped outside. “Stop it! Begone, thot! My head is not your playground!”
I left her laughing behind me as I made my way to Ro. If my stubborn assistant wouldn’t behave, I’d just have to stick closer to her.
She was in the water with several other women, and I moved in right beside her like she’d been saving me a spot.
She hadn’t, I was just more willing to crowd her than anyone else. Personal space was taking a vacation until she was dressed and sober again.
She had a plastic cup in her hands and when she was listening to some crazy story Frankie was telling, I took it from her and set it down on the side of the pool.
Without comment, she found it and picked it up again, taking a long drink.
The next time she was distracted, I took it again and downed it in one gulp. I grimaced. It was a too sweet but still boozy as hell berry margarita. The perfect recipe for the world’s worst hangover.
I wasn’t worried about a hangover for myself. I was built big enough to take a lot of just about anything without consequences. But her tiny body combined with rarely drinking then drinking too much concerned me greatly.
Ro wrenched the cup from me and stared into it like she could will her drink to come back with thoughts alone.
Ro was drunk. It was stressing me out.
I waved down one of the waiters. She leaned down and I said, pitched too low for Ro to hear, “This one doesn’t need any more strong drinks, okay? She’s had enough.”
I thought that was settled but shit-stirring Frankie smiled at me as she handed Ro her own, still full cup.
I glared. “I always knew you were a bit evil,” I told her.
She shrugged, looking very amused. “No one ever implied that I wasn’t.”
“Where’s your girl?” I asked her.
“She’ll be here any minute. Why, you going to get her drunk as revenge?”
I glared harder. “Maybe I should.”
“Give it your best shot. She could drink everyone here under the table, I guarantee it.”
Frankie shouted for another round of shots.
I shouted for another round of waters.
I took Ro’s shot for her and made her finish her cup of water down to the last drop.
I had my arm around her to keep her steady as she drank but pulled away the second I could.
Frankie slapped her own arm like she was killing a bug and looked at me pointedly. “I think you’ve got a bite there, Turner.”
My brows drew together. “Mosquitos? I haven’t noticed any.”
“I didn’t say it was a mosquito. I think you’ve been bitten by the love bug.”
Everyone in earshot laughed like that was hilarious. I pointed at her. “You stop that.” For some reason they all just laughed harder.
Sure enough, Frankie’s girlfriend Estella showed up a few minutes later and took a few shots straight off without missing a beat.
Frankie tried to turn it into a drinking contest. Normally I’d have been game, but I nipped that in the bud right away. I was not getting drunk when Ro was like this. I needed to be sober enough to take care of her if she couldn’t take care of herself at the end of the night.
Just about everyone ended up in the pool as the party raged on, and when I was distracted, Ro even managed to get a few more drinks in.
I was worried about her. She was laughing a lot but not saying much, which was the opposite of her real personality.
Drunk Ro made me miss sober Ro.
It was dark out by the time my friend Carter made it to the party.
Carter was another author, a successful and prolific one, but much like me and Dair, no one would have guessed it by looking at him.
He was built huge, he’d played football in college and even coached high school football to this day, with messy brown hair and warm eyes and a smile that made him look as harmless as a hunky teddy bear.
He’d shown up already in his swimsuit and shirtless, and he was ripped, head to toe, his abs shredded beyond all reason.
“Wow, who’s that?” Ro whispered. “Oops, did I say that out loud?”
Not accustomed to being overlooked, even in favor of my hottest friends, I was highly insulted. “Wow?” I asked her in my sternest voice. “He’s not more wow than me, I hope you know.”
“Yeah, but you’re crazy. He looks sweet.”
“Not your type at all. Look away.” I covered her eyes when she just kept staring. “And for your information, he’s as much of a slut as I am, he’s just sweeter about it in the morning.”
Several people were laughing at our quiet but vehement interaction.
Iris, in the pool now and standing in the circle of Dair’s big arms, was laughing the loudest.
“That’s Carter,” Iris said, answering Ro. Ro pushed my hands away from her eyes and looked at the other woman. “He’s a romance author and a high school teacher.” She giggled adorably. “Can you imagine? His female students must be losing their minds…”
Iris and her penchant for older men was well-known and even documented now in the form of a marriage license.
And why did women love the fact that he wrote romance so fucking much?
I rolled my eyes. “First of all,” I told Iris, “you’re screwed up, but I think you know that. And second, so is he. He doesn’t even need the money. He’s rich. He teaches because he likes it.”
I caught the look on Ro’s face and saw that she found that charming.
Barf. “Stop that,” I told her quietly. “Bad girl. If you don’t stop looking at him, I’m going to send you to bed with no supper.”
She looked at me like I was the one out of line.
Louder even than the background music was Iris laughing at me. I tried to ignore that she-devil completely.
Carter was still making his way to us, slowly, because of course every woman between us and the door stopped him for a long, tight hug.
“Poker’s at your house next month,” I told him when he was close enough that I didn’t have to raise my voice.
I’d maneuvered myself so I was standing directly in front of Ro.
He looked around, holding out his arms to indicate the party at large. “This does not count as you hosting poker, I hope you know.”
Ro tried to peek around me, but I shifted with her, effortlessly blocking her view. I could and would do this all night.
“I saw people playing poker earlier,” I said. “It’s not my fault you’re late.”
He shrugged and smiled in that good-natured way of his. “Okay, my place for poker night next time, fine.”
Another round of shots came by, passed around the pool in little plastic cups on a big tray, courtesy of evil Frankie.
I dumped Ro’s in the pool while she watched. She grabbed at another. I dumped that too.
Carter waved the tray away without taking one. “I work in the morning. No shots.”
He was just too good. I couldn’t imagine him getting so much as a parking ticket. When we talked women, he even managed to make sleeping around seem harmless. He was friends with every one of his exes. They all fucking loved him. It was unnatural.