“What are you doing?” Jason asked as he came out of the bedroom. He was wearing shorts and a sleeveless shirt. She took a moment to admire his tan skin, his still-damp hair and his gorgeous smile.
“Making charcuterie.” She assembled the crackers, jams and nuts she’d brought on the board as well.
Jason grabbed a cube of cheese and popped it into his mouth. After he swallowed, he said, “You have amazing talents.”
She tilted her head back so he could give her a kiss. “Thanks.”
“I have chicken and steak marinating in the fridge.”
She paused. “When did you have the time to do all that, and clean the house?”
“I had the day off. Lots of time.”
“Such a Renaissance man.”
He laughed. “Yeah, baby, that’s me.”
“Truly. You’re like a unicorn. You cook, you clean, you’ve renovated your entire house . . .”
“Almost. There are still a few things left to do.”
She rolled her eyes. “Never satisfied, are you?”
He shrugged. “I like projects.”
“You like to stay busy.”
“True that.” The dogs were at the back door wiggling their butts, so Jason went over there and let them out, then closed the door. “Hot as the seventh level of hell out there. I thought about setting up table and chairs out there, but I don’t know that anyone’s going to be interested in sitting out there, even after the sun goes down. What do you think?”
“I think I’m enjoying your air-conditioning and everyone else will be, too. But some of the guys might want to hang out with you while you’re grilling, and you’ve already got that covered with the lawn furniture you have out there, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So you’re good, I think.”
“Perfect.”
The doorbell rang, and Jason went to answer it. Suddenly a crowd of people were in the house. Their friends from the boat—Vince and Summer, Daria and Mike—followed closely behind by Clay and Alice.
And, of course, like a lot of parties, people congregated in the kitchen. Jason passed out beers and opened bottles of wine. Erin finished the salsa and set it in the fridge to cool, then pulled out the guacamole she’d made before she left the house, along with some shrimp dip she’d made as well.
She also pulled out the sangria she’d made.
Jason came up behind her. “When did you make all this?”
“Today. Some before work, some after.”
“Thank you. I’m glad you’re my partner.” He pressed a kiss to the side of her neck, causing tingles to shoot down her arm.
Partner. Such a strange word. She shouldn’t read too much into it since he’d just said it in passing. But he didn’t say girlfriend, either. He probably just meant partner in this event tonight, and he didn’t mean anything else.
Fortunately, she didn’t have time to obsess over it because other people showed up, including her sisters.
Honor brought a date, some guy named Walter who Erin didn’t really care much for, but Honor was all hopeful about this guy.
Erin hoped it was a casual thing because Walter was a know-it-all. If you said you’d done something, he’d done it already. And better. If you claimed to know something, Walter knew twice as much about the topic as you did. Honor had met him at one of the weddings they’d thrown. He was a deejay and had worked the wedding, and Erin would bet the guy wouldn’t know monogamy if it bit him in the ass.
Right now, Walter was staring at Daria’s ass. She would’ve liked to say something to Honor, but since her sister claimed it was just casual, she’d let it go.
For now.
“Walter’s a class-A douchenozzle,” Brenna said, coming up to stand next to Erin as they both sipped glasses of sangria.
“You noticed, too, huh?” Erin asked.
Brenna nodded. “Total windbag. I don’t know what Honor sees in him.”
Erin sighed. “He’s smart. Good-looking, for sure.”
Brenna shrugged. “Good looks only go so far. Man has a roving eye.”
He’d moved on to checking out Alice now.
“For God’s sake,” Brenna said. “Can’t he keep his eyes on Honor for five minutes?”
“Apparently not.”
Brenna started forward. “I’m going to say something.”
Erin laid her hand on Brenna’s arm. “Don’t talk to Honor.”
“Oh, I’m not talking to Honor.”
Brenna moved through the crowd. Erin hung out at the kitchen island. One, to make sure drinks stayed refilled, and two, to keep an eye on Brenna.
Honor was distracted, talking with Alice and Clay, so Brenna pulled Walter aside. Erin had no idea what her sister said to Walter, but whatever it was made Walter’s skin go pale. He nodded in rapid succession. When Brenna left, Walter made his way to Honor and put his arm around her. Honor looked up at him and smiled.
Brenna came back and offered up a smug smile.
“Did you threaten his life?”
“More like his livelihood. I told him to stop checking out the ass of every woman in the room, that I know every event planner in this state, and if he didn’t knock it off I’d make sure he never booked a gig again.”
Erin’s brows knit together. “Do you know every event planner in the state?”
“Of course not. But he doesn’t know that.”
Erin laughed. “Well done.”
“I still think one of us should warn Honor away from that jerkoff.”
“You’re probably right. We’ll talk to her tomorrow.”
She hated that her sister was much too nice to weed out the bad guys. Poor Honor always gave her dates the benefit of the doubt, always went in with such high hopes, and her hopes were always dashed. She dated such losers.
Erin’s gaze gravitated to Jason, who was definitely one of the good guys. Who cared about one chosen word? She was lucky to have him in her life, to know he cared about her.
Everyone destroyed her charcuterie board, which made her very happy. There wasn’t one grape or nut left. Not even crumbs. Clearly everyone came hungry.
And dinner was great, with fajitas and rice and salad and watermelon. Everyone hung out inside and seemed perfectly happy to stay in where it was cool. Except the guys, of course, who had to “help” Jason grill the meat outside, where it was a million-degrees hot.
“Dudes,” Alice said as they sat around the table and ate. “I don’t understand their need to hover in groups over a steamy hot grill and drink beer.”
“Harkens back to their caveman days, I think,” Erin said.
“And they say women travel in herds,” Daria said. “I can guarantee you that you’ll find a larger group of men huddled together at a gathering like this than you will women.”
Summer nodded. “Whereas women tend to mingle with everyone.”
“Probably because we’re better at conversation with both sexes,” Erin said.
“Wait.” Jason looked over at her. “You’re saying women are better at something?”
“Yes.” She arched a brow for emphasis. “Care to argue the point?”
He looked at her for a second, then shook his head. “No, ma’am.”