Sophie felt Asher’s eyes on her as heapproached. Silently, he pulled up a stool to sit in the cornernext to her. Publicly, he acknowledged her with little more than alook and maybe a polite greeting, but, under the table, his legpressed against hers like a magma-hot magnet. Even the small amountof denim-to-denim contact set her on fire, words and coherentthought flying right out the window.
Distracted, she didn’t notice Grady settlingin opposite. He stretched his foot across and rested it on herstool footrest. Subtly, she kicked it as if she hadn’t noticed hisfoot was there. He politely apologized for the intrusion, and shepolitely apologized for not realizing his foot was there.
Perky-big-breasted-ex-lover of Asher’ssuddenly appeared out of nowhere with the pitchers and glasses. Shepoured Asher’s until the glass overflowed, her eyes batting as shevied for his attention. “Hey Asher,” she gratuitously flirted asshe leaned forward to give him a little extra attention with herimpressive cleavage.
Lips tight in a forced polite smile, heacknowledged her, “Irene. Hey.”
Irene looked for a way around the table toget closer, but he was boxed in the corner. Tapping her foot asfrustration overtook the poor thing, she finally gave up and walkedaway. Pippa rolled her eyes and poured beers for the rest ofthem.
Moments later, Irene reappeared with thesnacks. And her phone number on a napkin. With a lipstick kissunder her number. She slid it across the table to Asher beforewaggling her curvy ass as she walked away.
With a curse under his breath, he stood fromhis stool, taking the napkin with him. Approaching Irene at thebar, he handed her back the napkin and whispered something in herear. Irene’s face dropped and she looked so dejected.
He whispered again, and she hugged him andgave him a big, toothy grin before she let him walk away. Irene’ssudden change of heart made Sophie wonder what on Earth he’d saidto her.
Staring at her brother like he was a totalalien stranger, Lincoln manually closed Pippa’s gaping jaw. Sophiecould just hear Lincoln telling Pippa, “Told you so.”
“Told her what?” Freya nabbed the cheesiestchip from the stack, loaded it with guacamole, and shoveled it inher mouth, leaning forward for a bit of juicy gossip.
Lincoln looked around, ensuring Asher wasn’tyet within earshot yet. “I think he’s seeing someone. Like, off themarket.”
Grady shook his head, looking puzzled, “Ithought he never left the house, who could he possibly beseeing?”
Freya bit her lip to hide her smile.
Pippa rolled her eyes and gesturednone-too-subtly at Sophie. “Who cares, as long as he’s getting outand isn’t making moves on–”
As Asher approached, Pippa cleared her throatand changed course. “Starting work for Dad soon, right Asher?”
Sliding in the corner next to Sophie again,he returned to his stool. “That’s the plan,” he admitted as hecautiously sipped his full-to-the-brim beer, discreetly wiping theoverflow off the saturated cardboard coaster.
Conversation strayed to varying topics, fromthe bizarre to the mundane. Freya came stocked with bachelor partygames, but fortunately was easier to tame than her mother. “Okay,so no one wants to play Truth or Dare and a fatnoon theScavenger Hunt. Too bad, I had some pretty awesome cluesplanned.”
A combination of eyerolls and polite smilesaimed at Freya and her determination to play one of herwell-researched party games. “Okay. Tough crowd. It was a longflight,” she sighed deeply in dramatic disappointment, but smiledand shrugged with an unshakable positivity. “How aboutNeverHave I Ever? The version where you win if you’ve Never’ed themost. You know, whoever is the most innocent and gets to all tenfingers-of-innocence first is the winner. Not the drinking version;we’re too old for that nonsense.”
Pippa giggled, “But we’re not too old tocompare inappropriate things we’ve done.”
Asher finally was able to take a full sip ofhis beer now that he’d drained off some of the excess head Irenehad generously given him. Stomach acids churning, Sophie feltnauseous at the image that provoked. He swallowed the bubbly brewand raised his eyebrows at his cousin, “What are we, still in highschool and trying to figure out who’s still a virgin and who hasexperimented with drugs?”
Pointing with his index finger around his ownnearly drained seasonal brew rather haughtily at Asher, Gradylooked a bit… irritated. “Afraid you’ll lose, frogman?”
Stiffening, Asher downed half his beer with achug worthy of the most seasoned sailors. “IknowI’m goingto lose. More to the point, you afraid you’ll win, boy scout?”
“Sorry, that was the one activity my dearparents didn’t enroll me in. Try again,” Grady shrugged and setdown his beer.
Topping off glasses for the table, Freyaadmonished the bickering pair before it escalated. “If you’re goingto compare dick sizes, let’s do it properly. Sophie, you’re theonly female unrelated to both contestants, care to be the judge?Let’s go boys.”
Sophie choked on her beer. “As appealing asthat sounds, why don’t we just try a different game?”
Apparently, Grady was in full jackass mode.Sophie had never seen him act like this before. Nor Asher; he wassitting eerily still, but he looked like a bull ready tocharge.
Grady extended a finger, heatedly watchingAsher for his reaction, “I’ve never killed anyone.”
Growling, Asher puffed steam out of hisnostrils. His jawbone was flexing a mile a minute, his arms tensingas he held back a well-deserved punch.
Sophie subtly reached down and put her handon his vibrating knee. He wasn’t wrong; you didn’t push a veteranon something like that. Especially as she suspected there was alittle misplaced guilt embedded in his PTSD.
Wanting to avoid a fight, Lincoln quicklytried to tame things. “I’ve never smoked pot,” he extended a fingerand smiled at his excellent life choice.
