Page 109 of Nobody's Girl

Phoenix looked at the others and shook his head. “No, I’m still in. I just didn’t expect this kind of thing to happen. I thought they might play hard to get. But I never saw them getting mad at us. It’s just throwing me off my game, is all. I’ll get back on the right track.”

They all clinked their mugs of frothy beer and stayed firm on their bet without a clue as to what the women were aware of.

Chapter 14

Pots and pans clanked as the kitchen staff shouted orders to one another. Jess, Cait, and Kel stood to one side in a huddle, discussing the audacity of the men who had dared to show their faces at their pub again.

“In the ladies’ room?” Kel asked Jess after she’d told them where Griff had cornered her. “Well, that’s too much! I’ll tell the man he’s overstepped his bounds!”

“No!” Jess argued. “I’m not a little kid anymore, Kel. I can take care of myself. I did manage to get out of there with my panties still on, you know.”

Cait laughed as she cut her eyes to look at their Aunt Cathy, who was coming into the kitchen, looking for something. When she saw her three nieces, she came straight to them. “We need to talk, girls.”

Their rotund aunt’s cheeks were red, which meant she’d been embarrassed. The girls’ ire was up already. If any of the men had anything to do with what was wrong with their aunt, then the men had it coming to them in spades.

“Did anyone speak to you in an improper manner, Aunt Cathy?” Cait asked her.

When she nodded, Kel grew furious. “Tell me who and I’ll deal with him!”

“Well, my darling nieces, my demeanor is off as I’ve heard some … Well, some news that quite frankly I don’t understand,” Cathy said as she fanned herself. At 51, Cathy wasn’t exactly inexperienced in the ways of love, but she’d been married to the girls’ uncle for 25 years. She wasn’t used to hearing sexual things about any of her family.

Jess’ hand went to her hip as she asked, “What did you hear and who did you hear it from?”

“Your men,” Cathy said.

Kel’s hand went up as she said, “They are not our men! But what did the asses say?”

“They said that you three asked them to get cabs and take you to hotel rooms for the night to fornicate like animals!” Cathy blurted out, making the entire kitchen go silent.

Kel looked around as everyone was staring at them with gaping mouths. “No! No, that wasn’t how things went! And you all get back to work! We have hungry customers out there. Mind your business!”

Jess’s cheeks were scarlet as she asked her aunt, “Did they actually say those exact words, Aunt Cathy?”

“No, no they didn’t mention the part about fornicating like animals. That’s my personal spin on it. But they did say you all were coming on to them,” Cathy explained.

“We did,” Cait confessed. “We had our reasons, though.”

“Well, reasons or not,” Cathy told them as she shook her finger at them all. “You should never toy with people. You all were raised better than that. Now, I want you all to give those men at least ten minutes of your time. I want you all to explain why you did what you did to them.”

“No,” Kel said stubbornly.

“You will, or I’ll tell your grandmother what you’ve done, and we all know how long that sermon will be,” Cathy threatened.

“Damn,” Cait muttered under her breath. “That woman will give us all brand new Bibles with the sections she’ll make us read out loud to her paper clipped so we can find them quickly.”

“And then we’ll have to attend Mass with her for a solid week, every dang morning,” Jess added as she kicked the floor with her black non-slip shoe.

Kel stuffed her hands in her apron pockets as she griped, “And go to confession every evening. It’ll cost less of our time to let the guys talk to us for ten minutes.”

“That it will,” Cathy said as she huffed, knowing she’d won the battle. “You all are officially on a 15 minute break, my darlings. Make it count.” She herded her nieces up and pushed them all out of the kitchen. “Get to cleaning up your messes, girls.”

Kel saw the smiles on the men’s faces as they left the sanctuary of the kitchen. “There they are. And look at those shit-eating grins they’re all wearing.”

“I’m just going to let Griff talk, but I’m not going to say a word about why we ran out on them,” Jess said.

“Come on, girls,” Cait said. “Let’s toy with them some more. They want to come this far for us and their stupid bet. Let’s act as if we’ve all had a change of heart. We can blame it on Aunt Cathy.”