“The what?” I tuck back a notch to get a better lookather.
“You heard me.” She winces as if trying to control a laugh. “It’s my archnemesis.”
“Arch nemesis?” I’m completelyamused.
“No, I’m serious!” She throws a pillow at me. “The damn thing is tricky. I don’t like tricky. Life is trickyenough.”
“Amen to that.” I pluck the pillow off my chest and fling it across the room like a Frisbee. “And your passion in life? Let me guess—the ardent use of the exclamationpoint?”
She tilts into me with a sweetness and innocence that only the truth can bring out in a person. “To find someone in life who makes me feel as magical as you do.” Her lips tug down as if she were holding back tears. “Who knows? Maybeit’syou?”
A lump forms in my throat, and I push through the pain. “Maybe itisme.”
Gently, I clasp the back of her neck and draw her in close. My mouth meets with her sweet lips, and the room, my body, my heart detonates in a shower of sparks that I have never known before. Her tongue moves inside my mouth like a melody, like a song that I’ve heard on a loop that’s been playing in the background all along. Low and I turn the volume up all night, losing ourselves in those magical kisses like a couple of teenagers. It feels good like this with Low, safe, necessary on a primal level. Ironically, I never felt any of those things with Mer. Nope. This is something new. Something magical that I don’t think I could get fromanybodyelse.
I wouldn’twantto.
Monday at the bar,after that all-night lip-lock with Low, I’m mopping the counter with a goofy grin on my face as the afternoon winds down. Low was sleeping in when I took off. I can’t blame her. In fact, I wish I were right there with her, holding her while we both got some restful shut-eye. It’s her night off, so she might just be sleeping right through the evening for allIknow.
I glance down at the text Raven sent last night, but I was too busy toanswer.
Who the hell is this Evie chick? Do I need to hop on my broomstick and head back to HollowBrook?
I take a moment to text her back.Please don’t. It’s the one bit of normalcy I’ve had in a year. Evie is a cool chick. You’d approve.I hitSend, knowing full well Raven would be the last toapprove.
A bubble lights up next to her name, and I can see she’s already texting me back. It doesn’t surprise me. Raven’s phone never leaves her hand.UGH! I hate that you’ve met someone, and I’m not there to vet her. We all know what happened last time. I should be back in town in a couple of weeks. Will she still be around? My God, she’s not a permanent fixture,isshe?
I think on this for a moment and answer the only way I know how—with the truth.Hell yes,sheis.
Brody comes up with that curious frown only he seems to haveperfected.
“What are you grinningabout?”
“Nothing. I’m not grinning. I don’t believe in happiness, remember?” A dull chuckle bounces from me. I happened to say that to him just before Christmas, and he’s been busting my balls over it ever since. It’s true, though. Or at leastitwas.
“What’s up with you?” I ask. “You’re the one that should be grinning. I saw you take off with that redhead Saturday night. She looked hot. Anyfireworks?”
“Only the best kind.” He slumps over a stool. “I took her home. It was short and sweet, and it made me want to vomit. I don’t know. I’m too old to catch a girl on the fly and take her home. I need to pull it together before my dick falls off, orworse.”
“What the hell is worse than that? On second thought, I’m not sure I wanttoknow.”
“All the good ones are taken. It’s happening, you know. We’re about to hit our mid-thirties. This one-night stand shit doesn’t fly the way itusedto.”
“You’re not that guy.” For as long as I’ve known him, he’s only had a handful of one-nighters. He’s a two or three-nighter, something just this side of a commitment-phobe.
“Yeah, well, I’m that guy now—or at least I was. I’m thinking about serialdating.”
“The rest of the world refers to it as arelationship.”
“Yeah, that.” His brows jump because he can’t bring himself to say it, let alone do it. “What about Low? She’s a cool chick. She looks hot in those skirts, and don’t get me started onthoselegs.”
“Nope.”
Brody is a leg man—a thigh man to be exact, closely followed by a breast man. Basically, he’s an equal opportunity connoisseur of a woman’s body. That’s exactly why I’ve kept him the hell away from Raven. That’s one body he doesn’t need to look twice at. I made it crystal clear to him when we were kids, and he’s never wavered, not once. And God knows Raven loved to parade around in her two-piece bikini in front of all of my friends each and every summer from thirteen and up, but for the most part, I’ve never had a problem with my buddies trying to hit on mysister.
Brody ticks back a notch. “What do you mean,nope? She’s single. She’s told me so herself. And she’s totally cool. After we closed the other night, she played a round of cards with the busboysandme.”
“How much she takeyoufor?”
