Lex scoffs. “And ruin everyone’s Christmas Eve? I could never do that. Besides, I need to cook the turkey and make sure the presents are wrapped. I’d be robbing my family of a true Christmascelebration.”
“Not if you let me cater the event,” Low offers. “I promise nobody will think you’re robbing them. If anything, they’re used to you running theshow.”
I give a slight nod. “Plus, this way you can have the entire restaurant to yourselves. The Sloppy Pelican isn’t open on ChristmasEve.”
“Yes!” Low rattles her like a ragdoll, trying to shake her out of her December twenty-sixthstupor.
“Fine,” Lex concedes with a tight smile. “But no bachelorette party on December twenty-third.”
“Oh, it’ll be way earlier than that. In fact, I’ll surprise you!” I say as Lex picks up her purse and heads for thedoor.
“I hate surprises!” she singsback.
Low and I share a quicklaugh.
“She is a barrel of fun.” I scowl, lifting my coffee as if toastingher.
Low’s affect falls, and the smile glides right off her face. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don’t think you should try to pursue anything withBrody.”
My mouth falls open. Low is usually the first to push me in any peniledirection.
“Why the hell not?” A part of me wants to reach over and pull out Low’s perfectly blonde coif with both hands. She can’t beserious.
She waves it off. “It’s nothing. It’s just…” She looks to the ceiling andgrimaces.
“Speak, Masterson,” I say it sternly, but we share a giddy smile over our shared last name. I always knew Low would make a great sister, and now she’s proving meright.
Low leans in, her features quickly morphing to worry. “Okay, but don’t tell anyone I said a word. Levi mentioned that he and Brody had a conversation at the bar the other night, and it sounded as if he were getting pretty serious about someoneelse.”
“Who?” I rack my brain trying to figure out who in the hell could have slipped underneath my radar. We’re together twenty-four seven for shit’ssake.
“I don’t know, some blonde chick.” She sinks in her seat as if I were about to deckher.
I suck in a breath. “Bo Peep!UGH.” I tip my head back at the thought of that little frilly-laced, two-faced Southern belle stealing my man. Leave it to fate to throw in a fairy-tale monkey wrench into myplans.
“I gotta go.” I collect my things and give Low a quick embrace. “Are you workingtonight?”
“In just a few hours. Will you bethere?”
“You bet. I think it’s time I outgun Little Miss Lost Her Sheep. I know where to find them, and it’s not at The SloppyPelican.”
I head home and shower and dress for a night that Brody Wolf will hopefully neverforget.
I meet him out in the living room, and his jaw roots to thefloor.
“You like?” I give a little spin in my blue sequined dress that I was saving for New Year’s Eve. But if everything goes the way I plan, tonight will be the night we’ll be popping the champs—as in Brody andme.
“Yes, I like.” He frowns and manages to look decidedly sexy while doingso.
“Good,” I say, looking at my reflection in the mirror and fluffing my hair with my fingers. “My favorite bartender won’t know what hit him. Tonight, I’m gifting Mojo myvirginity.”
Brody freezes. His eyes grow wild. His features harden tostone.
He doesn’t say a word all the way to The SloppyPelican.
Open mic nightbrings all the home warblers to the yard. It might be the reason the usual clientele has all but done a disappearing act and a much younger, far more boisterous crowd has moved in on itsplace.
I spot Low waiting on a table in the back and give a quick wave before heading to thebar.
