Teagan laughs, but I’m not as easily amused. “Good girls don’t even know what acid is.” No sooner do I get the words out than Axel joins our small circle and offers his sister’s hair a quicktug.
“I think I pulled a muscle just watching you two on the dance floor. How’s school going?” Axel is sporting his signature look, a suit and tie, looking tall, dark, and dapper per his usualself.
“Great, now that we’re on the countdown clock.” Teagan sounds repulsed by the idea of school in general. “It sucks that all of the fun in life is actually taking place over at WB, and we’re forced to miss out for an entire solidyear.”
“You could go to the games,” I offer. “I’m sure the school would be happy to give you a campus tour,too.”
Axel folds his arms across his chest as if he suspects a set of horns to sprout from the two of them. He might beright.
Colby tips her head toward Teagan. “Or go to the keggers—or go to thebar!”
“No,” Both Ax and I say in unison, and they happily flip us each the finger with a smile and scoot back to the dance floor where they came from—where they probablybelong.
“Dude.” Ax takes a seat and grinds his palm into his eye. “We are so screwed once they get to Briggs. You do realize we’re not dealing with a couple of good girls,right?”
I swat him with the rag draped over my shoulder. “You realize you’re not supposed to vocalize that stuff out loud,right?” I’m only partially teasing. “Now the universe has to oblige.” My mother told me that once. Be careful what you speak.Words have powerhas always been her mantra. She’s a high school English teacher, so if anyone knows it’sher.
I slip Axel his favorite bottle of beer, and he nods a thankyou.
He takes a sip and shakes his head at me. “So, what are we going to do about Raven?” The look on his face makes it feel as if we had a body to disposeof.
I glance over to the entry and spot her gesticulating wildly to Lex, and per usual Lex looks unmoved by whatever dilemma she’s presenting. Last night bounces through my mind, her lips on mine, and dammit to hell, for the life of me I couldn’t appreciateit.
“What do you mean?” I try not to look as if she has the power to get megoing.
“Lex gave her the boot.” He shakes his head wistfully before downing a third of his beer. “Apparently, she’s a real slob, and Lex can only take so much. That and the fact Lex is selling her place and moving in with me. We plan on tying the knot shortly after Levi and Low get back, so we’re trying to get all the messy details out of theway.”
“Messy details, huh?” I look up as I spot my favorite messy detail headed this way with Lex herself. “Rumor has it, you’re homeless.” I glance to her sweater from last night as a testament to this. Come to think of it, her hair looks a little messy, and her mascara is doing that hot smudged thing that drives me wild on a girl. Hell, it drives me wild onRaven.
“No thanks to my new best friend,” she smears it with all the false enthusiasm she canmuster.
Lex picks up Axel’s drink and toasts him. “And good thing you weren’t there this afternoon. The realtor just called and let me know it sold over asking price.” She and Axel whoop and high-five, but Raven looks as if she wants to murdersomebody.
“Great”—Raven motions for me to get her something to drink—“so glad I could be a tiny blip on the screen of yoursuccess.”
Lex sneers at her. “Since you’re so quick to assist me, I have one morerequest.”
“What’s that?” Raven grouses. “You need a kidney?Bothkidneys? Or better yet, you’d like me to voluntarily impound my car so that I might be both residentiallyandvehicularly challenged. Would you like my vast and extensive—readexpensive, stiletto collection as well? My two frontteeth?”
Lex rolls her eyes. “As if I’d dare dip a toe into those cesspools you walk in. I want you to take myjob.”
“Not everything I own is diseased!” Raven careens right past the joboffer.
Lex’s mouth falls open. “So, you admit those things you let proliferate all over the floor are incubating theplague?”
“You’re disgusting.” Raven’s cheeks pinch with color as she looks to me. “I, however, am not. Isn’t that right,hubby?”
“The Piña Colada Song” starts to croon over the speakers, and Axel helps Lex to herfeet.
“They’re playing our song,” he says cheerfully. “The two of you can spar about hygiene later.” He offers Raven a warm smile before he mercifully leads Lex to the dancefloor.
“She’s a handful,” I say, handing Raven a Shirley Temple. “And so are you. How about we cap the hubby talk before your brothers get wind ofthis?”
She sticks her tongue out at me, and my boxers twitch. It’s something she used to do when she was just a kid, but the older she got, it started to feel like aninvitation.
“So, you up for the job?” I ask, despite the fact I know the answer. I doubt Raven would be caught dead wearing an apron. She’s a snob—a loveable one, but still a snob. “It could lead to good things—like anapartment.”
“As if.” She shoves the maraschino cherry into her mouth and plucks it off the stem. “I have an MBA and background in advertising. You can’t afford me,Wolf.”
