We both deserve better.
But what the hell wasbetter?
Her phone vibrated, and she glanced at the screen.
Hey, in the mood for drinks tomorrow night before we fly to Phoenix next week? I’m not inviting your brothers, I promise! But Penny and Maddie are going. Lucy
Anna smiled with relief.
A drink. Yes. A drink without her brothers wasbetter.
Chapter Thirteen
Thirteenth encounter
“Did you have a bad day?”
“Why do you ask?”
“You look unhappy.” One side of his mouth lifted in amusement. “Even though I’m here and half-naked.”
She laughed. “One orgasm from you can’t solve all my problems.”
“Ah,” he said, wrapping his arms around her from behind, his chest against her back, his mouth on her cheek, her neck.
She sighed, licked her lips, and drained her glass of wine. “But it can’t hurt, I guess.”
Lucas chuckled softly, turned her over, and cupped her face to kiss her properly…and she forgot why her day had been so awful.
Iwouldn’t want to be a hockey player,” Maddie said, finishing her tequila sunrise. “Not being able to drink during the season would drive me crazy.”
Anna nodded. “Dax didn’t even eat sugar when the NHL scouts were checking out college games.”
“It’s kind of like the Hawks are all pregnant,” Lucy agreed. “They have to go without for nine months, and at the end, they’re still exhausted and have to endure a lot of screaming.”
“That’s such an accurate summary, I’m surprised no one has said it before!” Penny said, laughing. “Their hormonal fluctuations are even worse during the season. Jack got sentimental yesterday when I swatted a mosquito because he thought he knew how it felt. She had traveled such a long, arduous way to reach her goal. And then, just before she fulfills her dream, I come along!”
Anna laughed. “I thought you were a vegetarian who couldn’t harm any animal?”
“Mosquitoes are the most dangerous animals in the world,” Penny said, pointing her cocktail umbrella at them all. “They kill over 700,000 people a year. I have no sympathy for them.”
“Oh yeah. Mosquitoes and spiders,” Maddie said.
Penny sucked in a sharp breath. “No! You’re not allowed to touch spiders. We need them for our ecosystem.”
“Well, my ecosystem needs another cocktail,” Lucy stated, nodding to a passing waiter. “Maddie and Anna too, right?”
“Oh yeah.” Anna sighed as they all ordered new drinks from the waiter. “Hockey players are exhausting. I need tonight before I have to spend fifteen hours a day with them at the away games next week.”
Penny smiled broadly. “You have two hockey brothers. You must have realized that they and their excessive testosterone are exhausting.”
“I knew they all had more ego problems and fewer teeth than the average person, but Jack and Dax at least used to let me fix them. My biggest enemies right now aren’t injuries but the words:I’m fine. I went to update Charkov’s tetanus shotyesterday, and he said:I’m fine. I’m too strong, tetanus too weak. He’s just too damn scared of needles.”
The women laughed, and Anna’s cheeks turned pink. She loved that Lucy had texted her and invited her. They were sitting at the Sunny Umbrella, Maddie and Lucy’s favorite bar right on Santa Monica Beach and a few doors down from Maddie’s Match Me! dating agency. Anna had liked the bar immediately because you could dance up front or go out back to the spacious terrace where it was quiet. Back there, you didn’t have to shout to hear each other. It also offered a beautiful view of the sunset, which bathed the sky in spectacular shades of pink and orange. She liked the company even more, though.
She’d never had many close friends. It was difficult to make friends at school when you weren’t brave enough to invite your classmates home. It was even harder to maintain friendships when everyone went to some Ivy League college, which involved tuition Anna couldn’t ever have afforded even if she’d sold all her organs, even with the scholarship. She had many friends from med school and the hospital, but medical students were categorically busy, and they’d never spent much time together outside work. Besides, she’d always kept so many stupid secrets that she’d never been able to fully open up. She’d always felt a little uncomfortable.
Penny, Lucy, and Maddie were such ridiculously warm people that she couldn’t help but relax in their presence.
