“Oh, 20 to 30 percent of children and teenagers are afraid of needles,” Penny said casually.
“Charkov is 25. Can you still call that juvenile?”
“Leon is 23 and acts like a child. So…yes,” Lucy said, taking a long sip of her Long Island iced tea.
“Hm.” Penny narrowed her eyes. “In adults, only about 3 percent have belonophobia.”
“Belono…what?” Maddie asked, frowning.
“Fear of needles,” Anna translated.
Lucy snorted. “How do you know that word?”
“I’ve studied medicine, no idea what Penny’s excuse is.”
“I remember useless things and statistics,” she said with a sigh. “It’s a gift and a curse. In the bathroom the other day, I calculated Leon’s odds of success with women. Unfortunately, I now happen to know that around 82 percent of the women he ever hits on would go home with him. Oh, also: Did you know that Spain has the most bars in the world?”
Grinning broadly, Lucy saluted her. “Always nice to have you around, Penny. But, please, never tell Leon those odds because then he’ll be crushed by the weight of his oversized ego, and even our clever doctor Anna won’t be able to save him!”
“Oh, maybe he could be revived with a kiss from his true love,” Maddie remarked with a smile. “I’d find her for him, and if that worked, it would be the best advertisingMatch Me!ever had. Sleeping-beauty kisses are the best!”
“What?” Lucy looked at her sister, irritated. “Creepy kisses, where only one party is conscious, are the best?”
“They’re romantic,” Maddie protested.
“As romantic as an iron as a birthday present,” Lucy said incredulously. “The best kisses are wall kisses.”
Anna tilted her head. “What’s a wall kiss?”
“Well, those kisses where you’re pushed against a wall and then thoroughly smooched senseless,” she replied with a grin.
Ah, those. Yes, Anna liked those too.
“No. I like forehead kisses,” Penny interjected. “Forehead kisses areI love youkisses.”
Anna laughed. “No. Forehead kisses areI’m much taller than you and it’s too hard to reach your mouthkisses.”
Lucy snorted. “That’s so true!”
“Well, then you tell us what kind of kiss is best,” Maddie said, laughing.
“Hmm.” Anna frowned and thought of Lucas. Obviously, she was thinking of him. She hadn’t been close to anyone else’s lips in a year. He’d kissed her in a hundred places. In a hundred positions. In a hundred ways. But what she liked best was… “I like kisses that start with someone putting their arms around you from behind. When he can’t reach everything with his lips but tries anyway.” She swallowed. “Until he turns you around to kiss you properly. Because he can’t wait any longer.”
Maddie sighed, but Lucy looked at her knowingly. “Whokissed you like that — and is he hot?”
Anna’s cheeks turned decidedly warm. “No one has…”
“Oh, that means there is someone!” Penny concluded immediately. “Come on. You can tell us. Your annoying brothers aren’t here.”
She laughed nervously and was glad when Maddie changed course; she was looking toward the door and murmuring, “Oh, great. Mister Hot Arrogant and his henchman Mister Charming Innocent are here.”
They all turned and looked in the direction Maddie was looking.
“Excuse me for a moment,” Lucy’s sister murmured. But, instead of getting up, she just kept turning. She smiled sweetly at a tall, blond man in a suit who had just stepped onto the terrace. She raised her middle finger.
The man stopped and raised his eyebrows, but the man in a suit next to him, whose dark red hair bore a strong resemblance to Michael Fassbender, laughed loudly and patted his friend on the shoulder. The first man sighed heavily before he turned his back on their group and headed for a table as far away from them as possible.
“You never have to apologize for middle fingers, Maddie,” Lucy said, laughing, while Anna craned her neck and decided theredhead must be Mr. Charming Innocent because his friend’s cool stare simply screamed Hot Arrogant.
