“So, hey, T-Rod,” Reed says, smiling at me like a shark. “If cheesy pick-up lines like Keane’s don’t work on a smart-girl like you, whatdoeswork? I’m taking notes.”
My chest tightens. Without meaning to do it, I glance at Ryan. If he was plotting Reed’s murder before, he’s now plotting a nuclear holocaust in which, somehow, Reed’s body would simultaneously serve as both the bomb and the target.
I clear my throat. “I never said cheesy pick-up lines don’t work on me. It just depends on the messenger. I remember this one time, a hot guy in a bar said a line to me that made me putty in his hands.” I pause, suddenly feeling myself blush. “I’d mentioned to him that I speak Spanish because my dad grew up in Argentina, and we were talking about high school, and he goes, ‘If I met you when we were both in high school, I would have been on you to tutor me likeblancoonarroz.’”
I shoot Ryan a secret smile and his eyes blaze.
“Blancoonarroz?” Henn says, abruptly lifting his head like a Golden Retriever whose owner just threw a tennis ball. “A guy said that to you in a bar?”
I nod. “And Ilovedit.” Again, I shoot a quick look and smile at Ryan.
Henn beams a huge smile at me. “You speak Spanish, T-Rod? I don’t think I realized that about you.”
“Mmm hmm. My dad’s from Buenos Aires originally.”
“That’s so cool,” Henn says. “You know, I just realized I know hardly anything about you. Like, for instance, how old are you?”
“Twenty-seven. And you?”
“Thirty. Where’d you grow up?”
“Los Angeles. You?”
Without warning, Ryan stands abruptly. “So, hey, you guys ready to head to dinner? Looks about time.”
“Absolutely,” Kat says, bolting up from her chair and standing alongside her brother. “Let’s go. Right now. I’m starved.Let’s head to the restaurant right now.”
Everyone gets up from the table and begins shufflingen masseout of the bar, but Henn’s such a sweetheart, he lags to the back of the slow-moving group to walk with me and finish our conversation, instead of walking up ahead with his best friends.
“I grew up in Fresno, to answer your question,” Henn says. “What’s your sign, Tessa?”
“Virgo. Yours?”
“Sagittarius.”
“I don’t know anything about astrology,” I say.
“Me, either. But Kat does.”
Right on cue, Kat is suddenly walking alongside Henn and me. And then Ryan’s right here with us, too, along with Colby, as the rest of the group walks ahead, chatting animatedly among themselves.
Now that Colby’s walking with us, our small group slows down a bit to accommodate him, letting the rest of the group go on ahead.
“So you’re a twenty-seven-year-old Virgo from L.A. who speaks Spanish because your dad’s Argentinian, huh?” Henn says. “I feel stupid I didn’t know any of that about you before. Hey, out of curiosity, have you ever—”
“Henny!” It’s Kat, shocking the hell out of me by practically shrieking his name. She grabs Henn’s hand. “Oh, my darling Henny! Can I talk to you for a second, love?”
“Sure.”
As Kat pulls Henn away and begins whispering in his ear, my phone pings with a text from Charlotte.
“Shoot,” I say, reading Charlotte’s text. “Hey, Kat,” I call to her. “Sorry to interrupt you. Charlotte just texted me: she can’t make it to Maui.”
“No?” Kat says. “Shoot. I was really hoping to meeting the legendary Charlotte McDougal.”
Henn grins. “Charlotte McDougal?”
“Tessa’s best friend,” Kat says, grinning at Henn.
