It was a step in the right direction, I constantly reminded myself when I looked at the bill when it came in. And I was only maybe a year away from being able to make it my full-time job. That was a conservative estimate. I was just a little worried about the winter season and didn’t want to quit my day job until I made it through what was sure to be a leaner season, party-planning-wise.
I pushed open my door, flicked on the light, and nearly let out a shriek at the figure of someone lounging on my cute little blush pink sectional.
“Layna!” I yelped, quickly closing the door behind me. Not only was she spread across my couch, but she was doing so in nothing but a pair of black biker shorts and a sage green leisure bra.
“Hey you,” she greeted, sticking her hand inside a bag of corn chips.
“Yeah, hey. But also… what the heck are you doing here?”
“Crashing,” she said, gesturing around.
Sure enough, she had a duffel bag open on the floor, the contents spilled all over. The couch featured a blanket, pillows, and the hoodie she must have discarded at some point.
She had a stream of a pro gambling game on the TV and had clearly raided my coffee station, given the scattered sugar packets and used mugs.
“Okay. And the follow-up to that would be… why are you crashing at my office?”
“Well, I lost my key to your apartment.”
“You don’t have a key to this office either.”
To that, a wicked little smirk spread across her gorgeous, super feminine face, making her chocolate brown eyes look lit from within.
Was Layna a criminal? No. Did she know how to pick locks? Of course. We all did. It was part of our survival training as kids. It was a skill I hadn’t practiced in years. Layna, though, clearly still knew what she was doing.
“Ooh, you brought me coffee!” she said, unfolding her long, willowy body from the couch, pausing to grab a clip to pin up her wavy mass of brown hair before grabbing the iced coffee from me.
“That was for me,” I said, but without any real annoyance. If I knew she was crashing at my office, I totally would have brought her a coffee. That was just my nature. I liked doing things for people, surprising my loved ones. It was what led me down the path toward party planning in the first place—all the little surprises I’d lined up for the people in my life and how much they’d enjoyed them.
“We both know you get a little twitchy with too much caffeine,” Layna said as she walked over to the mini fridge to get some ice out of the freezer for my low-ice iced coffee. Then shewent ahead and put some coffee syrups from my rack in it as well.
“So, why would you crash on my office couch instead of at your parents? Or with Ariah and Kit? The club? Any of our aunts or cousins?”
“I’m only in town for a night or two,” she admitted. “And I know how things go if I crash with an aunt or one of our cousins with little niblings who would want me to hang around.”
“Fair. But Kit and Ariah don’t have kids.”
“I love everything Kit and Ria have done out there on their farm, but I’m a city girl, through and through.”
I also loved visiting the farm, but I had absolutely no desire to be covered in dirt all day like our cousins were.
“The club?” I asked. “I mean, my sectional is nice, but there is no shower here.”
“Listen, have youseenthose new prospects?”
“Who?”
“Spike and Cain.”
“Oh, right. Yeah, I’ve seen them.”
“Then you know why I can’t stay there.”
“I’m missing a vital piece of information here.”
“If I crash at the clubhouse, there is no way I’m not going to hook up with one of them. And then our cousins would be all pissy and kick them out of the club and blah, blah, blah,” she said, waving a hand out. “More trouble than a few wicked good orgasms are worth. Even if Spike gives total ‘fuck you into the ground’ vibes. And Cain has all that repressed cop stuff that I bet makes him a filthy talker…”
“Dry spell?” I asked, giving her a smile.
