“Hey, kick back to the old days,” one of them said.“This one got a name?Have you proposed yet, Ozzie?”
Was that…?Were they talking about her?
“Elle Jones,” she said, walking away from the Ozzie guy who’d answered the door.“From Brooker Agency.”
“Ah!”the guy who’d spoken before said.“Another one.”
“I appreciate it’s been difficult for Mr.Collier to find someone suitable.The right fit can take time.Getting it right is important, this is a valuable relationship.”
At least that was what she told herself.
“That’s what you say,” chatty guy said to Ozzie, now returning to the others.“Still haven’t found Princess Charming.”
“Better goal than yours.Your bed posts are toothpicks.”
All three of them laughed.Hmm, okay, close, confident, at ease.
“Would you like a drink?”Ozzie asked, maybe noticing her scrutiny.
“I suppose I am technically off the clock,” she said, wandering around the island.“What do you have?”
“There’s beer,” one of them said.
Glancing over her shoulder, each of the guys raised a bottle.
“Not a beer fan.”
“Might be scotch,” Ozzie said, putting down his bottle to scuttle around to her side of the island.“Won’t get wine.Don’t get a lot of women around here.”
“Yeah, we do,” chatty island guy said.“When we throw a party.Been a long time since we had one of those.”
He had to be Collier, didn’t he?Why hadn’t she searched for a picture?Because she didn’t believe in it?Maybe.Likely.People were nosy.The internet could be a vicious enemy.Having lived through scrutiny like that, she believed in making her own decisions about a person based on nothing except experience.It wasn’t her right to go prying into someone else’s life without permission.Snap judgments tended to be momentously incorrect, but after making them, they were hard to shake.
“Long time,” Ozzie said and leaned closer.“Collier’s going through a dry spell.”
“Oh.”What did that mean?He threw out all the liquor?As Ozzie went to look in the fridge, her attention swung to chatty guy.“Why?”
Chatty guy smiled.“Question I ask myself every day.”
“I shouldn’t pass judgment, I know,” she said, opening cabinets looking for alcohol.“Maybe it’s good for your health.Who knows?”
Apparently this swearing off things was going around.Maybe it was some internet trend she hadn’t caught up with yet.
“I know,” Chatty Guy said.“It’s not good to keep that in.”
What in?
“Think you’re objective, Noble?”Ozzie asked, closing the fridge.“You go into withdrawal if you haven’t had pussy for twenty-four hours.”
Ah, they were talking about sex?
Ozzie spun to her, his mouth open, shocked contrition on his face.Had he forgotten she was there?
Chatty Guy laughed.Not Chatty Guy, Noble.Though the name was kind of ironic if he was a manwhore.Not that she considered that a negative term.Maybe he was going through his own wild phase.Now that trend she could get behind.
And, woo-hoo!Paydirt.Scotch!
She took the bottle from the cabinet.“Don’t worry, I’m not offended,” she said, returning to the glasses she’d spied before.“I’m the proud owner of my own pussy, why would talking about it offend me?”
