My hands itched to mash her plate of hollandaise sauce onto the front of her floral Dior halter dress.
“Why are you so upset about it?”Jamaica asked.“Did he make you uncomfortable?”As the second question left her mouth, her smile dropped right off her face.“Callahan likes him, but if he said something—or did something—you didn’t like, say the word.He’ll take care of him.”
He did something, all right.He’d invaded my thoughts and refused to go away, especially after I made the monumental mistake of agreeing to go out with him.
“Cash was a gentleman all afternoon,” I said from behind my mimosa before downing a long drink of it.
“Then what’s the problem?”Chessly narrowed her eyes.“Oh, I get it.You like him,” she teased.“You’reinterestedin him.”
I snorted and downed more of my drink.
“But you don’t want to be.”Piper leaned back in her chair, her gaze speculative.
Jamaica let out a laugh.“Sounds like someone else I know.”When she tilted her head in Piper’s direction, a springy brunette curl slipped from the tie-dye band she’d tried to tame her hair with today.
Piper rolled her eyes.
“Sounds like everyone else at this table,” Chessly chimed in.“Each of us sitting here has made our men work for us because we didn’t want to be interested—even though we were.”She finished with a naughty grin.
“Fine,” I huffed.“Cash is gorgeous.And he knows his way around a kiss.But everything about him screams ‘serious,’ and as you well know, I don’t do serious.”
“He asked you out, didn’t he?”Piper said.“That’s what has you so riled up.He asked you out, and you said yes.Tsk.Tsk.Tsk.”
I never should have brought Cash up at all.
“He wouldn’t have had a chance to ask if you’d only done as we agreed and been my partner.”
The server saved me from more teasing when I slumped into my chair in a pout.“Anything else I can get you?”
“Yes,” I said from the depths of my chair.“I could use another mimosa.Heavy on the champagne.”
“Make that another round,” Piper said.When both Jamaica and Chessly started to protest, she added, “Put it on my bill.We’re celebrating.”
With a nod, the server moved off to take care of our request.
“What are we celebrating?”Chessly asked as she tipped back what was left of her first mimosa.
“The art gallery I interned with over spring break is showing three of Wyatt’s pen-and-ink drawings as part of their summer collection—under my art business imprint.”
“That’s fantastic, Piper!”Jamaica gushed.“You’re on your way to building your art sales empire.”
After Piper returned from her internship in Denver over spring break, something had happened between Bax and her.Since then, all she’d been talking about was her goal of opening her own art gallery.Based on some of our recent conversations, I knew her parents were pressuring her to join the family finance firm, as they had since she started at Mountain State.Clearly, she wasn’t ready to cave in to their demands.
“Good for both of you,” Chessly said, grinning.
“Have you told your parents?”I asked.
“Nope.”Piper shot back the rest of her mimosa right as the server arrived with our second round.“Not going to either.I’m working at a small gallery here in town this summer.I saw what it takes to build a major gallery.Now I need to learn what it takes to create that success from the ground up.”
“How are you getting around your parents?”I asked, glad the spotlight had moved off me.
“I’m taking a finance class during the first section of summer school.Corporate finance will help me with how to build a network, navigate business loans—that kind of thing.It’s a smart choice for my goals, fulfills a general business credit requirement, and gets my parents off my case.Win.Win.Win.”She raised her glass for a toast, and we all touched our flutes together then swigged back some yummy orange juice-infused champagne.
“Plus, you get to spend the summer here with Bax,” Jamaica added with a sly grin.
Piper reached across the table and covered my hand with hers.“I get to spend the summer with one of my besties, since the other two are going back home for summer jobs.”
Jamaica pushed an errant curl behind her colorful headband.“Change of plans.I found a job working in one of the law firms in town.It pays about the same as waitressing, but I’ll be learning more about how the legal profession works.”She cleared her throat.“Callahan talked to the other guys, and they’re okay with me sharing his room for the summer.”
