“That’s the spirit!” She pats my leg before leaning back at the other end of the couch. “Now, what are we watching tonight because Shane’s an asshole, so I’m sleeping over.”
After two bottles of wine and a bag of popcorn, we’re giggling on the couch when the front door flies open.
Nik shoots up. “What the fuck, Shane. Go home. It’s girls’ night.” Her words come out a little slurred.
“Yeah, and you aremygirl. No way you’re sleeping in my Grans’ house without me.” He walks over and wraps his arms around her.
“I’m still mad at you, fucker. Get off me,” she snaps, pushing at his limbs to get free.
He drops his hand to her waist and whispers, “Come on, baby. I want to go to bed. It’s been a shit day.”
“Yeah, well your sister’s had a shit day too, no thanks to you, so she needs me more.”
“Um, for the record, I don’t. I’m headed to bed.” I stand from the couch, balancing our glasses in one hand and the popcorn bag in the other. “I really don’t give a shit if you sleep on this couch or in his bed so long as you’re not in mine. You’re a blanket hog.” I make my way to the kitchen.
“I am not!” she snaps.
“See, she doesn’t need you, and you kind of are,” Shane pleads, wincing.
She smacks his arm before glaring at him and pointing her finger. “Fine, but you are still in deep shit.”
“I promise I’ll make it up to you,” he whispers, but the house is silent.
“Gross! If I hear even a peep of what you two are doing in there, I will throw you both out of this house.”
Nik and I have managed to get the majority of the kitchen and living room done. Now, against my better judgement, she’s convinced me to take a break from our week-long cleaning binge to have a girls’ night.
While I wait for Nik to pick me up, I dial Jess.
She picks up on the second ring. “Hello?”
“Hey, how’d it go this evening?”
“Fine. Casey picked Maggie up about an hour ago. How’sRavens Ridge?”
“It’s fine.” I laugh. “Gabe showed up.”
“What! When?”
I kick my feet up on the coffee table and grin to myselfthinking about Gran swatting them down. “When I got here Monday night.”
“How am I just now hearing about this?”
“I haven’t had a chance to tell you. You’ve had Maggie every time we’ve talked.” I’m not about to have this conversation in front of my kid. “It was horrible. He acted so strange and then stormed out.”
“Wait. You let him in the house?”
“No! He just barged in.” Because Gabe Abbott is a brute, who doesn’t understand when he’s not welcome apparently. “Anyway, Shane says he talked to him. So hopefully that’s the end of that.”
“Was he an ass?”
“He’s always an ass, but Jess…” I groan. “He looks good. Like, really good.” I think I could actually melt right off the couch thinking about it. Shouldn’t it be illegal to be that damn sexy if you’re a complete and utter jackass?
“I’m not surprised. He was a smokeshow before, but that doesn’t make up for him being a piece of shit.”
“I know. I wasn’t saying I’m gonna hook up with him or anything. I just…”I trail off for a second, trying to collect what it is exactly that I’m saying. “It was just harder to see him than I imagined.”
“Oh, before I forget, did you order something for Maggie?”
