Jude doesn’t answer. All of a sudden his hand feels heavy and lifeless on my leg. I watch Duncan’s eyes slip over to Levi and then to Tessa before he stands up and announces, “Come on, boys, I’ll show you my man cave. And, Brian, I’ll kick your ass at Ping-Pong since you want it so badly.”
Levi and Brian stand; Jude doesn’t. Instead he turns to me, a look I can’t decipher on his handsome face. “Go,” I assure him, assuming he’s worried about leaving me. “I’m fine.”
He hesitates and then leans closer, so his lips are so close to my ear, they brush it as he whispers, “I’ll be back soon. Miss me.”
He stands and wanders into the house behind his friends. Tessa begins to collect the disposable plates. Carla grabs a fork and scoops up a chunk of what’s left of the decadent dessert. “Oh, sure, you want to clean up here, but when I lived with you, I couldn’t get you to put a coffee mug in the sink.”
Tessa rolls her eyes. “I cleaned, you liar. You’re going to miss an errant coffee mug when you now have to pick up dirty jockstraps.”
Carla shivers dramatically, her nose scrunched up and her lips pursed, and Abby and I laugh. Then Carla smacks the back of her fork against Tessa’s hand. “Stop. You’re a guest now. Relax and let me clean up after you without complaining.”
Tessa smiles. “I’m going to miss you, you psycho.”
“We see each other every day at work,” Carla reminds her. “Besides, you’re going to have a new roommate who will come with benefits I didn’t come with. Naked benefits!”
Tessa laughs again and smiles brightly. It’s not hard to deduce she’s going to move in with Levi. Abby finishes her margarita, and Carla moves to pour her another one from the pitcher on the table. “No. No. I’m going to have to deal with two toddlers in a couple hours. Can’t be a hung-over mommy.”
Carla turns to me and lifts the pitcher. “Any kids?”
I shake my head. “No. But I’ve got to work early, so I’m cutting myself off.”
“Damn. I was hoping to liquor you up to get you to talk,” Carla tells me with a grin. “I’m dying to know how you met Jude.”
“I knew him as a kid,” I explain, and before I can elaborate I’m greeted by three sets of falling jaws. “What?”
“I just…I didn’t expect that,” Carla stutters.
“I figured you met him at a bar or strip club or some team event or something,” Abby adds. Clearly the alcohol has loosened her lips. “That’s usually where he finds his women.”
“Abby!” Tessa scolds and gives me a sympathetic smile.
Abby looks instantly embarrassed. “Sorry. But in my defense, who would have thought a woman could know him that long and still be talking to him?” she blurts out, and then covers her mouth. “I’m sorry.”
Wow. She doesn’t like Jude very much at all.
“So you’re from Toronto?” Tessa asks me quietly.
“No. I met him in Maine. I used to live there when I was a teenager, and his family has a summer house there,” I explain. “My parents moved to Sacramento when I started college, and we lost touch, but I ran into one of his sisters a few days ago, and well, then I ran into Jude. He invited me along tonight so we could catch up.”
It seemed easiest to keep it vague like that. I remember Dixie saying she didn’t want people to know she was related to him, and I’m not sure if any of them are in on the secret. Why are all three of them staring at me like I’m some kind of extraterrestrial?
“So, like, did you date him?”
Tessa smacks Carla’s arm as soon as the question leaves her mouth. I laugh at them. “No. Not exactly. But I had a huge crush,” I admit.
“I can see that,” Abby replies, tucking her dirty-blond hair, ends still damp from the hot tub, behind her ear. “I mean, he’s hot as hell to look at, and I imagine as an eighteen-year-old he was way less of a jerk.”
“Abby!”
“What?” she asks Tessa innocently. “That was a compliment. Sort of.”
“Come on, Tess, not all of us are as forgiving as you,” Carla tells Tessa with a pointed stare. Tessa looks instantly uncomfortable and glares at Carla for a second before turning to me, her face morphing into a smile.
“Small world, huh?” she says. “That you know him and we know you. It’s a happy coincidence!”
I nod, but I can tell there’s something else, something more than even the disdain I’m seeing, behind this conversation.
“Hey, Sunset, I think it’s time to get you home.” Jude’s voice fills the evening air, and I turn to find him standing in the doorway, one arm up on the frame, which pulls his white shirt up to reveal a sliver of tanned skin and the tip of an unbelievably cut external oblique muscle that until this moment I’d only ever seen on TV and movie actors.
