I pat his shoulder. “I’m passing the torch, buddy. It’s all yours.”
He looks like I just gave him a winning lottery ticket. I can’t fully absorb how sad that is. I honestly don’t want to. Carter lumbers up to the bar just as the bartender plops down a salt shaker next to the shot glasses and lime wedges. “Hey, ladies, this is Carter. He’s a new teammate, and we always like to let them do the first shot. What do you say?”
I’m looking directly at the brunette, and she’s looking back at me, her face a mix of confusion and disappointment. “What about you?”
“I don’t drink tequila.” Luckily, no one calls me on that bold-faced lie.
Carter looks confused, but she’s cute, so he’s smiling. She seems to agree with the cute assessment, because she nods and reaches for a shot glass. I watch them do the shot, but her eyes are on me while she licks Carter’s neck, which makes me feel gross again. When Eddie goes to do his shot with the darker-haired girl, he’s grinning wildly. As soon as he drops the lime, as gracefully as a wild boar doing yoga, I turn and head directly for the exit.
No one notices, or if they do no one stops me, and that’s what counts. On the sidewalk I take a deep breath and start walking. I’m not even sure where I’m going. I just know I’m not staying here.
25
Zoey
I pour the last of the Pinot Grigio she brought into her glass and put the bottle back down in the small wine bucket. Dixie points to it. “That is the coolest thing. I need to get one of those so I don’t have to keep pausing my Netflix show and running to the fridge to refill.”
I laugh. She talks about Netflix a lot. I love good TV too, but Dixie’s life seems to be nothing but work and Netflix. No chill. She’s a bright, beautiful young girl, so that kind of bums me out.
“Yeah, well, Adam left a lot of the appliances and all the wineglasses and gadgets because he hates wine. He only drank scotch,” I explain as I take a sip of wine.
“Ugh. Scotch. Men think it’s so sexy and tough. You know what’s sexy? A man who can drink a piña colada with extra maraschino cherries and not think it takes away from the size of his penis,” Dixie proclaims as she reaches for one of the grapes on the cheese plate I made and pops it into her mouth.
I’m laughing at the smirk on her face, which is so much like her brother’s, and the oddly specific reference. “Is there a specific piña colada–drinking male you think is particularly sexy?”
“What?” She flushes. “No. I’m just being vague, not specific.”
I can tell by the flustered way she answers that she has someone very specific in mind. This night just got interesting. But before I can weasel more information out of her, she changes the subject.
“I liked running into you the other morning.” She smiles.
“I’m sure it’s not the first time you’ve found a girl doing the walk of shame out of your brother’s apartment at seven in the morning,” I note and let out a sheepish laugh. Dixie came by to see Jude on her way to work a couple of days ago just as I was leaving to run home and change for work.
“Yeah, but it’s the first time I’ve been happy about it,” Dixie replies and runs a hand through her bouncy blond hair. “And was it really shameful? I mean, to me it’s only a walk of shame if it’s a tawdry, meaningless hookup.”
Her blue eyes are laser focused on my face waiting for my reaction. It’s cute. “It’s not meaningless, no. Not for me, and I don’t think for him.”
Dixie’s face morphs into another bright smile, but after she takes a sip of wine her voice becomes cautious. “Jude isn’t exactly great at relationships. I mean, he hasn’t had a lot of them to learn from.”
It seems like she’s apologizing for him. “He’s doing fine so far. I mean, if he considers this a relationship. We haven’t really defined anything.”
I blink, stunned by the sudden change in her expression. She looks kind of horrified. “You guys should have the talk. I know it’s awkward and everything, but Jude is…Jude is a better person when he’s given rules.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s just like I said: he’s only ever had one serious relationship, and he didn’t treat it very seriously,” Dixie says and pauses to take a sip…no, a gulp…of wine. “I love Jude. I give him all the crap I can, but he’s honestly the best brother and son that ever existed. I know he’ll also be the best boyfriend, husband and father in the world one day too. He just might make a few mistakes on his way there.”
“Whoa now.” I laugh and take a big gulp of my own wine. “We don’t need to talk marriage and babies here. We’ve been involved with each other for just a few weeks.”
Dixie laughs sheepishly. “I know. Sorry! I’m getting ahead of myself. It’s just we love you, and you and Jude would make such cute babies.”
My smile twitches, but I manage not to let it fall. Dixie doesn’t notice and keeps on talking. “He loves kids, by the way. He’s so great with them when we visit the children’s hospital with the team. I want him to have girls so we can teach them how to drive him crazy like we did.”
The way she’s talking is sweet, and she’s so full of love and hope it’s making my heart hurt. She wants to be an aunt one day. She wants her brother to be a father. I may not be able to provide that for them. That realization feels like a cold breeze invading the warm, dreamy cocoon I’ve been living in.Relax, Zoey, you and Jude are nowhere near that.
The doorbell rings. I’m not expecting anyone, but I’m happy for the interruption so we don’t have to keep talking about this. Dixie instantly puts down her wineglass and climbs up on the back of the couch, craning her neck to see if she can see who is on the stoop from the bay window behind her. I laugh at her. “Are you still scared of serial killers and monsters?”
I’m kidding, but she gives me a pretty serious glance. “Yes. I am fairly certain you should always be scared of serial killers, like your whole life. And psychopaths. And clowns.”
