“Shots!” Saxon calls over the heads of the surrounding females.
I feel a hand on my waist, and I look down to see the cute brunette he was dancing with earlier looking up at me with slow-blinking doe-eyes.
“You’re a really great singer.” She smiles shyly, and I think about this.
She’s a cute girl. I’m not dating anybody. I don’t have the prospect of dating anybody, and I’ve already noted I’m not going to make things weird with Dove. At the same time… I’m not really feeling drawn to anyone else at the moment.
“Thanks.” I smile, taking her hand off my waist, but still holding it in mine.
Her brow furrows. “You have a girlfriend?”
“No… not really.”
“Boyfriend?”
A laugh huffs from my throat. “No, I’m not really into that. Not that I’m opposed or anything.” Then I wonder how that sounds. “I’m into girls.”
Her lips curl into a cute smile, and she tilts her head to the side. “I’m a girl.”
“Yeah…” Sax holds a shot glass directly in front of my nose, and I’m not even pissed.
“You trying to steal my girl?” he shouts, putting his arm around the young lady’s shoulders. “What’s your name, darlin’?”
Her expression changes to irritation, and she moves her shoulders as if she’s trying to escape. “Lindsey.”
“That’s right. You trying to steal Lindsey away from me?”
I laugh, glad to let my buddy get me out of this one. “No, sir. Just heading out.”
He groans and starts complaining, but I hold up the glass, do the shot, then head for the door. I don’t know why I waited so long to start using our car service.
3
DOVE
My rideshare driver pulls up in front of the cute Los Feliz bungalow I recognize from last year, before Christmas.
Dr. Platt helped me set up the interview with Dr. Smithfield at CalTech in which I told him our fears for the orchard. He agreed to let me take an independent study semester with him, helping with his research, and learning all I can about the disease as part of my post-graduate work.
Once we’d finalized the details, I decided to stop in and visit my childhood friends, Haddy and Gina Bradford in the hopes they could help me find a place to stay for one semester.
Next thing I knew, they had me set up in Haddy’s old room in this house the girls shared with Maverick.
“You made it!” Haddy’s voice comes from across the street, where she now lives with her husband and baby girl. “How was your flight?”
Turning, I see her smiling and running to meet me with baby Lucy on her hip.
My chest rises as I use two hands to haul the suitcase holding pretty much everything I own from the back of the silver Kia.
“It was long!” I laugh, reaching out to hug her.
The driver takes out my two smaller bags then waves before hopping back inside and pulling away. Lucy kicks her chubby legs, and I lean down to kiss her rosy cheek.
“Hi, Lucy! I’m your friend Dove!” She looks exactly like Haddy, with dark-brown hair and big blue eyes.
She coos and blows bubbles, and Haddy and I both melt intoawwslike it’s the first time a baby’s ever done that.
“I’m just going to have to steal her away from you, okay?” I squeeze her chubby baby leg before stacking one of my bags on top of my rolling suitcase while Haddy grabs the other one.
