"So you all know each other through The Girls?" Luke asked, genuinely interested. "You sound like you hang out a lot. I know you live in the same area, ish?" Sabrina had said they did, anyway, but he didn't want to make too many assumptions.
Tom flung himself back in the booth. "Yeah, we all live around Denver. Craig's actually the newest recruit to the Girls' Club. Well, until you."
Luke laughed out loud. "Is that what—who calls you that, them, or you?"
"Us," Derek said hastily. "Don't let them know. They already think they rule our worlds."
"That's because they do," Cole said. "But yeah, Gina and Tom have been together forever. Since college?"
"Yeah, since our sophomore year. We broke up for a while when she went to grad school and I was trying to make the band work, but it turned out to be the kind of breakup where we talked for three hours every night anyway, so she came back out to Denver after getting her master's."
"And the band?" Luke didn't know if he should know about that, but Tom flashed a grin.
"Turned out I'm better at sound mixing than sound making. I work for a recording studio here, but I quit playing a while back. It's worked out pretty good. What did you say you do?"
"Physical training."
"Right, yeah, that makes sense, you're huge. Anyway, so yeah, me and Gina are the old marrieds, Derek's been with Jan for what, seven or eight years now?" At Derek's nod, Tom gestured toward the remaining two men. "Cole's been datingKeana for longer than Craig and Mindy have been together but we met them at about the same time because Kee was playing it super close to the chest, whereas Min has exactly zero chill."
"That is true," Craig said like a man imparting a secret he should never admit to. "But you didn't hear it from me. So it's just been Sabrina out there on the East Coast holding her own as the lone singleton in the group for ages, and I swear if I was her Iwouldhave hired a boyfriend for the weekend if I had to, because Mindy reallydoesn'thave any chill and also thinks everybody should partner up. Did she hire you?"
Luke, halfway through a sip of water, choked and coughed and wiped his eyes before wheezing, "No, but thanks for the vote of confidence. Is she that far out of my league?"
"I told you she hadn't," Tom said complacently. The other men laughed, and Derek shook his head.
"No, you're right in her league, assuming you've got an innate ability to compromise, which I gotta tell you, Sabrina lacks. Hey," he said as the others went 'ooooOOOooooh,' like he'd said something dangerous. "It's true. Mindy has no chill and Sabrina has no compromise. Which is why she's made junior partner at a firm you don't usually hit that at before you're forty, and also why it's better for the whole group if one or the other of them lives far away from the other."
"Really." Luke put his water down and leaned on the table, interested now. "Why's that? Do they fight when they're together? Sabrina didn't mention that."
"Not really, but only because they have different priorities. A couple times, yeah, they really clashed over stuff they both thought was important and when you've got one person who won't chill and one who won't compromise it can get dicey. The other three are easier-going."
Cole barked a laugh, and Tom laughed, too. "I didn't say they wereeasygoing, just easier.Jan and Gina are both pretty get-along, though. They like being part of the crew and don't mind somebody else being the queen bee. Keana's a force of nature and doesn't suffer fools gracefully, which iswhyshe didn't introduce Cole until she was sure of him, but she's always been like that. If something's important to her, she makes certain of it and then tells the rest of them how it is, and everybody is like 'okay then.'"
"Yeah, that's fair," Cole admitted. "Nobody wants to get on Kee's bad side, because she'll just walk away from the whole relationship. It's incredibly hot. But yeah, I've seen Mindy and Sabrina get into it a couple times and they managed to move on."
"I'm having a hard time imagining Sabrina getting into it," Luke said. "I know she's passionate, but we've just hadfuntogether so far."
Laughter, applause, and warnings ofyou'll see!flooded him from all around the table, though Derek reached over to clasp his shoulder momentarily. "That's great, though. That's what we wanna hear. We want her to be happy."
"Yeah," Craig said cheerfully. "Or we'll break your kneecaps."
Luke's rabbit, still mostly asleep, mumbledI'd like to see them try,and Luke, feeling like one of the guys, grinned around the table. "Warning taken. Now that we've gotten all the threats and posturing done, is it time to head back to the hotel and crash? Because I got up a long time ago in a different time zone, and I'm betting tomorrow's going to be a busy day."
CHAPTER 9
Luke had come staggering in at about four in the morning, which Sabrina only knew because she'd only been back in their hotel room long enough to collapse into the bed before he arrived. He fell face-forward onto the bed himself, pulled a pillow over his head, and Sabrina knew nothing else until her alarm went off ateight-thirty, which was just about the most inhumane time she could imagine after a late-night bachelorette party. She fumbled for her phone, turned the alarm off, and before she could think about it, hauled herself out of bed toward the shower.
The hot water did far less to wake her up than she'd hoped, and the longer she stood there, the harder it was to get out again. Of course, Luke would probably want a shower, too, which meant…
…that he should come get in the shower with her, her mind supplied helpfully.
It was difficult to find a flaw in that conclusion, really. At least, with her current state of wakefulness, it was difficult. Sabrina was vaguely aware there were probably better answers, but for the moment, yeah, that one sounded good.
Sadly, nobody had told Luke about her clever solution, so he, being a good fake boyfriend who wouldn't presume, didn't join her in the shower. Sabrina finally groaned and turned the water off, regretting every life choice she'd ever made. Nothing could justify being up at this hour after a four a.m. bedtime. Especially being up at this hour after a four a.m. bedtime when she had a hangover. Not a terrible one, all things considered, but still, a hangover. She dried off, pulled a comb through her hair, and too late realized she hadn't brought any clothes into the bathroom with her.
With another groan, she opened the bathroom door a few inches, trying to decide on the best approach for getting dressed. First question was whether she could turn a light on, except?—
—the lights were already on, and the heavenly scent of coffee was percolating through the room. Sabrina, blinking in bleary astonishment, poked her head out of the bathroom and croaked, "Luke?"
