Lane thinks for a moment. “And having someone who knows people could be a good thing.”
“Trust me—the people I met in Brooklyn aren’t the kind you’d want to know.”
“That’s why we should at least take Firebird for a spin.”
Been there, done that.Amy’s parted thighs suddenly flash before my eyes. I swallow hard.
“Don’t you feel the tiniest bit grateful?”
“Of course I do, Don! Don’t get me wrong, I’minsanelyhappy I got the Dodge back. I’d give her free trips for life.”
“So, why are you so hung up about this?”
“Why areyouguys so hung up about it?”
He shrugs. “I’ve just got a good feeling about her. Don’t ask me why. She’s giving me a vibe.”
“A ‘here comes trouble’ kinda vibe?”
“Talk to her about it again,” Adam suggests. “Figure out what she’s thinking; check how serious she is about getting herself cleaned up. There’s one semester to go before we decide—at least give her a go. Put her on a trial.”
Lane nods. “Second that. Get to know her a little, set some boundaries and see what happens. If it doesn’t work out, at least you gave it a shot.”
“Yeah, I might lose my kneecaps in the process, but no big deal, am I right?”
I sigh. The truth is, I’m not as anti-Amy as I was before; having her join the team doesn’t freak me out as much as it used to. She showed me she definitelyisn’ta chronic staller. She loves cars as much as we do, too—she straight up went to New York, no questions asked. And she didn’t ask for anything in return, either. But something’s still bugging me—what I haven’t told my friends is that I broke the “Don’t screw your colleagues” rule. It’s all good between me and Firebird, but they can never know we slept together.
Don clears his throat. “You guys spent two nights in a motel, right? Just checking you didn’t…”
Fuck. I must have been giving a sex face.
He makes a circle with his fingers and thrusts his index back and forth while screeching like a dying cat, like I need showing how it works, and just as he reaches peak howl, Carrie steps into the room, pausing mid-bite while sinking her teeth into an apple. When Don realizes we’re all gazing over his shoulder, he clears his throat and spins around to his girlfriend.
“Hey, babe…”
“Stay classy, Wolinski.” She takes another bite. “You just lost the trophy, by the way.”
“What? Why!”
She narrows her eyes, and though Don tries to mirror her, he sucks at this.
“She scares me,” I whisper to Lane and Adam.
“Don’t think we’re letting you off the hook, Lewis.”
I sigh. “Christmas vacation is coming up—why don’t I decide once we’re back?”
“I’m spending Christmas with Lois’s family in Fort Myers and we’re bringing Jeff back with us,” Lane reminds me. “Remember whatwe said? We’re doing New Year’s Eve together, and we’re inviting our recruits so we can all bond and shit.”
“News to me—but you seem really into it.” I frown. “Is this one of Lois’s ideas?”
“Carter got it from Becca.”
“Because those two always have thebestideas…”
“I think getting them all together would actually work out great,” Adam counters. “If they make it to the end of onboarding, they’ll be colleagues—they need to start hanging out.”
“Yeah, and they all lived happily ever after.” I pull a face at him. “Amelia coming?”
