“No. But Coach might be pierced. You never know.”
“Just my nips!” came Coach’s shout from the front of the plane.
A phone chimed, and Leroy’s voice cut through the chatter, speaking slowly, like you do to a computer. “Ask. Mara. About. Dick Piercings.”
Everyone laughed, but Owen kept his focus on me. “You still didn’t tell us why you’re buying two hot tubs.”
“Maybe one isn’t for me,” I jabbed. My ears felt hot and I hated it. This was a matter of how good of a friend Owen was to me. I felt like I’d put in the time, and here he was, subjecting me to whole team scrutiny.
“That’s nice of you to get one for your mom, Jingle, but I already did,” Dottie stated.
“Nice one,” Sorrento said.
Owen was still watching me, narrowing his eyes. “It’s Chef, isn’t it?”
“No.”
“Yes, it is. She came over to your house for your little cooking lessons, and I bet you had to show off your hot tub. You alwaysdo.” Owen squinted at me. “And I saw that little video of you two online. You like her.”
“No, I don’t,” I rushed to say.
“That came out a little quick,” Cordero breathed. Great, now my childhood idol was picking on me too.
Okay, that was kind of cool.
Leroy guffawed. “Why would Chef go into your house?”
“She’s giving me cooking lessons, and she won’t let me go to her house,” I said miserably.
That made everyone relent. “That tracks,” Leroy said.
“Oh, makes sense,” Sorrento added.
“Well, my friend, you earned that. Maybe if you didn’t criticize her so much—” Owen started.
“I don’t criticize her!”
“Uh, yeah you do,” Leroy argued. “The rest of us just say ‘thank you’ and tell her how good everything was.”
“I’ve been to her house,” Cap boasted. “She hosted the girls’ night thing where they talk about their spicy books and I had to pick Violet up because they got too high on gummies.”
I had to chuckle at that as I scrolled through the hot tub listings. What was Emma like when she let loose? I got a little glimpse of it at Amarillo. That little laugh when I cracked a joke. Playing with the paper crane I handed her.
And what are you wishing for, Mr. Royce?
Maybe the guys were right and I was too hard on her. Everybody else got her soft side.
I had gotten the smallest taste of it, and now I wouldn’t rest until I got more.
Harlan 2.0 was going to unlock Emma.
THIRTEEN
EMMA
MARCH
A strange manwith a mustache stood on my doorstep, but not the mustachioed man who was now a frequent visitor to my texts.
