“I’m with someone,” Jade said.
The guy admitted defeat and moved off. Dell dropped into the coveted spot right next to her, sprawling out. “Hey, Red?”
She sipped her drink.
“Class?”
She shrugged.
“Oh come on. Tell me about swinging your sweet thang.” He accepted her eat-shit-and-die look and laughed.
She rolled her eyes. “So I take a line-dancing class once a week in the city.”
“Which clearly you’re not doing so that you’ll get picked up by guys in bars.”
“It’s for exercise.” She blew out a breath. “And because I sort of promised myself I’d do things for me. For fun. It’s the year of the fun for Jade.”
“Well, I’m all for that.”
At that, she cocked her head and looked at him. “You don’t think it’s silly?”
“Everyone deserves fun, Jade.” He smiled at her and reached for his drink. “Their own brand of fun.”
Jade’s eyes cut to Brady and Lilah, plastered up against each other on the dance floor. “What do you think of their brand?”
Dell took in the expression on Brady’s face, which held warmth and love and a whole hell of a lot of lust, and shrugged. It would be nice to know there was a woman waiting on him at the end of the day. He wouldn’t mind that. It was the emotional depth and level of attachment that bothered him. The love part. Love would take trust and blind faith. It would take allowing access to parts of him that he didn’t allow himself access to. “I’m not really cut out for it.”
“So you’ve tried it, then?”
“Not so much. You? I’m betting you have a spreadsheet for this, for meeting the right guy to give you a white picket fence and two point four kids.”
“Some things even my spreadsheets can’t do,” she said, and he laughed softly just as Brady and Lilah came back looking flushed and happy as they slid into the booth.
“Okay,” Lilah said. “It’s been an hour and no one has said one freaking word about the bling.” She spread her hands on the table. “Seriously?”
Jade’s eyes went directly to Lilah’s left ring finger, and the fat diamond there. “Holy shit!”
Lilah grinned. “I know, right?” She flashed the ring in each of their faces. “Brady had it made for me. It’s the most sparkly thing I’ve ever owned.” Turning to Brady, she clapped her hands to either side of his face and kissed him on the mouth. “I’ve never been all that sparkly, but I am now, cuz of you.”
Brady smiled up at her. “Sparkly, and you smell like a strawberry.”
“It’s the margaritas.”
Adam toasted to Brady and Lilah, and Dell added his congratulations, genuinely thrilled for them. Lilah felt like as much a sibling to him as Brady was. And though he might not quite get why two of his favorite people in the world wanted to tie themselves to each other and give up all the other possible options, it meant that Brady would be sticking around Sunshine. And Dell was all for that, so he grinned and topped off their glasses from the pitcher, giving Lilah the last of it and the most.
Brady slid him a look.
“What, you’re already going to have to pour her into your truck to take her home,” Dell told him. “Might as well make it a night to remember.”
Lilah laughed and slapped Brady’s shoulder, as if he’d been the one to say it. “It will be a night to remember.” Indeed, two sheets to the wind, she blew a strand of her hair from her face and waggled a finger at her new fiancé. “But just so we’re clear-we’re still not crossing that one last thing off the taboo list. I’m not that far gone.”
Adam looked pained.
Brady didn’t look concerned. He was smiling affectionately at Lilah, looking content and confident that he could talk her into anything he wanted, wasted or not.
“You have a taboo list?” Jade asked.
“You don’t?” Lilah asked.
Jade bit her lower lip and Adam laughed. “Jade has a list for everything.”
“True,” Dell said, studying her, getting nothing from her expression. She had quite the game face, his Jade. “You do, you have lists for everything.”
“Not everything.”
“Jade, you have a list for every situation, big or small, from when to brush your teeth, to how to handle every potential patient to cross my door. Hell, you’ve got a list on what’s in your purse and my office fridge and-”
“And don’t forget the list on how many different ways I could kill you,” she said, sipping her drink.
“Now that’s one I’d like to see,” Brady said.
Adam looked intrigued. “How many ways are there really to do that?”
“You have no idea…” she murmured serenely.
Dell laughed. “Come on. There’s no doubt in my mind, you have a list of sexual taboos. Tell us.”
“Yeah,” Lilah said, leaning forward. “Tell us! I might need to add to my list.”
“Why are we still talking about this?” Jade wanted to know.
“The question is,” Dell said, “why are you avoiding talking about this?” He smiled at her and though she blushed a little, she held his gaze evenly.
He didn’t have a hard time imagining Jade as a sexual creature. She was beautiful, innately sensual, from that full bottom lip, to her glorious curves, to the way she moaned while eating her hidden stash of chocolate from her bottom desk drawer.
What he had a hard time imagining was her having a one-night stand. Which meant that she’d have to let someone in close enough to have a relationship with before she had sex. And she wasn’t any better at that than… well, him. He got her, he really did. Because other than the people right here at this table, he never felt the overwhelming need to let anyone in, either. “Come on,” he coaxed, teasing. “Give us something from your taboo list.”
She smiled at him. “You should be far more concerned with what’s on tomorrow’s to-do list.”
“Ha,” Adam said to his brother. “You have a to-do list.”
“So do you,” Jade said, and Brady laughed.
“Nice deflection,” Lilah said to Jade. “You’re good at that.”
It was a definite talent, Dell thought, and let her have the deflection. They all hung out for another hour before Brady stood and grabbed Lilah’s hand. “We’re out,” he said.
Lilah smiled wickedly. “’Bout time.” She looked at Jade. “Can we drop you off?”
“No, that’s okay,” Jade said, shaking her head. “Go home with Brady.”
“You sure?”
“Very.”
Lilah hugged her and then she and Brady made tracks. Adam’s cell vibrated, and he excused himself out into the night as well. Dell looked at Jade, who was scrolling through her contacts. “Looks like it’s you and me. Come on, I’ll give you a ride.”
“No, it’s out of your way. I’ll call…”
“That guy from your line-dancing class?”
She sighed. “Okay, so I could use a ride.”
He walked her out to his truck and then had to clear her a spot in the passenger’s seat because he had a stack of work files, his hockey gear from the weekend league he played on, and some other shit he’d shoved into the truck and forgotten about. “There,” he said, tossing everything to the back.
“Thanks,” she murmured, and got in. “Your truck looks like your desk.”
True statement. “I have a little organizational problem.”
Her gaze met his. “I could help you with that.”
“Sure, if you’ll let me help you with your taboos list.”
“How do you know that you don’t have the same taboos?”
“I don’t have any.”
That shocked her into silence, and the rest of the drive to her place stayed quiet, though she was thinking so loud he could almost hear her thoughts.
The minute he pulled into her lot, her hand was on the door. She was in a hurry. He wondered which of them she didn’t trust.
“Thanks for the ride,” she said.