“Only you, man.” Chase was amused.
“You’re all talk, asshole. If Moll called your ass, Miss Massachusetts would be sleeping in your guest room tonight instead of mine. Don’t even try and deny it.”
Lil used my shoulders to pull herself up onto her tippy toes and kissed my cheek.
“What was that for? Not that I’m complaining, gorgeous.”
“Just cause. You’re awesome. And I love you.”
Shit, those injections were turning my sweet and sober Lili into a hormonal sap. And to think I was worried about dropping the Tal bomb on Chase. His hands were full.
Sierra and Sam drifted back, leaning on each other, arms entwined with matching fluorescent yellow drinks. Dodd brought up the rear, lugging a large pitcher of ice water. Smart guy. But he needed to start pouring and quit lugging if he had any chance of not waking up with the baby. Ha. I saw that shit go down with my brothers-in-law too many times to count.
Pain pierced my shin and I jerked back. “What the hell was that for?” I bitched at the half-pint spitfire, sporting auburn highlights this week. Sierra changed her hair color as often as her shoes. And my luck, tonight she was in some pointy fucking boots.
“You have a freakin’ plane? For real? You never told me you had a plane! Lil, did you know Green Giant had his own private plane? And he flies it?”
“Hold up, Green Giant?” I questioned, trying to get a word in edgewise. These two women spoke their own estrogen dialect, much like Kimi and Tal used to. It could get out of control, especially when Sierra went off on a tangent. And there it was, with both hands in the air, her drink—which I assumed was a margarita—splashed down the front of her light grey sweater dress. She didn’t flinch. Sam, on the other hand, jumped to pat the excess liquid off her C cups.
Can’t. Make. This. Shit. Up.
Chase buried his head in his wife’s shoulder to hide his laughter, Lil bit her fingernail, and Dodd feigned a coughing fit.
In her oblivion, Sierra manually removed the redheaded beauty’s hand from her chest. “I’m good, no really. Besides, it’s all padding, babe. Breastfeeding sucks the life from the girls.” If Dodd shook his head one more time he was in serious jeopardy of herniating a neck disc.
“What part don’t you get?” Sierra focused back on me. “Your eyes resemble those crazy contacts models wear and you’re a freaking giant.” Her contorted facial expression screamed, ‘Duh.’
“Um, Sier, we’re about the same height, sweetheart.” I thumbed toward the two six feet plus men standing on either side of me.
“Yeah, but he’s a quarterback.” She pointed to Chase. “He’s a linebacker.” She air kissed Dodd. “And you’re the sick ass wide receiver. You just look taller. Just cause.”
Since when did she follow football? My cell started ringing and luckily I didn’t have to find out. “On that note, excuse me.” I fished it out of my black suit pants and turned my back on the crew. TP CELL. My balls did a happy dance. I was so screwed.
“Hey, you.”
“You are something else, know that?”
The bar hum was louder than I thought, so I finger closed my other ear and made my way toward the lounge to sit in one of their high-back cushioned chairs. “If you say so, not gonna argue.” Three-hour time difference, she obviously got my delivery.
“I’ll have you know, I was fully prepared to cook.” She tried to be snarky.
“I don’t doubt your abilities, Teeps.” Hell no. “But now, you don’t have to. Happy Thanksgiving.” I had the best restaurant in Coronado cater a turkey spread for twenty. Leftovers never hurt.
“What am I going to do with you, Ace?”
Hated that damn nickname, except when it rolled off her lips. “You’re going to spend New Year’s with me, that’s what.” I expected a pause.
Nope. “You skipped a holiday, you know?”
Sassy, I loved it.
“I’ll be in France for Christmas, business.” If the trip weren’t KimCore related, the next phone call I would have made would have been to Suzie, telling her to cancel. All of December. As if nineteen years wasn’t enough of a bitch to swallow, now I had my insane work and travel schedule to thank for another five weeks.
She didn’t question it. “What did you have in mind?”
“You’re coming to Boston.”
“Are you asking?”
“No.” Because I wasn’t. “You objecting?”
Even with the background noise, I heard her exhale, and then she whispered, “Nah.”
“Sweet dreams, Teeps.” I ended the call and walked back to where my friends were, no doubt sporting a lotto winning grin of my own.
Dodd was explaining the difference between Cessnas and Mavericks to the ladies, but single turbine engines were the last thing on my mind. I was counting the sips until Sam finished her anti-freeze looking drink, so we could call it a night. Ironic how I spent most of my adult life trying to make every day longer, every second count, and this blonde beauty walks back in and I was praying for a damn fast forward button. Five fucking weeks.
Chapter 7 Inhabitable Chandelier
“Holy shit, you pulled it off.” Not that I doubted her for a second.
“Get out, get out!” Lili backhanded the air and then focused back on fluffing the flowers. “Ash, you’re ruining the surprise. Why. Are. You. Here?” No joke, she growled.
Last month after another taste of life’s fucking unfair, Chase swept her away for a last minute weekend in Sin City where Lili found all the inspiration she needed to recreate The Chandelier for tonight’s New Year’s Eve party. I hoped for her sake her newfound obsession for detail was a form of self-preservation or distraction and not the ball-busting surgeon rubbing off on her. Either way, the Cosmopolitan Hotel had nothing on KimCore’s two thousand square foot marble lobby. It looked spectacular, and sexy as shit. There had to be hundreds, maybe even thousands of ten foot shimmering strands of beaded crystals.
“Shouldn’t you be covering that up? It’s freezing outside and you’re walking around half naked.” She was cute when she was pissy.
I smirked and looked down at my sweat drenched t-shirt and running pants. I squeezed in a quick round with the bags, attempting to shed some pent-up energy. I’d been doing a lot of that lately. This was the longest I had gone since I was twenty. I tried a couple of times. I just couldn’t seem to get past the cheating on my friend part. Because that was what we were, that was all we were.
“More importantly, shouldn’t you be going to pick up Talia soon?” Her deep growl scaled up five octaves and she actually jumped a little, clapping her hands together. Hormone withdrawal was a scary beast. I felt bad for Chase. Lili’s moods were all over the place since she stopped pumping herself with all that shit. But I felt a thousand times worse for her. She wasn’t going to be getting pregnant any time soon, if ever, according to Chase. He called me in Europe, after the latest negative pregnancy test prompted yet another exam, and explained some rare fucked up uterine scar situation that sounded like it was named after me. It was a fine print risk of the surgical procedure she needed after all of her miscarriages. And because Lil’s had that kind of luck, she got her heart broken a week before Christmas. To say they both had a lot on their plate was an understatement. If executing our event gave her a bit of reprieve, so be it.
“Someone’s excited,” I winked. Screw it. I was just as excited. She was here, in a hotel a few blocks away. “Just making sure all the liquor we ordered came in.”