“That’s not exactly a revelation, Holly. Jude does, would, and will go ape shit on anything that remotely resembles a man who tries to help me undress.” I followed her and plopped down on the sofa.
“Yeah, but Thomas is cute,” she said, stealing a glance at him.
My brows came together. Thomas was good-looking in a beautiful kind of way. Dark, long hair, eyes almost as dark, and flawless alabaster skin. He was easy on the eyes and had caught the attention of more than the majority of female dancers at school, but their cute and Holly’s cute didn’t seem like they would have aligned. Holly was more on the same page as me: she liked the rough, rugged, raw, handsome, all-male type.
“You think Thomas is cute?” I asked.
“Don’t you?”
I shrugged, watching Thomas and LJ where they now wrestled on the ground. “Yeah. But—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Holly interrupted. “He plays for the other team. That’s obvious. Look how thoughtful he is, how well he dresses, and how his eyes never wander below my neck.”
I was about to clarify Thomas’s sexual orientation when LJ went off like a fire alarm. I made a mental note to pick up some Excedrin next time I was at the store.
“Aunt Luce, is this for me?” he asked. Well, he yelled.
“LJ. Were you going through Aunt Lucy’s things?” Holly said as he sprinted toward us with a present in hand. Jude had even had it wrapped in yellow-and-blue paper.
“It was in her bedroom,” he said, turning the present over in his hands.
“What were you doing in her bedroom? I told you Lucy’s bedroom is off-limits.”
“I forgot to tell you,” I said, grabbing LJ and tossing him into my lap. “You guys are going to take my room and I’m going to be out here.”
“What?” Holly said, like she’d heard me wrong. “No. No way, Lucy Larson. We came on the understanding we’d inconvenience you, not straight-up displace you.”
Thomas crashed down beside me. His hair looked like it had been whirled around in a blender a few times.
“Will you listen to me for once, you stubborn brat? You and LJ are taking my room. He needs a quiet spot where he can sleep, and there are two of you. I already ordered a twin mattress and a couple room dividers to set up out here for me, so it’s done.” I arched a brow and waited. Holly liked to argue with me almost as much as Jude did.
What she did next, though, I wasn’t expecting. I’d been braced and ready for another five rounds of back-and-forth. Instead she threw herself down beside me and pulled me into a hug that was so tight it almost cut my airway off.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you and Jude.” She sniffed into my hair. I’d never seen her cry. In fact, I’d come to the conclusion she couldn’t cry.
“You’d be fine, Holly,” I assured her, just like either Jude or I did when she tried to give us more credit than we were due. Holly had crossed the proverbial Nile all on her own. Jude and I had just been there to provide a little help along the way. Patting her back a few times, I winked at LJ. “Well. Are you going to keep staring at that thing all night or are you going to tear into it?”
His face lit up right before a hurricane of wrapping paper flew into the air.
“A football!” he said, jumping up and down. “A real football. Not a baby one.” Arching his arm back, he launched it straight into Thomas’s stomach.
Thomas grunted, fumbling with the ball like he didn’t know whether to throw it or pirouette with it.
“Holy snickies,” Holly said, examining the ball in Thomas’s hands. “Are those signatures on that thing?”
“Snickies, yeah,” I replied, realizing I’d have to really watch my mouth now that an innocent set of ears was around. That, more than anything else, seemed like it would be the hardest part of this situation.
“As in the signatures of a certain Jude Ryder and the rest of his teammates?” Holly was gaping at the ball now.
I shot her a smirk. “No. Jude Ryder and the rest of the members of the Bad Boys Club.”
“In that case,” she said with a slow smile, “where are the phone numbers?”
Thomas handed the ball back to LJ before popping up from the couch. Zeroing in on the door, he shifted. “I’d better get back,” he said. “I’ve got an hour’s drive ahead of me.”
Holly and I exchanged a look. Thomas had seemed ready to spend the night on the couch, and now he couldn’t get out of here fast enough.
Hopping up, I followed after him. “Thanks again, Thomas,” I said, opening the door for him. “I owe you a solid.”
He paused in the doorway and looked back to where LJ was tossing his ball to Holly. “No, you don’t. I haven’t had this much fun since karaoke night, when you sang a drunken version of ‘Hey Jude’ before falling off the stage.”
I scowled at him. That was a night I didn’t like to remember. Jude had been in town that weekend, and the bartender had been a bit heavy-handed with my drinks that night. The result wasn’t pretty.
Thomas still couldn’t take his eyes off Holly, so I began to hatch a plan. “How about you let me make you dinner Friday night, then? As a way to express my undying thanks.”
I waited while he worked out something in his head.
“Come on. You can stay the night here, so you won’t have to worry about driving late at night.”
His eyes widened at that. “Are you sure?”
“Hol,” I called over my shoulder, “are we sure we want Thomas over for dinner Friday night?”
After launching the ball into LJ’s arms, she glanced over at us. I swore I heard an uptick in Thomas’s heart. “Seven o’clock,” she said. “Don’t be late.”
I grinned victoriously at Thomas and waited.
“It’s a date,” he said at last, before his face reddened. “I mean, it’s a dinner. A dinner date . . .” Another shade redder. “I mean Friday’s the date, and dinner’s the event.” Wincing, he turned around. “I’m going to go die now.”
“Thanks for everything!” Holly shouted as he headed into the hall. “It was nice meeting you, Thomas.”
He stuck his head back into the apartment. “It was nice meeting you, Holly.”
She shot him a smile that made the poor guy go another shade darker. Giving me a wave, Thomas hurried down the hall. He didn’t make it two doors down before he tripped over . . . his own two feet.
“You all right down there, Grace?” I called out as he caught himself before he bit it.
“I’m not exactly feeling like myself tonight,” he replied, glaring at his feet like they’d betrayed him.
“I wonder why.” I gave him a wry smile.
His shook his head. “Good night, Lucy.”
“Good night, Grace.”
He gave me a thumbs-up before making it down the rest of the hall in one piece. I’d never seen Thomas trip like that, not once in our three years of performing together.
“What did you do to that boy?” I asked as soon as I closed the door.
“Made him think twice about having kids,” Holly said, getting back to work on unpacking her suitcase.
“No, he has the Holly bug so bad—”
“Jude!” Holly shouted, rushing over to where LJ stood in front of my potted fern. His pants were around his ankles. “Please, please, please don’t tell me you just peed on Aunt Lucy’s plant.”
LJ pulled up his pants and shrugged. “It looked thirsty.”
I burst out in laughter, but was silenced almost as quickly when Holly turned her power glare on me.
Giving me a look that said, Just laugh one more time, I dare ya, she marched over to LJ. “Where are you supposed to go potty?”
“The bathroom,” LJ said, like it was obvious.
“Specifically.”
“The toilet.” He sighed.
“So why did you just pee in Aunt Lucy’s plant?”
“I told you. It was thirsty.”
Auntie intervention in order. Grabbing the watering can from the counter, I headed over to where Holly towered over LJ. “You’re right; it was thirsty. But I know for a fact my little fern is allergic to little-boy pee”—I elbowed Holly before she elbowed me right back—“so next time it’s thirsty, you can use this to give it some water.” I handed the can to LJ. “This will be your job here. To keep the plant happy and healthy. Think you can handle that?”