Destiny on Ice (Boys of Winter #1)(5)

I gently remind her, “I’m only staying for one night, Lain. Plus, I have an early morning flight to catch tomorrow.”

It’s not that early—the plane I’m booked on to Vegas doesn’t leave till eleven—but it’s safer to let on like the flight is at the ass crack of dawn. I’m hoping to deter party girl from keeping me out half the night.

“Okay, okay,” she concedes. “It doesn’t matter when you leave. We’re still finding ourselves some kind of trouble to get into tonight. And I mean trouble with a capital T, chica.”

She’s referring to drinking, which I don’t do much of these days.

But tonight I’ll make an exception.

“All right,” I say, a smile playing at my lips. “Maybe it’s time I show you I really can party with the best of them.”

“You’re on,” Lainey replies.

Gulp. I hope I can hang. The last time I had anything more than a glass of wine with dinner was on a date I went on last year. Yes, you read that right. A whole twelve months have passed since my most recent even remotely romantic encounter with a man. But even that was a bust. My date and I had absolutely nothing in common. He spent dinner texting on his cell phone, probably with another girl, and I drowned my sorrows with copious amounts of margaritas. It was all I could do to soothe my bruised ego.

While I lament the sad state of my dating life, Lainey continues to jabber on excitedly about this evening and what we can do while I’m there. Between my “yeah” and “uh-huh” responses, I have to chuckle. My sister turned twenty-one last month and everything to her is still so über-exciting.

I’m the calm one in comparison. I guess that’s because I’m three years older. But it’s not only that. We’re just different. Really, the only thing we have in common is the way we look. Both of us have raven-black hair that we wear long, and we share the same turquoise-blue eye color.

Apart from that, we’re like night and day.

Lainey is the party girl.

I’m the serious, career-oriented one.

She’s the boy-crazy chick with guys lining up to ask her out.

I, as established, rarely date.

Hmm, I really need to change that, though. I’ve been feeling extra-lonely lately.

“Wow,” Lainey says, sounding suddenly shocked, and thus distracting me from my reverie.

“What’s wow?” I ask.

“I still can’t believe you worked things out so you can come up and visit me. And all while getting ready to go on a business trip. I have to say, Aubs, this is very unlike you.”

“Maybe I’m turning over a new leaf,” I reply with a firm nod she unfortunately can’t see.

You need to mix it up if you ever expect this boring life of yours to change, a little voice inside my head has been reminding me, thus prompting this decision.

“I hope so.” Lainey sounds cautiously optimistic. “You need more fun in your life. I love seeing you take a chance here and there. It’s like I always say—you never know what might happen if you throw caution to the wind once in a while.”

I’ve shared with Lainey lately how I’m tiring of the dull and routine-driven life I lead, this existence filled with work, work, and more work. I’m married to my job, but damn it, I need a mistress. Or would that be a master?

Oh my! My long-neglected lady bits like that idea.

“Aubrey, did you hear me?”

“Yes, yes.” I clear my throat. “You’re absolutely right. I’ve been thinking about what we talked about a while ago and I’m trying to go with the flow a little more. That’s why I booked the flight, totally impulsively, to come see you. Who knows, Lainey? Maybe tonight I’ll really cut loose. We all know I’m due.”

That’s right. I may as well jump aboard the YOLO train and ride it to the land of wild abandon. Maybe if I do, I’ll even meet someone tonight. Someone I’ll never see again, of course, but that’s good. I need a practice-man I can sharpen my flirt moves on. They’re rusty as hell and could use some fine-tuning, especially if I ever plan to use them to land a guy some day. Hopefully that “landing” will occur within the next decade, seeing as the last real boyfriend I had was way back in college.

Damn, that puts things in perspective. And it reminds me of my sex life.

Pfft, what sex life?

“Right,” I whisper. “More like lack thereof.”

Beneath my jeans, I imagine my lady bits making a little sign of the cross, praying to reverse the curse of the dreaded dick-drought. Realistically though, despite all my bluster, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Not with another work assignment starting up in Las Vegas.

“So, Aubrey, this more impulsive you,” my sister begins. “Does this mean we’ll be seeing more of her? Like, on a consistent basis?”

“Don’t expect me to be wild all the time,” I hedge. When I hear her groan, I hasten to add, “Don’t worry, though. Compared to how I’ve been lately, there’s a lot more crazy-Aubrey days brewing up ahead.”

She laughs, but then warns, “Be careful. You’ve gone so long without taking chances that you’re at risk of getting hooked on the adrenaline rush you’re bound to feel when you finally let go.”

Jeez, am I really that bad? Probably, seeing as I don’t do anything impulsive, like ever. My job pretty much precludes me from that kind of recklessness.