Rake's Redemption (Wind Dragons MC #4)(17)

“I was kind of hoping she was Rake’s,” Anna admits, cheeks flushing guiltily. “I don’t know why, but I was.”

I roll my eyes at that. “She isn’t.”

This isn’t some romance where everything works out in the end, and the hero and the heroine end up together in a happily ever after only someone with a big imagination could formulate.

“She looks just like you,” Anna muses out loud. “She’s stunning.”

“Thank you,” I tell her, smiling. “She definitely is something. Do you two want something else to drink?” I ask, looking at the now-empty bottle of wine.

“What do you have?” Anna asks, standing up.

My lips kick up at the corners in a wolfish grin. “We could make some cocktails.”

“I like this idea,” Lana says, rubbing her hands together. We all head into the kitchen, and I pull out whatever alcohol I can find, while the girls look for other ingredients in the fridge.

“Remember when we used to do this before parties in high school?” Anna says, washing the fruit. “Everyone had to make a drink, and then we all had to taste it, to see who could come up with the best one.”

“Except Adam used to make them disgusting on purpose, just so we had to drink it,” I say, smiling fondly. “He’d put peanut butter and stuff like that in them. It was gross.”

Anna and Lana laugh. “Yeah, but he used to drink yours for you, Bailey, so it was only us who had to suffer!”

I open the half-filled bottle of vodka and smirk. “Girlfriend benefits.”

“I’m his sister!” Anna fires back, her shoulder shaking with laughter. “Where’s the loyalty?”

“Exactly,” Lana adds. “His job was to harass your life.”

“Well, he succeeded,” Anna grumbles, but the smile playing on her lips says otherwise. Adam is a great big brother, there’s no doubt about that. He always treated Anna like gold.

“Do you have any mint?” Lana asks, concentrating on slicing the lime thinly.

“I don’t think so,” I reply. “Do you feel like Anna has the upper hand here? She used to work at Knox’s Tavern and she’s a scientist.”

“And she drinks the most out of all of us,” Lana says, nudging Anna with her shoulder. “Yeah, she has us at an advantage.”

“Wait, did this turn into a competition? I thought we were just talking about old times, but if we’re going to relive them, game on!” Anna cheers.

“Who is going to be the judge?” I ask, finding the whole thing amusing.

“Arrow—”

“Hell no,” I cut her off. “That’s not fair.”

“Well someone has to come and pick us up,” Lana says, shrugging. “Whoever it is can be roped into being the judge. We won’t tell him whose drink is whose.”

“Deal!” Anna calls out, doing a little dance.

“We’re so mature,” I muse out loud, pulling out the blender and mentally selecting ingredients. If it’s Adam picking them up, I know he loves citrus flavors, so I’ll definitely do something with orange or lemon.

“You’re a teacher,” Lana points out. “Educating the youth of today to become tomorrow’s leaders.”

“Yeah, well, I’m off duty,” I huff.

“And you’re about to get schooled,” Anna teases, then tilts her head to the side, her blond hair falling over her cheek. “I feel like we need a time limit or something. This competition is getting fierce.”

“Ten minutes!” I call out, slamming my hand down on the table. “And tell whoever is picking you up to get his ass over here for taste testing.”

“Wait,” Lana says, pushing her glasses up on the bridge of her nose. “What does the winner get?”

Anna looks contemplative. “One favor. The winner gets one favor from each of the losers.”

“Like a marker?” Lana asks, smirking. “You’ve been hanging around bikers too long.”

Anna rolls her eyes. “Look who’s talking. Come on, with the amount of shit we get into, these will be useful.”

“And will probably get you into trouble with your men,” I add casually.

At least it will if I win.

We all look at each other and nod.

Game on.

*

When Adam comes to the door to pick up the girls, I’m not surprised. While having him in my space makes me feel a tad uneasy, the fact that he’s the one who came definitely works to my advantage.

“You want me to do what?” he asks, eyeing us all individually, then staring skeptically at the three glasses in front of him. When he first hesitantly stepped into my house, he looked around, taking in the place. Now, however, he has an Are you f*cking kidding me? look on his face, one I shouldn’t find sexy. But I do. In fact, his adorably confused expression makes me almost want to forget that I hate him and fall into his arms. Almost.

“Fuck. I feel like I’m back in high school. You’re all f*ckin’ nuts,” he says, running his hand over his jawline. I see the way his lips twitch though, and I know he’s finding this amusing as hell. So we ignore his complaints and just stare at him expectantly.

“What did you guys bet?” he asks, gaze lingering on me before picking up the first glass.