Rusty Nailed (Cocktail, #2)(35)

“Perfect. Caroline was just saying before you two got here that she was dying for some more of me,” he teased, making me blush as the timer went off on my turnovers.

“Mix yourself up there, Simon,” I said over my shoulder, pulling the flaky triangles from the oven. The look he gave me told me I would indeed be getting turned over later on that night. You wouldn’t catch me complaining.

Just as Simon handed me a drink, we heard the doorbell.

“Showtime,” Mimi mumbled, heading off to the door. It was Sophia, with the tallest man I’d ever seen. But not just tall, he was crazy good looking. He was like NBA meets surfer.

“Why, hello there!” I said, looking up and up. “I’m Caroline.”

“Hey,” he said down to me in a voice that was incredibly deep. “Zach.”

He shuffled off to shake hands with the guys as I took Sophia’s coat.

“When I say that’s a tall drink of water, I’m not exaggerating,” I whispered to her, checking him out as he towered over Ryan and Simon, neither of whom were short.

“Thanks. He plays basketball in France; he’s home for the holidays. I met him at the gym.”

“Damn, I need to switch to your gym. The cute boy quotient is considerably higher than mine,” I replied, hanging up her coat.

She scanned the room, breathing a little easier when she saw that Neil wasn’t there. “Can I help with anything?”

The doorbell rang again.

“Like right now, can I help with anything? How about I make sure the bars okay,” she said, heels clicking across the floor as she grabbed Tall Zach and pulled him toward the alcohol.

Simon walked over to me, reaching around me to open the door for the only friend who hadn’t yet arrived.

“Hey, man, what’s up?” Neil said, handing Simon a bottle of scotch. “Caroline, thanks for inviting me,” he added, sneaking a kiss on my cheek before I could react.

“Hi, Neil,” I managed, trying to remember that this was Simon’s friend and I was making an effort. I had to really make an effort when I got an eyeful of who he brought with him.

I can’t say for sure that she’d ever appeared in Playboy. But if she hadn’t, she should have.

“Hi! I’m Missy,” she said, and I smiled at Neil through clenched teeth. I could tell it was putting Simon in physical pain not to laugh.

“Hi there, Missy,” I managed. “Let me take your coat, Missy.”

“Wow, look at all those windows!” She giggled as I led them inside.

I knew how much a window wall that size cost to install, and I wondered how much it would cost to repair . . .





chapter ten


“Airplane. Airplane people. Airplane holding a sponge.”

“Airplane with hands, hands? Okay, hands. Airplane hands. Sponge hands.”

“Sponge hands! Airplane sponge. Bird sponge. Bird! Okay, bird. Hand bird.”

“SpongeBob HandBird. Stop pointing at the airplane, we know it’s not an airplane!”

“Time’s up.”

“Dammit!”

Sophia sat down in a huff, throwing her Sharpie across the room. Neil stuck his hand straight up in the air and caught it as she huffed, “I can’t believe you guys couldn’t get that! It was so obvious that it was—”

“Ah-ah-ah, don’t say another word. We get a chance to steal,” Simon said from his place on the couch.

It was girls against guys, and the guys were currently kicking our ass. They were up forty points. Stupid boys.

“Go ahead, you’ll never get it. Don’t worry, they’ll never get it,” Sophia assured us, sipping her cocktail and winking at Zach over the rim.

“Now just give us a minute. We have thirty seconds to examine the picture and see if we can guess what you were trying to draw,” Ryan said, standing up and going over to the board where Sophia had been drawing.

“We know how the game is played!” Mimi yelled from her perch on the back of the couch. She was Drunky Mimi tonight; her cocktail station had served her well. And overserved her—she was Loud Drunky Mimi. “You don’t have to say that each time you try to steal!”

As Simon and Ryan puzzled over the drawing while Mimi counted down from thirty, Zach flirted with Sophia. And by flirting, I mean licked the rim of his glass. All the way around. He looked like a giraffe.

Shuddering, I looked at Sophia, who wasn’t even watching. She was watching Neil, who was watching Missy, who was adjusting her bra. I knew this because it was hanging half out of her shirt.

Ryan and Simon continued to argue over the picture while Zach giraffed, and I just held my head. Disaster.

“Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven!” Mimi shouted, staring at her watch.

“It’s not New Year’s—just give us a few more seconds, we can get this!” Ryan shouted back, looking back and forth from the picture to Simon.

“Shit, I don’t know, is it, is it—shit!” Simon yelled, bouncing from one foot to the other.

“Six! Five! Four! Three!” Mimi continued. Missy crossed her legs. Neil stared at her legs. Zach burped, but continued licking. Sophia steamed.

“Two!”

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” Neil stated, his gaze on Sophia.