Asking for Trouble (Line of Duty #4)(28)

“Oh, well, let me clear it up for you.” She paused for drama. “You guys are dick-whipped.”

Story gasped. “Not cool, Hay.”

“If anything, that description just made this booty call even more appealing,” Ruby said.

“Accusations aside,” Story continued as if Ruby hadn’t spoken. “I have to teach a class of Manhattan’s finest kindergartners tomorrow morning. Nothing gets by these kids. They’re just waiting for me to slip up.” She reached for Hayden’s drink. “They’re like miniature therapists, silently taking notes. Diagnosing me behind their juice boxes.”

“Call in sick.” Hayden took a breath. “You guys, I need this.”

Her friends exchanged a curious glance. It would be too easy to spill everything out onto the table when they were too drunk to remember the details tomorrow morning. But it wouldn’t make her feel better and it would obligate them to stay out drinking when they’d rather be home with their boyfriends.

“What’s going on?” Story turned in her seat. “I thought something felt off.”

“It’s nothing,” she hastened to say. “It’s just been a crazy week. First, my mother tasked me with organizing another charity ball, then I got a leaky hose on the West Side Highway—”

“Huh?” Both girls asked at the same time. Hayden quickly gave them a rundown of her West Side nightmare and Brent’s subsequent roadside assistance. She left out his innuendo-laced directions and blatant ass-gazing. And the fact that she’d spent every moment since imagining a very different outcome. One not involving thirty children. One where he shows up with his toolbox shirtless and well…gives her a tune-up in the back of his ESU truck. The temperature in Hildebrand’s suddenly felt sweltering.

There he went again. Popping into her head and kick-starting her libido when he should be the furthest thing from her mind. If she married Stuart, he probably wouldn’t take very kindly to her fantasizing about Brent. A man who’d threatened him in his own kitchen.

Marrying Stuart would mean less time with Story and Ruby and the guys. No more Saturday nights bantering over cheap beers for her. Not when she’d be expected to appear on Stuart’s arm at every high-society function, introducing him as her successful new husband.

Her heart clenched at the realization.

“Yikes. I hope you’re planning on switching bus companies for next summer.”

Hayden picked up a discarded lime and plunked it into an empty shot glass. “Actually…no. I’m, uh, going to hire five more buses. I want to expand the program.” She realized her hands were fidgeting so she folded them in her lap. On the ride from Manhattan to the farm, she’d been struck by inspiration, spending the two-hour ride outlining plans to present to the Clean Air committee. The charity would need an influx of funds, but she’d never felt more confident that she could pull it off. No matter what happened with her father’s company, with the charity’s popularity and reputation, she could find other donors. When she’d walked onto the bus after repairing the engine, she’d felt amazing. Like she could accomplish anything. Fix an engine. Build an even more successful charity. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Brent had played a role, encouraging her without realizing it.

Story squeezed her hand. “Hayden, that’s amazing. Why didn’t you say anything?”

She brushed off the question. “It’s still in the early planning phase.”

“Well, with you in charge, five buses is only a start,” Ruby said. “Nice job.”

Not knowing how to handle the compliment, Hayden only smiled in response. Lately, she’d started wondering if people saw more in her than she did herself. While she didn’t want to let herself hope they were right, the decision to expand the program so close to her heart gave her a sense of purpose. It felt good. Once again, she thought back to helping Brent repair the bus, as if she could pinpoint the exact moment her self-confidence had been given a much-needed boost. Even so, she couldn’t help feeling a flash of bitterness over the timing. Just as she was coming into her own, her independence could suffer a major setback if she married Stuart. Not to mention, her rocky relationship with Brent…

Brent again. Why wouldn’t he go away?

As if synchronized, both Story and Ruby’s phones buzzed on the table. To her friends’ credit, neither one of them paid their devices the slightest bit of attention. Hayden took pity on them, however, even as her heart swelled that they would stay out all night if she needed to talk. She hiked her purse over her shoulder and stood.

“Come on, guys. We can’t have you late for Troy Bennett and Daniel Chase booty calls. It would be sacrilege.”

“Are you sure?” Story gained her feet, wobbling noticeably, telling Hayden she would need to take her friend directly to Daniel’s door. Knowing Brent would be there, too, she did her best to temper the warring dread and excitement in her belly.

“Ruby, you prop her up while I call a cab.”

“Go teamwork.”

…

Brent and Troy stood in the lobby of Daniel’s building, still talking about the Mets game that had ended an hour earlier. Daniel had come downstairs under the pretense of seeing them off, though Brent suspected he was just growing anxious for Story to arrive. Troy grew surlier by the second as he waited for a call from Ruby to tell him she’d gotten to his place, just around the corner from Daniel’s Upper East Side apartment. As for Brent? He should have headed back to Queens an hour ago, but knowing Hayden made up the trio of girls, he’d begun inventing excuses to stick around.