Hanging On (Jessica Brodie Diaries #2)(49)

“Ever since the first Dusty incident these guys have been a little…protective over me. With the second incident they are downright overbearing.”

“Well, that makes sense. You’re a nutcase. But stairs?”

“I did say overbearing.”

William was the first to reach us, the other two right behind.

“You girls okay?” he asked, looking at my shoes.

“Did ye see that, lads?” Claire laughed. “I nearly domino’ed the whole lot of us!”

“Close one,” Moose affirmed, a smile tickling his face.

“Jessie, you shouldn’t wear those kinds of shoes.” Adam tsk'ed like a mother hen, also looking at my new cute stilettos.

“Jesus, give the girl a break. She’s nearly thirty and she hasn’t died yet,” Jane stated, pushing past us. “Excuse me, gents, but the bar calls.”

“Flem,” Lump said, following Jane with her eyes. “What have you done to Jane? We leave and you turn her into you?”

“I beg your pardon, she is way worse than me!”

The boys, being a solid wall of muscle, weren’t quick enough in letting Jane past. Instead of trying to force her way—she was too smart for that…also too little—she stood back and looked up at all of them.

“Listen, William. Or Willie. Or whatever. I know you don’t know me from Adam—get it? Adam?—but I have seen your woman shit-ass drunk, with a broken heel—“

“No Jane!” I shouted to interrupt. I knew the story to which she was referring, and it wasn’t one of my finer moments. Being that I had a lot of non-fine moments in their presence, this one was a real dozy.

It was also all relayed to me second-hand.

“—crawling on the beach ten miles from the bar—“

Lump started laughing. She was the one that eventually found me.

“—with Celeste’s shirt—“

“It was Celeste’s shirt? No wonder it had been two sizes too big. That woman had boobs for days,” I reflected.

“—at six o’clock in the morning—“

“Oh yeah!” Flem remembered.

“—after doing a strip-tease on a bar a foot wide—“

“With one shoe with a broken heal!“

“Don’t help Lump,” I whined, hiding my face.

“—yes, that’s right, with one shoe with a broken heal. Not only did she survive, even after Claire helped her out of that jam by getting her down—“

“I pushed the bitch off,” Claire shouted, laughing.

“Oh yeah!” Flem cackled. “I remember that. We all debated who was going to get up, out of our comfy seats, to go get Jess down, and you lost because you could stand the longest without wobbling, so you walked up to her, yelled at her that she was making an ass of herself, then, when she ignored you and made another ten bucks, you reached up and pushed her off. You didn’t help her down or anything, but just freaking pushed her…off the five-foot high bar! She fell off the other side into a bartender!”

Claire laughed harder. “She wouldn’t listen to reason.”

“That’s where all the bruises came from. Thanks a lot, Claire.” They hadn’t told me that part.

“Like I was saying,” Jane continued, patiently, “if she could survive that, she can survive going up a few steep steps while mostly sober. Now, let me pass.”

I peeked up at William. He was staring at me with an incredulous look. Adam was shocked as well. Moose had a huge, and I mean huge, smile.

I shrugged. “Don’t judge. It was Mexico.”

All the girls nodded. They had some serious stories, too.

“Plus,” Lump said, dragging me between Adam and Moose who had finally made room for Jane, “she made a hundred bucks off that stunt and got us free drinks for the rest of the night.”

“Lotta good it did me.”

“But how did you get to the beach?” Moose asked, thankfully cutting off William and Adam, who still didn’t think the story was as funny as everyone else.

“Still a mystery,” Jane said, pushing through a swarm of man bodies. “She was talking about wanting to see the ocean, and the next thing, she was gone. It was Lump that figured we should go looking for her at the beach.”

“When she hits a point, she goes home,” Lump explained. “She couldn’t find home, so she went to the beach.” She grabbed Moose and pushed him in front of her. Too many guys were stopping to talk to us. Moose parted the crowds like Moses.

“Crawling?” Moose was loving this story. I had a feeling it would be repeated.

Jane would be so sorry for this. After she stopped being so scary, that was.

“She was long past walking,” Flem said, pushing in with us at the bar.

“How did I get Celeste’s shirt?” I asked, not really wanting to know.

“You sold yours after the strip tease.” Jane had a crooked smile.

“Okay, but how does Celeste fit in?”

Claire was still laughing. She hadn’t stopped. The rest of the girls joined her at this point.

“You punched her in the face and took it,” Lump said, doubling over. “You literally walked up to the girl, told her she owed you, and demanded her shirt because you had a buyer for yours. She said no, because all she had was a tiny singlet on underneath, and you said…what was it you said?”