Hanging On (Jessica Brodie Diaries #2)(86)

“What, do you have elves?”

“Yes!” Lump rolled her eyes. “If I don’t shut my door, my room is cleaned, my bed is made with fresh sheets, all my laundry is done, and I get fresh flowers. The first day someone organized my closet and ironed all my clothes! Panties included! They ironed my freaking thongs! I feel like royalty. It's weird.”

“Sounds invasive.”

“It is. I asked the maids to leave my room alone, but they said if the door wasn’t closed, they would forget.”

“So close the door.”

“Yeah, I know. But it means overriding twenty years of not caring and leaving the door open. I even put a sticky note on the door! First time I forgot to shut the door, the sticky note vanished.”

I shrugged. We were headed to the spa. I figured a mud bath and a facial would fix us right up.

“Anyway, this shirt was in the pile of clean clothes. Stainless! I was so excited I went around to each of the maids, asking which one did it. They all thought I was accusing them of stealing. The head maid—Sally—assured me that she would get to the bottom of the problem, if I would just slow down and tell her what it was!” Lump started laughing. “I felt like a dunce. So yeah, I thanked everyone. And here I am, looking cuter than you.”

“Yeah right.”

Lump and I, together, were expert shoppers, whereas separate we were merely good. Lump knew how to dress for body type, and I was the trend setter, so together we hemmed and hawed over the best looks for each. We didn't worry about being frugal because it wasn't our money, so we got things that were a little out of our price range and flattering as hell.

After our spa treatments, we went to a nice dinner. Nothing William would buy when he was trying to impress me, but enough that I was able to impress Lump. I had to do it while I could, because I knew William would throw fancy at her the first opportunity he could. The guy was overly generous mixed with a natural ability to show off. Over-doing it was inevitable.

“Now what?” Lump said, rubbing her stuffed belly.

“Well, we could go back to Gladis’s and veg out. Or we could put on our favorite low-key purchase and convince William to convince his friends to go out so we can show off.”

“Showing off it is.”

We walked into a place called Candy. It looked like a chain restaurant, with most of the building taken up with a dining area, and a small section set aside for the bar. Per William’s instructions, we went into the bar portion, which was plenty spacious with booths lining the erected wood walls separating the bar from the restaurant, and joined the boys in a giant booth in the corner.

We were glowing from our spa treatment and the joy of spending someone else’s money on a bunch of cute stuff as we came to stand in front of the circular table. No one noticed us. All eyes were on the large flat screen TV’s that adorned every available space of the bar. William, Moose and Ty, all sitting on the same side of the booth next to each other, all with giant beers, were all more interested in the game than a live grenade landing next to them.

“Anti-climactic,” Lump said, glancing at the baseball game behind us.

“Suddenly thinking we should have showed off for Gladis. This is damned depressing,” I said with a hand on my hip.

“Jessie.” It was Adam’s deep voice behind us.

I jumped, startled that he snuck up on us and ready to laugh about it, but Lump spun with lightning speed and flung me behind her, ready to defend me against the boogeyman. Or, more likely, past horrors that Adam embodied.

The grin on Adam’s face, which would have blossomed and matched my chuckle, fell before being lost altogether when he realized what Lump was doing. Resignation replaced understanding, and he stepped back.

“Sorry Betz. It’s usually funny when I startle Jessie is all. Didn’t mean no offense.”

“How many bodyguards does Jessica need?” Moose asked, missing Lump’s fear that Adam was dangerous.

“None, but no one believes me!” I said, stepping around Lump’s protective body.

She stepped aside to let me past, but kept her distance from Adam. She hadn’t been kidding when she said she didn’t trust him. Judging by the hurt Adam was trying to cover, he knew exactly what the score was, and wasn’t too fond of the reminder.

Just to ease the troubled waters, I punched Adam in the arm. I pretended not to see Lump flinch behind me. She needed to learn that Adam was 99% kindness; that he wasn’t going to turn into the Hulk because stupid me gave him a wimpy dead-arm.

Instead of acting like I hurt him, like usual, Adam gave me a straight arm to keep me from inflicting further harm. “Don’t get yer friend riled up, Jessie. Besides, you beat on me the last time. It’s gotta be Moose’s turn by now.”

“You’re no fun.” I pouted, noticing that all the other boys were still watching the TV.

Adam slid into the booth, steering clear of Lump.

“Isn’t anyone going to notice our cute clothes?” I asked, louder than I needed to. Lump had just made this whole outing extremely weird, and I wasn’t sure staying around was the best of ideas.

Luckily, the guys were making the decision to go elsewhere way too easy, being that they still hadn’t looked at us for more than a few seconds.

“William?” I prompted.

He glanced back as he said, “Babe, the game’s almost over. I’ll look closely at each new shoe when they win, okay? Almost over.”