Love, Exes, and Ohs (Cactus Creek #4)(7)

“Dog him all you want,” countered Sienna, “but his funds helped you guys trick out that building exactly the way you want. Pool, gym, soundproof walls to counteract the revolving door of women you all date.”

Jackson tossed a pretzel at her. “Don't lump me in with these two. For the record, I haven't dated anyone in at least six months.” A microflash of buried pain darkened his eyes for a bit.

And was gone a second later.

While no one else seemed to notice, Xoey did. Because Isaac did the same thing from time to time.

The easy going smile was back on Jackson’s face two blinks later. “And I mean dating in even the loose definition that Bennett and Donovan use, too. So you can stop with the slander.”

Sienna gestured zipping her mouth shut but her eyes were still dancing with laughter.

“Speaking of which, how’s your apartment holding up?” queried Bennett with his first serious tone of the night.

“Yeah, we still don’t like that you moved out to that old walk-up on the industrial edge of town,” added Donovan in that big-brothering way Lia’s brothers always spoke to her.

Xoey chuckled to herself over the prospect of Cactus Creek having a dangerous edge of town. Or any sort of edginess whatsoever, dangerous or otherwise. Theirs was more a fun, offbeat, marshmallow-bouncy, no-sharp-corners type of town that could probably be the inspiration of a fantastic board game.

Jackson was apparently with the guys in his assessment that they filmed crime shows here on the weekends, however. “My buddy’s offer for you to housesit the penthouse for him for the rest of this year still stands. The soundproofing works up there, too,” he added drolly.

When Sienna turned bright pink, the tide of the conversation shifted completely over to a different variety of big-brothering altogether. Xoey found herself thoroughly entertained. As an only child, she’d never had this sort of sibling relationship with anyone. And since she’d been living on her own since she was eighteen, she’d never felt the need to be coddled.

But it seemed kind of nice.

It didn’t come as a surprise when Sienna smoothly excused herself to go to the ladies room without answering any of the guys’ snooping questions.

What had come as a surprise to Xoey, however, was the belated realization that somehow, she’d managed to throw back four jumbo shots of tequila while chasing it with what was probably the world’s tallest glass of margarita on the rocks, strong enough for her to be able to exhale dragon fire if she got too close to a lit candle.

She had an awesome bar staff.

Raising another shot up to her bartenders, she quickly tossed it back.

A micro-minute later, Xoey heard Lia answering a call from her fiancé Hudson, on a cell phone which, strangely, sounded like it was still ringing even though she was talking.

Huh.

Some expert deductive reasoning soon had her entertaining the possibility that the ringing was coming from inside her head.

She shushed everyone at the table to silence to see for sure.

Meanwhile, she gazed down in surprise at the now empty, fairly blurry margarita glass and a fantastically architectural leaning tower of what looked like six stacked shot glasses next to it.

Oh yeah, she was drunk alright.





CHAPTER FOUR


XOEY WAVED HAPPILY when she saw Sienna and Lia return to the table around the same time. They were looking at her strangely, but that wasn’t anything new.

What was new was the fact that she was sitting in Jackson’s lap.

At her double take, he chuckled softly. “Hello again, sweets. I’d shake your hand for the third time but I’m afraid you’ll slide back onto the ground again if I do.”

She shrugged with a smile, and whispered loudly by way of logical answer, “Hey…where’re my shoes?”

The guys smiled at her dotingly.

She nodded back her thanks. Yes, that was a good answer.

“Xoey’s completely sloshed,” informed Bennett with an adoring headshake. “Cutest little drunk ever.”

She turned around to see who they were talking about.

Donovan grinned.

Xoey’s eyes widened at the effect.

Suddenly, a stupendous discovery hit her. She turned to study each of the three guys at the table then more carefully, and then murmured incredulously, “Holy crap.”

“Figured out another of life’s mysteries, beautiful?” asked Jackson.

Yes. Yes, she had. “Doc, Bashful, and Dommy are my three exes!” she exclaimed, swinging her gaze over to Sienna and Lia, expecting to hear applause over her tremendous discovery.

Weirdly, they weren’t clapping.

Lia was, however, smiling. “Let me guess. She gave you three dwarf names?”

“Yep,” replied the guys in unison.

“I’m Doc, apparently.” Jackson gave her a wink behind those sexy wire-rimmed glasses.

“McSizzling,” she added, remembering how the pharmacist she’d dated for the past few weeks had liked folks to use his full name. “Doc McSizzling.”

“And apparently, I’m Bashful,” supplied Bennett, who was simultaneously flirting with a gorgeous redhead the next table over.

“Because he and his pocket buddy aren’t bashful at all,” explained Xoey in complete drunken clarity.