She made it to me and stopped.
I looked up at her through my kickass, gold-framed, orange-lensed Ray Bans that had been payment on a “job” and also had luckily been in my purse when my belongings exploded. She looked down at me through her righteous, huge, black-framed, black-lensed Hollywood Starlet shades.
I opened my mouth to speak but she got there before me.
“Tex knows we’re here, he’s gonna go ballistic.”
This was a promising opening.
“This is clandestine because we need privacy, and that’s because I need to know I’m cool with you before I take on the Rock Chicks,” I explained.
She said nothing and didn’t move.
This was not promising.
I slid her cup toward her. “I bought you a skinny vanilla latte.”
Her shades dipped to the cup then came back to me. Other than that, she said nothing and didn’t move.
This was definitely not promising. India Nightingale was Queen Coffee. I didn’t think I’d ever seen her turn down a cup. Definitely not a vanilla latte. In fact, during road trips, I made sure we had a bottle of tequila for when we reached our destination. Indy made sure we had travel mugs filled with java.
I closed my eyes.
Then I opened them and stated, “That night Ren fought with Luke, in an effort to calm him down, I suggested we go for drinks. He took me up on that offer. We went to Brother’s but when we got there, it wasn’t about Ren and Luke and Ava. It was about Ren and me. And it was good. So good, he took me to his house. That was better. Way better. Out of our stratosphere better.”
Indy remained silent, another bad sign. She got me. I was talking about sex. And the Rock Chicks existed on a conversational diet heavy on sex talk, Hot Bunch bitching and skincare tips.
Time to pull out the big guns.
“I fell in love with him, chickie,” I whispered and watched her lips part.
There it was, thank God. I was getting in there.
So I kept at it.
“In one night, I fell in love.”
She bit her lip.
Yes. Getting in there.
“I woke up in his arms in his bed and I was happy. Totally happy, babe. So happy I was lying there smiling. And he curled me closer, shoved his face in my hair and said Ava’s name.”
That did it.
Her body jolted before she yanked out a chair, sat her ass in it and leaned toward me, exclaiming on a horrified hiss, “Oh my God! Seriously?”
I nodded. “Seriously.”
“Holy crap,” she breathed.
“It killed,” I admitted.
“It would,” she agreed.
“Ren was asleep when he did it,” I explained. “I snuck out. He got pissed that I did, came over that night and that didn’t go very well. I didn’t share why I left so he didn’t know until yesterday why I established stringent fuck buddy boundaries. Boundaries, I’ll add, that he didn’t really adhere to and, looking back, I didn’t either. Since he was asleep, he didn’t know he did it and was pretty upset when I threw it in his face. He explained, we worked it out. I love him, he loves me and it’s all good.”
Something moved over her face that I could read even behind her shades.
Surprise.
And warmth.
“You love him?” she asked quietly and I felt my lips tip up.
“Yeah,” I answered just as quietly.
Her head tipped to the side. “He loves you?”
I nodded and full-on smiled. “Oh yeah.”
No surprise that time. Just warmth.
“He’s good to you?”
My smile got bigger as my hand lifted to touch the pendant at my neck. “Definitely.”
Her shades dropped to my throat. Her mouth got soft but she didn’t say anything. I knew she’d like the pendant. I knew she’d know it was from Ren. And I knew she’d know, just looking at its kickassness, that it was thoughtful and generous and said it all.
