“I don’t know.” I threw up my hands. “Just a few shots…ish.”
“Few?” He lowered to look in my eyes, then he frowned. “Looks more than a few.”
“Why, you want a taste on my tongue?” I parroted back what he’d said about his Red Hots. Not quite as clever, though. I was too tired to be clever.
He growled. “You’re drunk.”
“Only a little. What’s it to you?” I swayed and he caught me against his delicious chest.
“I’m taking you home.”
“No, you’re not.” I stepped back and my ankle wobbled. The floor was obviously crooked.
He gripped my hip to steady me. “You’re done.”
“You’re not the boss of me.”
“I kind of am.”
“No, there’s a big difference between client and boss, pal.” I poked his chest. “I definitely don’t sleep with my bosses.” I snickered. “Shelby isn’t my type.”
“I thought she was your partner?”
“Oh, she is. But she’s bossy too. We let her think she’s in charge. She’s a mom, anyway. TJ acts like one of those too. Hmm.” I frowned. “Not sure I like that. Am I a bratty teen in this group?”
“Yes.”
“Shut up.”
“That’s what a bratty teen would say.”
I dug my fingers into his belly. “Whatever. Hey, why do you care if I’m drunk, anyway?”
“I don’t.”
“Coulda fooled me.” I wrinkled my nose at my thick tongue. “I gotta pee.”
He sighed. “C’mon.” He turned me around and steered me toward the sign where the bathrooms were and pushed the door open.
“You don’t need to come in with me.”
“Lucky for you, this place is progressive, and the bathrooms are unisex. Get inside.”
I huffed out a breath. “You really are bossy.”
“Just do your business, Hellcat, and then I’m taking you home.”
I peered up at him. “Home with you?”
TWENTY-ONE
Definitely not. I did not need a drunk Dahlia in my trailer.
“Your place.”
“Fine. But only because I was already ready to go, not because you’re telling me to go home.”
She came up to my chin with the ankle breakers she was wearing. And dammit, I couldn’t stop staring at her blood-red lips.
“I don’t care. Just go in there.” I pointed to a stall.
“So bossy,” she muttered as she locked the door. “Don’t listen.”
I rolled my eyes. Not like it wasn’t a bodily function we all did or anything. “Not listening.”
I leaned against the tiled wall. I did not need this tonight. I’d stopped in for a beer with Gideon to talk about a tentative schedule. The Spinning Wheel in the Cove was still closed for renovations after their flooding, and I’d already been in Kensington Square from...earlier.
I closed my eyes. I should have just left things alone. Hell, I hadn’t even known she was here since they were sitting at a booth tucked in the back corner. I hadn’t met their last partner yet, so there was no reason for me to have noticed that damn booth.
Except I recognized her laugh. And the lamenting moan.
Mostly, the moan. I still heard it in my head when I allowed things to get too quiet.
The moan that ended with a sigh and my name.
The door banged open, and she stared at me from the doorway. Her hair was curly as it had been on the rainy day she’d brought me home to the Airstream. This time, it was wilder, if that was possible. It made her heart-shaped face seem even younger. Except for her eyes. They were hot and angry, which always lit me up.