And she certainly hadn’t minded showing it to Evan. He bit his lip on a grin as she turned to him. “I just felt like I needed to do something crazy…or crazy for me, anyway,” she explained, lowering her shirt. Todd probably wouldn’t have gone for it, he thought. “Lisa went with me.”
Brian burst out laughing. “Yeah, the pregnant chick. She was hilarious. You were fine afterward, but I thought she was about to pass out on the floor.”
“And she’s the one who’s gone through the rigors of childbirth twice already. I didn’t let her live it down, don’t worry,” Kelsey said. Brian held out his fist and she punched her knuckles against his, laughing.
Evan shook his head. “I’m still reeling from the fact that you willingly let my brother drive a needle through your flesh.”
“It was a very liberating moment,” she told him with a dead-straight face.
“See? These are the rewards of my profession,” Brian said to Evan. “Giving hot chicks their first taste of the wild life. We love to get our hands on virgin flesh in my line of work.”
“You’re twisted,” Evan said, and it didn’t escape him that Kelsey was laughing good-naturedly but covering her mouth with her hand and flushing bright red to the roots of her hair.
He shifted the conversation before she could somehow bolt. “Yeah, you love it when you go do your line of work.”
Brian popped the tab on the beer that had been sitting next to him. “They love me so much there, I can come and go as I please. Much like Michelle. Speaking of which, I’m out.” He rose from his barstool and grabbed his keys from the counter. “You kids have fun. Don’t do—”
“Not with that.” Evan gestured toward the can in Brian’s hand. “Open container law. You do this on purpose to bait me, don’t you?”
“Jesus Christ. You’re such a lawyer.” Brian always spat the word as if it were a curse.
“That may be, but right now I’m big brother and you’re not leaving my house drinking. Wait till you get to Michelle’s. Hand it over.”
Kelsey was watching the heated exchange with her eyebrows in her hairline. But she’d get used to it, if she hung around the two of them for any length of time. If she really wanted to see ugliness, she should watch Evan’s older sister lay into Brian. Or his mother, who reverted to Italian when she was really pissed off.
“Fine.” Brian shoved the beer into Evan’s hands. “Enjoy with my compliments, you rat bastard.”
“I surely will, since it’s mine.”
Brian flipped him off as he exited through the patio door.
“Well,” Kelsey said in the silence that followed, during which they both stared at the door where he had disappeared. “That was…”
“Minor. Trust me. Sorry you had to witness it.” He took a swig of Brian’s abandoned beer and walked around the counter to the refrigerator. “Want a drink?”
God, did she ever. If anyone had told her a month ago this would be happening, she would have accused them of being insane. “Sure.”
“Margaritas?”
“Sounds good.”
He set to work making them and she took a moment, as always, to envy him his kitchen. It was a hodgepodge of rugged brick, wrought-iron scrollwork and stainless steel, making her think of an old Italian bistro with plenty of modern upgrades. She loved this entire house…a log-cabin style with pale, naked wood walls and hardwood floors. It wasn’t too big, wasn’t too small…just right for him. And maybe one other person, of course. It had two bedrooms downstairs and a loft that overlooked the living room—he used the upstairs as his home office. It was filled with law books. Right now she had a couple of quilts her great-grandmother had made that would look gorgeous hanging over the loft railing. It was a crime they were bagged up in her closet, but she had nowhere to display them that did justice to their beauty or their preciousness to her.
I’m redecorating his house in my head. Crazy, girl. Crazy.
He’d bought the place shortly after proposing to Courtney and they’d lived here around eighteen months before she decided she liked Kelsey’s life better. For whatever reason.
Now that was a crazy girl.
Evan looked incredibly edible tonight—she couldn’t recall ever thinking he didn’t. He was wearing a pair of worn, faded jeans, and he was owning them. A white polo shirt hugged his broad shoulders, so stark and sexy set against his olive complexion and his raven-black hair. Hair that was still damp and redolent from a recent shower. She could spend her entire day doing nothing more than inhaling his scent. Or staring at that ass. It was one fine ass. What she wouldn’t give to feel it bare and cupped in her hands, urging him deeper……
God. Hopefully he would think her full-body blush was still from Brian’s ribbing. What had she been thinking wearing this top? She must be splotchy all over. Maybe she needed to rethink some of the clothes she’d packed, as well.
He finished making her margarita, and even the first few sips made her head swim a bit. It had been too long. She wasn’t much of a drinker, though she indulged on special occasions. And tonight would definitely count.
“Do you need any help?” she offered, though he seemed to have it all well under control.
He smiled on his way out to the grill with a platter. “Nope, but you can come outside with me.”
They sat poolside while she nursed her margarita and he drank a longneck, watching the moon’s slow climb into the heavens. A scrumptious aroma drifted over from the grill, mingling with the summery scent of chlorine and citronella. God, she could get used to this. But it wasn’t long before her clothes were sticking to her and she was tempted to dive headfirst into his pool to escape the heat. As soon as the steaks were done, they went back into the bliss of the air conditioning.
Kelsey wandered into his living room with every pretense of sitting and relaxing, but really she just wanted to survey the environment he dwelled in……post-Courtney. She’d never seen it without the other woman’s influence.
She hadn’t had very much, it seemed. The furniture was the same, as were the decorative pictures on the walls. What had changed, she noticed with a slow spread of warmth in her chest, was the addition of a few pictures of Evan and Kelsey together.
Laughing at a party, arm in arm. Hugging at their graduation wearing their caps and gowns. She’d been crying just before that picture was taken because she was a sap like that. But it had been the end of an era for her—a fun one—and quite scary to contemplate moving with Todd to a strange town. Evan had come home with them, though he’d been busy most of the summer getting ready to move to Austin to start law school. Thank goodness he had come back here once he was done, when he could have gone anywhere he wanted.
“These are great,” she said when she heard him enter the room behind her.
“Yep. The good ol’ days.”
“You didn’t have the pictures here before. I guess Courtney didn’t like them.”
“Sometimes it’s just easier to keep the peace, you know?”
She laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Tell me about it.”
“So what’s been going on with you? I haven’t seen you in a couple of months.”