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“Didn’t stop you last night,” she observed.
“Oh, you can shut up.” I kicked out at her foot. “Look, I was drunk, it’s not true, it didn’t mean anything.” I ticked each one off my fingers.
“It meant something. What’s that saying?”
“Drunk minds speak sober hearts,” Holley murmured without blinking.
Of course she knew.
I huffed and sat down. “Well, my heart is dumb. And so is my clitoris.”
“Amen to that.” Tori held her hand up for a high five.
I obliged.
“You owe us a real date,” Tori said, folding her arms and making her boobs almost pop out of her shirt. “Not one of these fucky ones because Kinsley wants to see her brother settle down with someone who isn’t a neurotic bitch.”
She was not wrong. Colton’s ex had been a total bitch.
For her part, Kinsley had the grace to look abashed. “Honestly, we put them in a hat and pulled them at random.”
“No, you didn’t. You put Tori with Colton because you think they have chemistry.”
“You did what?!” Tori exclaimed.
“Why do you hate me?” Kinsley asked me.
“Because you sent me on a date with my roommate,” I said, over-pronouncing each word to make a point. “This is payback. And I don’t want a date from any of you shitheads.”
“Whoa. What’s going on here?” Josh said, pausing in the doorway.
“Do you really want to know that?” Holley asked dryly, adjusting her glasses. “Get in, you’re making it cold.”
“It’s like a fucking sauna in here.”
“You’re welcome,” Tori said, gesturing to her upper body.
Josh laughed and bent to kiss Kinsley. “Am I interrupting? I can come back later.”
“No, stay.” Kinsley gripped onto him. “You can be my shield when they start throwing books at me.”
“Aren’t you the one who throws books?”
“We all do,” I confirmed. “Effective weapons, plus we usually have them to hand.”
He looked at me and shuffled back. “Why are you throwing books?”
“Don’t get them started again,” Holley muttered, picking up a stack of books and scanning them. She switched it for her beloved label gun and marked a sale price on top of the sticker that was already there.
Ugh.
I hated stickers on book covers.
Made them all… sticky. They always left those little gloopy messes on the cover that you couldn’t get off no matter how hard you tried.
“Oooo-kay,” Josh said slowly. “I was just coming to get Kinsley for lunch. If that’s okay.”
“More than. Let’s go.” Kins all but shoved him toward the door.
“Don’t you want your coat?”
“I’ll steal yours. Let’s go!”
“Pussy!” Tori yelled after her. “I’ll get you!”
“No, you won’t!” Kinsley yelled back, through the closed door.
Holley looked at Tori. “She’s right. You won’t.”
“Oh, I will.” Tori jumped up and waggled her finger at her. “And I’ll get you, too.”
“I’m terrified,” she drawled, not even looking at Tori as she got up and headed for the door. “Have a fun afternoon!”
“Fuck you!” Tori sang, deliberately leaving the door open behind her.
I smirked.
“Ooooh!” Holley stomped over to the door and shoved it shut, making the sign swing and flip to show ‘open.’ With another huff, she turned the sign back around the correct way so no wayward shoppers came in.
Not that there were wayward shoppers. I was pretty sure they were all hungover today.
Holley looked at me. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m okay.”
“I don’t know why you’re all pissed off. I’m the one who had a horror-filled night, not you. You left me to that cesspit of single blind dates where we all got stupidly drunk and I messed up. Dylan might say it’s okay, but it’s not.”
She looked over at me. “Seb will never play again.”
I stilled. “What?”
She leaned forward on the books and nodded, staring at the cover of a romance that, unfortunately, had a baseball player on the cover. She grabbed it and tossed it across the table with such vigor that it slid right off and thumped onto a chair.
“Are you sure?”
“Yep.” She looked up at me and swallowed. Her eyes were watery and had none of their usual shine. “He found out this morning. He had some scans yesterday afternoon and his doctor has advised him that it’s too risky. His injury was too bad. He’ll never play professionally again.”
“I’m so sorry.” I reached over and touched her arm. “Is he okay?”
“He says he is, but I know he’s not. He’s worked so hard for all this and he’s tried so hard to recover, but—” Her voice caught, and my heart broke as a tear slipped down her cheek.
I stood and pulled her into my arms. It was as if that hug opened the floodgates, because the second she wrapped her arms around me, she burst into tears in earnest. I’d never seen Holley cry like this. I had no idea how she’d kept this inside for as long as she had, but I had the feeling that she’d been holding onto enough emotion for both her and Sebastian.
