Page 39 of Crew Girl

He had been. They all had. But nothing anyone had said had given him the confidence to press send.

“We’ve all voted, man,” Quaid reminded him. “I liked the muscle shot. You look jacked.”

“I like the one that looks like a Goya,” Noah said. The guys exchanged confused looks. “Goya? The artist? Honestly. It’s like none of you have been to a museum.”

Baloo’s normally cheery face looked anguished. This was really tying him in knots. Cam had to put him out of his misery.

“Give it here.” He held out his hand for the phone, flicked between the top three choices, then gave it back to him. “The muscles one. Quaid called it.”

Baloo beamed his thanks, then gave a whoop.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Teagan squeezing her way through a group of gray-haired suited dudes who Ryder had told them were on the board of Regis Airlines.

She looked good. He’d only seen her in workout clothes or school clothes. She was always pretty, but the flight attendant’s outfit she was rockin’ stirred something in him that it would probably be wise to squelch.

“Food!” Baloo shouted when he realized Teagan was steering a trolley full of party food toward them. The team fell on it so fast, she stumbled backward.

“Hey.” He steadied her. “I didn’t realize you were working the party.”

“Yeah,” she frowned, eyes trained on the guys as they stuffed fancy finger foods into their mouths. “I didn’t either.”

She clearly didn’t want to talk about it. He knew better than to press.

“Has Quaid been behaving himself?” she asked. “He’s gone almost a whole week without an incident.”

“So far so— Oh shit.”

She followed his gaze and groaned. “Seriously? Cabrera brought Ethan as her plus-one?” She looked around, panicked. “Quick. We’ve got to get Quaid somewhere safe so he doesn’t see him.”

She was right. Quaid would flip if he knew Ethan was here. “Hey, guys!” She clapped her hands. “Why don’t you go look at some of the planes?”

They looked up from the party food, confused. “Why?”

“Because… because… they’re old.”

“Yeah, like the rest of Josh’s invite list.” Perry cackled at his own joke.

“It’s definitely less young and depraved than Josh said it would be,” Crabcatcher said, yelping when Teagan ran over his foot.

“I don’t know,” Noah mused. “Sometimes all you need is a dry rosé and good conversation.”

“Yeah,” Quaid guffawed. “If you’re a Real Housewife.”

“Guys!” Teagan shouted, desperate now. “Go look at the old planes!”

“Why?” Ryder asked. They were clearly happy where they were.

“Because I’m the cox and I said so!”

Cam winced. She’d been getting so close to winning the team’s full support and in the blink of an eye, poof!—off it flew.

Teagan tried again. “I know. I’m sorry. Can I take it back?” She looked around the group. They all avoided eye contact until she hit Cam’s arm. “Too late. It’s out there.”

The rest of the team went back to talking—and eating. “Did you have to leave me hanging like that?” Teagan whispered.

“If by hanging you meant trying to force Quaid to look at a plane he had zero interest in seeing, yes. I was going to leave you hanging.”

“I was doing it for the team.”