Page 10 of Blue Jeans in Low Beams

Nothing…it’s nothing…just my older brother’s sexy as hell bestie walking in on me getting off. It’s nothing…

For a second I think about telling her. Spilling all the tea and wearing my mortification proudly. She is my best friend after all. She knows all my secrets. Hell, maybe she’d even know what to do to make this whole thing less…humiliating.

“You caught me as I was about to get in the shower, that’s all,” I lie. “So, you’re talking to me naked.”

“Weirdo.”

I laugh it off. If she only knew the half of it. “You know me.”

“Anyway, Brandt left today, right? So time to kick off hot-girl summer?”

“Yup, left this morning. And I do have to study, you know.”

I shake my head. I love Mell and her commitment to endeavors, but I think she’s going to be disappointed in my fun levels thanks to the amount of time I’m going to have to devote to my study guides.

“Yes, but one night out won’t hurt. Then you can get your study on.”

Okay, she has a point.

“Whatcha thinking?”

“The Giddy Up? Dust the boots off and find some stranger to push you around the dance floor?”

“Is that Jon approved?” I question, wondering what exactly her husband would think of that. Especially considering that’s how they met.

“Notice I said push you around the dance floor and not us.”

Laughing, I grab a towel from the closet and wrap it around me, perching on the edge of the bed. I’ll make it down to the bathroom in a moment, but I don’t dare sit here naked now. Just in case.

“Fair.”

“Friday work?”

I start to respond, then stop. Shit. I agreed to help out at Pour Decisions on Friday. It’s one of the busier nights at the bar, and even though Milo insisted that he and Ben could handle it, I promised I would be around just in case. I can’t go back on that. Unless now he doesn’t want me to.

“I promised I’d help at Pour Decisions Friday. Saturday?”

“Can’t Saturday—promised Mom I’d go up to Atlanta to see a show with her.”

Oh, damn it.

“Next weekend?”

“That’s the military wives’ retreat up in North Carolina I agreed to. I actually leave Sunday from Atlanta to head up there and don’t get back until next Sunday.”

I sigh, slumping my shoulders as I readjust the towel. “We are not off to a good start.”

“I’ll just come hang out at the bar. We’ll make it work. Besides, don’t they have a new guy working there? Is he cute?”

“Ben? He’s like twelve.”

“He can’t be twelve; he’s serving alcohol.”

“Mell, it’s Ben Edgar. Lauren Edgar’s little brother.”

“Oh.”

I press my lips in a line, nodding my head, her short response understood perfectly. Hickory Hills is a small town, where everyone knows everyone. To Milo, Ben is nothing more than a local kid home from college. To Mell and me, he’s the annoying little brother of a classmate who used to chase us around, trying to snap our bras.