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NC: I’ll kick your ass if you’re spending your own money. Consider it a late Christmas present, for fuck’s sake. Have fun. That’s an order.
NC: Don’t make me come down there.
Chloe couldn’t help but laugh. She could hear his gruff voice in her ear as she read the text. He really was the sweetest guy on the planet, with a grumpy bedside manner. Even back when they were kids fumbling in the dark, he’d been far kinder than a lot of the guys she’d been with.
CA: We’re behaving, that’s all.
/> He replied almost immediately.
NC: Well, stop it.
CA: Who are you? You’re usually arguing for a sale price.
NC: Retail fuckers can give me a discount. They already marked it up 200%. This is Vegas. You don’t look at the check. You just sign. Don’t make me find Jinx. I know she’ll spend my money.
CA: All right. Jeez. Understood.
NC: See you at the show. Buy all the things.
She laughed. “All right. Looks like we’re spending all the money today.”
“I heard that,” Jinx yelled from the bathroom.
“Of course you did.” Chloe quickly got dressed and put on a light touch of makeup. By the time Jinx got out of the bathroom, they were all ready to go.
Hangovers a thing of the past, they did a bit of retail therapy. Clothing, makeup, and of course the nails and feet deal killed a few hours. They refueled with coffee and frozen custard before another round of shopping. They put themselves in Meri’s capable hands. By the time they walked out of Luxe she’d been numbed to the idea of signing her name to every damn receipt that day.
She soothed herself with a walk through the shark exhibit, which they pre-gamed with a frozen drink called Shark Attack. There was much rum involved. And much more laughter as they shared an appetizer under a few thousand pounds of water with a terrifying number of predators swimming right over their heads.
Jinx dunked her deep fried mozzarella medallion in the spicy dipping sauce. “So, we have Warning Sign, Brooklyn Dawn, and Oblivion at the show tonight? How the hell are we going to survive that?”
“Earplugs?” Ivy asked.
Chloe elbowed Ivy. “I think she meant more of a triple threat of awesome.”
“You know I love a good show. Are you sure I can’t lure Deacon away from his wife?” Jinx chewed thoughtfully. “He seems to like blonds. I might even let him call me wifey’s name. What was that again? Helen?”
“Harper,” Chloe said with a laugh. She knew Deacon far too well. The girls had met him at the Christmas party at Nick and Lila’s new house. He was huge, tattooed, and disgustingly devoted to his wife. “Sorry, not a chance.”
“Damn. He’s probably a fucking stallion. Those thighs and shoulders…ugh. That back tattoo. So wrong.”
Chloe picked around the dregs of their sampler platter and found a crab fry. “It’s like lusting after a brother.”
“Even Nick?” Jinx grinned as she took another sip of Shark Attack number two.
Chloe coughed around the last bite of her fry. “Nick was a long time ago.”
“And we’ve never gotten the details.”
“And you never will.” Chloe gulped down half a glass of water.
“That bad?”
“Teenage sex is not something I think about anymore.”
Ivy sat back in her chair as she spun her drink in a puddle of condensation. “My best sexual encounter was at seventeen. Of course he was twenty-two.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Unfortunately, most have been duds ever since.”
Jinx blew raspberries. “That’s because you pick prudish bookish types.”
