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“Sounds reasonable.”
“For now.”
“Fuck.”
I bit back a laugh. “I asked you where you were, and that was when we went through the whole five bars thing before I finally figured out were you were.”
“Did you come down?”
“Sure did. I drove down and when I got there, Ava was dancing on a table and you and Halley were running what I’m pretty sure was an illegal betting ring.”
Reagan rubbed her fingertips across her forehead. “We were?”
“You had a pool going for how long Ava would last before she fell off the table.”
“Yeah. That sounds like us. Did she fall off?”
“Yep. Luckily for her, me and Preston caught her.” I smacked my lips together. “It was when you and Halley tried to get on the bar to do the dance from Coyote Ugly that the two of us all but carried the three of you out of there.”
“Oh, Jesus. I have flashbacks from Ava’s twenty-first birthday.”
“Everyone thought we were spoilsports, for what it’s worth.”
She leaned over and touched my arm. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I winked. “We threw the three of you in the back of my truck and drove you home. We had to stop one time for you to pee in a bush and once for Ava to throw up on the side of the road. We took Ava up to her apartment and put her to bed, then we went to Halley’s. I have to say I’ve never made peanut butter sandwiches for raccoons before. There was something about leaving them grapes, too?”
“She’s trying to vary their diet a little.” Reagan took a big drink of coffee. “Grapes every other time. Sometimes goldfish crackers. Occasionally cookies.”
“What?”
“The raccoons. They’re basically her pets at this point. She feeds them. Boris is a horny bastard who humped her chair leg last week.”
“They live in her house?”
“No. Outside. They’re not allowed in—well, Betty is, but she doesn’t hump everything.”
“We’re going to have to come back to this,” I said. “Anyway. We fed the raccoons and put Halley to bed, then I left Preston there with her and brought you here. I was going to take you home, but I figured you’d already told your mom you were staying here last night.”
“Yeah.” She coughed and cleared her throat. “Good call. So after you dealt with my weirdo best friends and my weirdo brother, you looked after me?”
“I’d say tried to control you is a better representation of what actually happened.”
“Oh, God.”
There was a lot of that going on this morning, wasn’t there? “So you came in fine. Almost tripped over the door, but you were fine. Then you began your love affair with Poosh. She licked you all over your face, you scratched her belly until she needed to pee, then she came in and licked your ankles until you realized you were asking her to go to bed with you.”
Reagan dropped her head back and looked up at the ceiling, then muttered something under her breath. “Okay. Wow. So now you know why I don’t drink straight tequila.”
I gave her a sympathetic smile and nodded slowly. “It all adds up.”
“All I can do is say that I’m sorry you had to witness that.”
“I’m not. It was the most fun I’ve had in ages.”
“You thought that was fun?”
“Reagan, you set up a betting pool in a bar, tried to do the Coyote Ugly dance on the bar, and spent thirty minutes telling my dog you love her so much you want to sleep with her in my bed. It was hilarious.”
She pressed her hands over her face and shook her head. “Oh, my God.”
I leaned back on my hands, grinning. The shame rolled off her in waves. Clearly, tequila-drunk Reagan was a little secret she was hoping to keep for a bit longer.
I, however, was fucking delighted to have discovered it.
“No more tequila. Ever.” She dropped her hands and looked at me. “Do you mind if I take a shower?”
I shook my head. “Go ahead. I need to take Poosh out for a walk anyway—do you want me to get anything while I’m out?”
“A time machine, maybe? I’d like a do-over of last night.”
“No way.”
“How did I end up in your shirt, by the way?” she asked when I stood up.
“Oh, that.” I looked down at her. “When you realized Poosh wasn’t interested in sleeping with you, you tried to talk me into having sex. I told you I really wanted to fuck you in that t-shirt, so you pulled off all your clothes and put it on. Then I told you to lie down and I’d be right back. When I came back, you were asleep. Or passed out, really.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, meeting my eyes. “Again, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry. I doubt it’ll be the last time I see you drunk.”
“Oh, I will. I’m never drinking again.”
