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At one point, he had removed his tie and opened the two top buttons of his shirt. Sitting across from him, Hope conducted a private biology experiment—could she look at him without her heart rate rising or her palms sweating?
She failed the experiment time and again.
“I saw you gawking,” Roni whispered to her when they both went in to put on a jacket as the night became chilly. “Can’t blame you. Even I could hardly help myself. To think that you tried to flirt with Josh when this specimen of a man was there. Josh is a kid next to him.”
“Roni! What if Don hears you?”
“What? I’m married, not blind,” Roni said, laughing. “Don doesn’t mind. He knows I’m his, heart, body, and soul. Didn’t you and Eric joke about these things?”
“He did. God forbid if I ever said someone was attractive. He’d get all, ‘It’s very common here in California to see people who keep in shape,’” she mimicked a man’s whiny voice.
“I wonder if that applies in Nevada and for his new wife, too. God, what a douche!” Roni exclaimed, her face contorting in contempt.
Hope didn’t reply. While Jenna, Eric’s wife, was a civil engineer like him and had begun dating him just six months after her and Eric’s divorce had been final, she was okay. Most importantly, she was nice to Naomi and Hannah.
“Are there any more of those special cocktails, Jordan?” Libby asked when they were back.
Hope shot a glance at her friend, her heart rate speeding up yet again. She was wondering about that gesture of his, too, but would never dare to bring it up.
“All gone,” Jordan said with a smile. “I was tricked into thinking they’d be easy to make. They’re not. Maybe a real bartender, like Josh, could whip those out faster.”
On the porch that was lit by strings of fairy lights, the moon, and the backyards of the houses in the front row to the beach, Hope could clearly see his wink in her direction.
She failed another biology experiment just then.
Through a dry mouth, she managed to say, “They looked like they were made by a pro.”
A bit later, when the two couples spoke quietly between themselves and Jordan went inside after his cell phone had rung, Hope got up and went to lean against the railing of the porch. Who would call him at eleven p.m. on a Saturday night? she wondered while trying to shut herself up internally. It was none of her goddamn business.
Gazing at the waves breaking in the distance, she checked for messages. Nothing. That was good news.
She was dying to pee, but just the thought of pulling down the shaper and then back up again had kept her from going until now. However, there was no way she would survive the ride back if she didn’t go.
Approaching Libby, she quietly asked where the restroom was, then went inside, leaving her jacket with Libby.
Jordan’s voice was coming from somewhere in the house but she didn’t see him.
After using the bathroom, which was a door away from the open door of the bedroom, she snuck a peek in. It was immaculate in comparison to her house, which held evidence of kids in every corner, including her bedroom.
Back on the porch, while the rhyming couple was quietly conversing by the railing and Luke and Libby on an Adirondack, Hope decided to hint that she was ready to leave. She gathered as many glasses as she could carry from the side table and went inside to put them in the kitchen.
Jordan was still nowhere to be seen.
After depositing the glasses in the sink, she washed her hands under the tap. When she pivoted to take the dishtowel that hung by the fridge, Jordan entered the kitchen.
“Hey.” He stopped a few inches from her.
“Hi. I think we’re leaving soon, so I thought I’d help clear some of the dishes.”
“Been avoiding the make-out sessions outside?”
She chuckled nervously. “Kinda.” Wiping her hands, she stared at the towel as if it was fascinating, then hung it back.
He pointed at the row of containers on the counter, labeled “Calcium Lactate Gluconate” and “Sodium Alginate.” “What am I going to do with all the leftover powders? Are they powders, by the way, or do they have another name?”
“Powders is correct. You can use them to wow other guests of yours.” It was as close as she could come to hinting about Avery.
He traced his glance over her. Brief as it was, he heat up everything in his path up to the roots of her hair. “Everyone I wanted to wow was here today.”
