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She rinsed out her mouth. “This is L.A., so real life is an illusion.”
“Bram!” Chaz yelled from the bottom of the stairs. “Bram, come quick! There’s a snake in the swimming pool. You have to get it out!”
Bram shuddered. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”
“You should make Lance and Jade do it.” Georgie docked her toothbrush. “It’s probably one of their relatives.”
“Bram!” Chaz called out. “Hurry!”
Georgie ended up pulling a robe around herself and following him out to the pool, where a rattlesnake had climbed up on a kickboard floating in the water. It wasn’t a big rattler, maybe two feet long, but it was still a poisonous snake and one that didn’t like the water.
Chaz’s yelling had alerted the other houseguests. As Lance and Jade appeared, Bram picked up the leaf skimmer and held it out. “Here you go, Lancelot. Impress the women.”
“I’ll pass.”
“Don’t look at me,” Jade said. “I’m phobic.”
“I hate snakes.” Chaz made a face.
Georgie extended her hand toward Bram. “Oh, give it here. I’ll do it.”
“Good girl.” Bram passed over the leaf skimmer.
As Georgie took it, Laura appeared, followed by Rory, who flipped her cell closed and dashed to the rim of the pool, the heels of her very expensive Gucci sandals clicking on the deck. “It that a rattler?”
“It sure is.” Bram glanced at Rory, then held out his hand to Georgie. “Honey, what are you doing? Give me that. No way am I letting you go after a dangerous rattlesnake.”
She suppressed a smile and handed back the swimmer. Bram gritted his teeth and gingerly extended it across the pool. Meg and Paul appeared and watched the process, with Meg occasionally throwing out advice. The snake hissed and coiled but Bram eventually managed to knock it off the kickboard into the skimmer. A patch of flop sweat had formed between his shoulder blades as he carted the extended skimmer to the very back of his property and flipped the snake over the stone wall.
“Great,” Rory said. “Now it can crawl back into my yard as soon as it’s full grown.”
“You let me know if it does,” Bram said. “I’ll come right over and take care of it for you.”
“You should have killed it,” Lance said.
“Why?” Meg retorted. “Because it acted like a snake?”
Georgie realized she needed to clarify something, and with Rory standing there, she might as well do it now, however awkward it might be. “You know, Rory…Those drinks Bram’s always carrying around. It’s iced tea.”
Bram looked at her as though she’d lost her mind, as did the others. “Just so everyone understands you’re not a drunk anymore,” she said lamely. “You stopped smoking cigarettes five years ago, and the oregano in the kitchen is really oregano. As for drugs…I’ve found some Flintstone vitamins and Tylenol, but—”
“I don’t take Flintstone vitamins!”
“One A Day. Whatever. If people know you’re not such a badass anymore, they might stop treating me like I was crazy for marrying you.” And, she thought, Rory might be more willing to get behind Tree House. Her newly calculating brain ticked away.
Bram finally climbed on board. “You were crazy to marry me, but I’m glad.”
They did a little marital cuddle, although she could tell from the tight furrow between his brows that he wasn’t happy with her. “My hero.” She patted his chest.
“You’re too good to me, sweetheart.”
Laura asked Lance and Jade the question that should have been at the forefront of all their minds. “How are you two? Any symptoms?”
“Jet-lagged, but otherwise healthy,” Jade said.
Rory flicked open her cell. “Give me a list of whatever any of you need. One of my assistants will get it all together and put it by the back gate.”
Lance clapped Paul on the shoulder. “It’s great to see you again. We finally have a chance to catch up.”
