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“Sure.”Gabe grabs a spoon and scoops a huge serving of the rice dish onto his plate.“As long as you’re the one doing it.”
I stiffen but don’t respond.Darby does though.
“Seriously, when are you going to quit your jobs and join Hot Guy Landscaping?”
This is what I get for bringing up the business.I clench my jaw as I serve myself a small helping of risotto.
“What are we talking about?”Liv looks between the three of us, and my jaw tightens even more.
“My extremely talented man opened HG Landscaping last year with the understanding that his very best friend in the world would come on board as the design expert,” Darby says.
“But has he devoted his eye for color and his many muscles toward making the business grow?”Gabe asks.“He has not.”
The smothering weight of their hopeful, encouraging eyes falls on me.
“You guys know it’s not a good time,” I mumble.
“It hasn’t been a good time for a year and a half now,” Gabe points out.“It’s never going to be a good time, so just make now the time.”
His voice has an edge of frustration, which is rare for him.And he’s not wrong.First it was my fear of being deadweight on the payroll of a fledgling business.Then it was Mom’s surgery throwing the family into financial and emotional crisis mode.Now it’s the pressure to make sure everybody has the Christmas they deserve after such a hard, shitty year.
“Seriously, Jonesy, don’t you want to quit your jobs and just play in the dirt?”Darby wheedles.
“Jobs plural?”Liv’s trying to keep up with the conversation, and alarm crackles down my spine.
I’m saved by the buzz of her phone.“Oh, CJ’s here to pick me up.”She glances at the remaining risotto in the bowl.“Do you think we have enough for one more?”
“More, merrier, etcetera,” I say.Anything to steal a few more minutes with her after work hours.
I stand to let her out of the booth, and while we wait for her to let CJ in, Gabe asks, “Still on for Golfmas?”
“Like I’d miss it.”
“Wyatt too?”
I grimace.“If we’re lucky, no.”Gabe just sends me a long look, and I sigh.“I’ll check.”
Before he can lecture me about what a good but misunderstood guy my brother is, Liv’s back with CJ, who’s all smiles as she introduces herself.Liv ends up smushed in the middle of the booth between her friend and me, and now I have the sweet torture of her body pressing tightly against mine in this two-person booth.How on earth does she smell so good after a full day in a restaurant?
“You work at the library, right?”CJ’s dressed as casually today as the last time I saw her, and she doesn’t hesitate before launching into conversation with two strangers.But the stranger vibe doesn’t last, and before I know it, Gabe and I are raising our brows as the three women make plans for a mani-pedi-wine bar-Christmas shopping excursion.
“Jeez, is it that easy for women to make new friends as adults?”Gabe asks.
“It is when the women are as delightful as we are,” Darby tells him.
Liv nudges me.“Men too.We’re buddies, right?”
“Buddies,” I say faintly.Can you be buddies with a woman when you’ve lost sleep imagining how her hair would feel against your cheek and chest and cock?
“So you’re best buds with the hot waiter.That’s one down,” CJ says.“Next up, make friends with snake-hips Santa.”
One thing I know for sure about Liv.She isn’t usually over-the-top dramatic.But here she is covering her face with her hands and slumping forward with a wail.“Oh my god, CJ!”
“Snake-hips Santa?”Gabe asks.
CJ nods enthusiastically.“I dragged my darling friend to the strip club in North Village last weekend, and since then, she’s been obsessed with the guy who was dressed like Santa.”
The guy who…
