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“All the more reason to let loose,” Avery declares with a wink, sliding a shot glass in my direction. “Drink up, babe.” She sweeps her gaze around the table, searching for another victim. “Anyone else?”
“Sloane’ll have one,” Madd speaks up, arms tightening around his mate perched in his lap.
Her dark curls bounce as she whips her head around to peer at him over her shoulder. “I will?”
“Yeah, you get frisky on lemon drop shots.” He waggles his brows and her cheeks flush, and though I can tell there’s definitely a story there, it’s probably one I don’t want to know.
Or maybe I do. I’ve been living vicariously through my friends’ hookup stories for years now.
Avery slides a shot toward Sloane, then passes the rest of them out randomly, taking the last one for herself and raising it in the air. Funny, though she claimed she ordered them before Andie arrived, there’s exactly enough shots for everyone.
The rest of us pick up our own glasses- some more begrudgingly than others- and raise them up, looking to Avery expectantly.
She purses her lips, sweeping a mischievous glance around the table. “Pain makes you stronger, tears make you braver,heartbreak makes you wiser… and vodka makes you not remember any of that crap.”
Everyone chuckles, clinking their glasses together and tossing their shots back. I raise my own to my lips, the strong scent of the vodka burning my nose as I pluck the lemon wedge off the side and lick the sugar from the rim. The liquor burns all the way down when I sink it, and I quickly bite into the lemon to chase the taste of the alcohol, my eyes watering.
The vodka warms my belly as it settles inside, the table rattling as my friends slam their empty shot glasses back down upon it.
“Those are fucking foul,” Andie chokes, wiping her mouth off on the back of a hand.
Avery waves a dismissive hand in her direction, rolling her eyes.
“So Andie, when are you gonna come out for target practice with the squad and show everyone how it’s done?” Tristan drawls, grinning her way.
“Whatever,” she scoffs with a soft chuckle. Andie’s always humble about her skills with a gun, but now that the whole squad is training with firearms to give us a shot against the hunters if they show up- no pun intended- we could really use her expertise. All the Raines kids know their way around a gun thanks to their mom, but Andie’s the best of the three. She couldn’t have bowed out from her role in squad leadership at a worse time.
“Did your aunt find someone else to nanny for her yet?” Iver asks.
“Actually, yeah,” Andie replies, running a hand through her wavy red hair. “Not sure yet when they’ll start, but as soon as they do, I’ll be able to come back.”
“I hope you’re not angling to move back into your old dorm room,” Ares mutters, casting a wary glance in his sister’s direction. “I’m not moving all my shit again.”
Avery rounds the table to come up on the other side of Andie, slinging an arm over her shoulders. “You know we could totally make him move, right?” she says in a low voice, winking conspiratorially.
“Aves!” Ares gasps, his jaw dropping like he’s offended. “I thought you were on my side!”
“Chicks over dicks,” she quips, shrugging a shoulder as she leans across the table to steal his beer. She brings it to her lips, lifting her brows and holding eye contact with him while taking a long pull. Ares just stares at her, completely enamored, while the rest of us share a chuckle at his expense.
“Wearegonna have to figure out the dorm situation,” Archer says thoughtfully, swiping a hand over his chin. “We’ve still got full-time squad fighters camped out in the trainee barracks.”
“You mean the orphanage,” I snort. Because once upon a time I was just a baby squad recruit, and I remember those months of living in the barracks all too well. It’s just a big open room filled with rows of bunk beds and zero semblance of privacy.No thanks.
My brother furrows his brow. “I thought we’d talked about putting on an addition, is that still happening?”
Everyone turns their attention toward Madd, since he and his sister are technically the heads of squad leadership, but he’s so wrapped up in Sloane that he’s not even listening. He’s gripping her thigh possessively, stroking it with his thumb as he murmurs something in her ear that the rest of us aren’t privy to- and judging by the deep blush on her cheeks, it’s not about the living situation at the squad complex.
Ares picks up a cardboard coaster, chucking it in their direction. It hits Madd in the arm and he jerks his head up with a scowl.
“Is this how it’s gonna be now?” Ares asks, gesturing toward them indignantly.
“Yeah, it is,” Madd snaps. “Got a problem with that, Raines?”
Sloane elbows her mate, shooting him a scolding look, and he immediately softens, the tension draining from his shoulders.
“You could probably take my dorm room, Andie,” Sloane offers.
I’m shocked she actually caught that part of our conversation with the way Madd was distracting her.
