Hot As Sin

7

3

By eight o’clock, the sun is setting, the party is in full swing, and I’m on my fourth whiskey. That sounds bad, but considering I’ve paced myself to one per hour, I’m not even buzzed.

Everyone else, however, definitely is.

The crowd mingling around the pool and gardens is a raucous group, shouting and laughing, cursing and drinking, dancing barefoot in the grass and singing out of tune with the music the DJ is spinning in his lighted booth on the left side of the patio. Guests drink vodka shots poured out of an ice luge shaped like a huge p***s. A peaked cirque-themed rave tent is set up on the far side of the lawn. A few dozen people are already in the pool. Some of them are fully dressed, some are wearing their birthday suits.

And the air all around is scented with the sweet, pungent odor of m*******a.

“Rock ‘n’ roll, baby.” Nico swaggers up with a drink in his hand, grinning. “You havin’ fun?”

I look at the pool, where I’ve been watching a redhead with no top on bounce up and down in the water. She’s got her eyes closed and her arms overhead, oblivious to everything but the music. She’s young, wet, and beautiful.

“Yes. God bless America.”

He follows my gaze and breaks into laughter. We toast, clinking glasses, then throw our heads back and down our drinks. When we finish, I look back at the pool, but from the corner of my eye, I see him watching me.

“Kat’s havin’ a hard time,” he says, his voice lower.

I know he doesn’t mean with the pregnancy.

“She’s got you to look after her. She’ll be fine.”

“She worries about you. Bein’ alone. On the other side of the country. Without family or friends.”

I smile. I know how Kat frets over me. I think it’s sweet. Since her crazy brother-in-law tried to kill her—almost killing me in the process—we’ve grown close. Like siblings, except without the rivalry. She’s a great girl. Smart, strong, and mama bear protective of those she loves. She’s gonna make a fantastic mom.

“She’ll have more important things to worry about soon enough. You pick out a name for the baby yet?”

“Nah. She doesn’t want to jinx it.”

I glance over at him. He lifts a shoulder and changes the subject.

“So if I know you like I think I do, I should say my farewells now, seein’ as how you’ll be pullin’ an Irish goodbye and sneakin’ outta the party before it’s over.”

He’s right. I’m always the first to leave a party. And I’m usually in stealth mode when I do. If there’s anything more I hate than being the center of attention, it’s saying goodbye. Which makes tonight a double whammy.

“You shoulda kept me on the clock another day so I couldn’t leave,” I joke.

“If I had my way, you’d be on the clock permanently, brother. We’d be old and gray on some county fairground stage in Pittsburg and you’d be standin’ behind us in your Armani suit squintin’ at the crowd like some geezer action hero who refuses to retire.”

“Like Clint Eastwood from In the Line of Fire,” I say, liking the comparison.

“Yeah, except you’d be protectin’ a bunch of droolin’ old rock stars instead of the president.”

I think about what that might be like. “A.J. would be bald and weigh four hundred pounds.”

Nico laughs. “Yeah. And Brody’d be as gristly and wrinkled as Jagger.”

Fingers crossed. I smile at a mental image of Brody at eighty, rickety and frail, preening over the last five hairs he has left on his head. Then I frown, realizing the prick is probably going to look just as stylish and boyishly handsome then as he does now.

“Chris and Ethan will have matching wheelchairs.”

“And titanium hips.”

“And girlfriends.”

“Ha!” Nico snorts. “Wonder if the Krugermann twins will still be around?”

“Jesus. You remember that crazy night in Munich?”

“Which one?”

We share a laugh, because he has a good point. There have been too many wild nights in faraway places to count.

“Ah, man,” he says, growing somber. In the glowing orange light of the setting sun, his famously cobalt blue eyes are filled with sadness. “It’s not gonna be the same without you. No joke.”

“You’ll manage.”

He studies me for a moment. “Got a question. Don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to.”

I c**k an eyebrow, waiting.

“How much of your decision to move on has to do with Grace and Brody bein’ together?”

I’m not surprised by that. Nico knows me too well. I’m also not upset by the question, because it’s a fair one. Like always, I’m honest with him.

“I’m not saying I love that particular outcome, but at the end of the day, I’m happy for them. Yeah, there were some feelings there, and I thought maybe…well. Wasn’t in the cards. Main thing is, I know he’ll do right by her. It was just time for a change.” Even to my own ears, my sigh sounds wistful.

Nico’s quiet for a while, then he shakes his head, exhaling a hard breath.

“What?”