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Well, Jill was certainly direct, given the few things Sophie had heard her say tonight, but she guessed that worked well for her, too, because she wouldn’t mind knowing the answer to that question, and she hadn’t thought to ask it herself.

“Tourists,” Megan replied.

“You?” Bryce asked as she looked only at Sophie.

“Oh. I live here. So does Jill.”

“Yeah? Cool,” Bryce said. “Do you live…together?”

“No, Jill and I met tonight,” she said and then promptly shook her head. “Not like that. Not like we’re here together or that we’re–”

“We’re friends,” Jill interjected. “She means that we’re friends but is using a lot of words to say it, for some reason.”

“We’re all friends, too,” Kelsey shared. “Well, Sean and Bryce dated before, but they’re friends now.”

“Cool,” Jill replied. “So, I’ll grab us drinks and be right back, okay?”

“Okay,” Sophie said, not caring at all what kind of drink Jill brought her because she couldn’t stop staring at the dimple on Bryce’s right cheek.

CHAPTER 2

Bryce couldn’t stop staring. She had to look like a total creeper. Who stared at a woman they had just met when their friends were all talking around them? Total creepers. Yes, that was who did that. And now, she was one of them. Still, she couldn’t help but look into Sophie’s eyes. They were this deep, soulful brown, where Bryce had always thought of her own brown eyes as muddy. Sophie’s caramel skin looked soft and inviting. What? Had she just said that about a woman’s skin? Inviting? What the hell was wrong with her?

“So, you live here?” she asked, even though she knew that already because they’d already talked about it.

“Uh… yeah,” Sophie replied. “I moved back about four years ago for a job.”

“Back?” Bryce asked.

“I lived here before. Well, not exactlyhere, in a different parish, but close enough from here. I moved away for college. I came back about four years ago.”

“Where did you move?”

“New York. Brooklyn, technically. I got a job in Manhattan out of school. I missed it here, though. I like the quiet life, I guess.”

“New York is noisy, I’ve heard.”

“You’ve never been?”

Bryce shook her head and took a sip of her drink.

“I think I’m going to go back to the hotel,” Sean told her, interrupting not only their conversation but their eye contact when she tried to push between Bryce and Sophie.

“We just got here,” Bryce said.

“Yeah, but I’m still tired. All that partying this week. I’m calling it a night,” Sean replied with a glare that Bryce recognized all too well.

“Not alone,” Bryce told her. “It’s not safe.”

“I’ll go with her,” Megan offered. “I’m tired, too.”

“We just got drinks,” Kelsey noted, looking at both of them. “Andyouwere wide awake, like, five minutes ago when I paid that shot girl to dump that test tube shot of God-only-knows-what down your throat.” She pointed to Sean.

“Yes. And now, I’m tired.” Sean glared over at Kelsey.

“Megs, you’re tired?” Kelsey asked. “What happened to partying all night long and crashing until noon tomorrow?”

“I overestimated my abilities,” Megan said as she looked over at Bryce.