Page 75 of Easy Reunion

Angel picks up half of a fresh bun and throws it at Kelsey’s head. Kelsey ducks, and it flies harmlessly into the grass. “I hate you.”

“You love me,” Kelsey counters.

“I do. But right now, I want a Jolly Rancher to make up for you taunting me, and those things are nothing but crap.”

“So are Darin’s margaritas, but you want one of those,” Kelsey logically points out.

“You both realize that you’re giving Ry a terrible impression,” Darin calmly says. He’s rewarded for his sensibility by his pregnant wife chucking the other half of the bun at his head. Scowling, he demands, “What was that for?”

“For being logical. For making magical margaritas. For being so damn hot I want to carry your baby,” Angel lists.

“I’ll show you how hot I am,” Darin mumbles around another bite of his burger, unconcerned about his wife’s lunatic outburst.

Kelsey peals into laughter. Turning to face me, her smile is brighter than the setting sun. “Do you see why I need to find a place to live?”

I pick up my burger and take a hefty bite. Swallowing, I grin at her. “Just think of all the fodder you have for future books.”

“Hmm,” she answers noncommittally.

Angel’s head snaps up. “You wouldn’t dare.” Her face is comically horrified.

Darin snorts just as he takes a pull from his beer.

“Any resemblance to actual persons…” Kelsey begins to recite, but Angel interrupts.

“Oh, come on! There’s like a sacred rule between besties. You have to make me superhot having mad sex with a gazillionaire.”

Darin coughs loudly. “Excuse me?”

Angel flicks a hand at him. “She can make him look like you. Jesus, get over it.”

At this point, I can’t control my laughter any longer. “Is every day like this?”

It’s Kelsey who answers. “If by ‘like this’ you mean Angel being a lunatic, then yes. Once she’s claimed you as hers, she has no boundaries—emotional or physical.”

“Listen, just because I like seeing your hot body all wet in the shower…” Damn her, Angel times that comment just as I took a drink of my own beer. It ends up all down the front of my shirt and across my plate of food.

“God help me,” I wheeze out.

“He can’t, but if you haven’t seen her wet and naked yet, I can give you a verbal description,” Angel offers.

Luckily, Darin decides at that moment to gently place his fingers over his wife’s lips, giving me time to recover. “Sweetheart, if you don’t stop torturing Ry, I really will go make margaritas for the rest of us.”

Angel glares at him before yanking her head away and picking up her burger. “Fine. I’ll behave. So, tell me, Ry. What do you do?” Angel flutters her eyelashes at me innocently.

Looking down at my slightly soggy burger, I shrug before picking it up.

“I work for Bayou Enterprises.”

“No, what I’m asking is, can you keep my girl in her addiction for shoes?”

Kelsey’s head thunks against the table as she groans aloud. “Dare, control her, for Christ’s sake!”

“I haven’t had much luck in ten years, Kels. What makes you think I can start now?” he replies with a note of despair in his voice. Giving me a wink, he picks up his burger to show me exactly what I’m meant to see, which is that he finds the antics of these two friends—no, sisters—utterly hysterical.

I follow his lead. Taking another bite, I hold back my smile. Instead, my ears pick up the song I set for Kelsey’s ringtone as it plays softly through the speakers on the deck. Not that she has any idea I was already programming Dave Matthews’s song about finding your one person and hanging on to them through ups and downs as I was walking away from her at the gym. Sliding out of the chair, I offer her my hand. “Care to dance?”

“What? Here?” I nod. Slowly her hand slides into mine, and I’m pulling her from the bench.