Page 77 of Single Malt

“I’ll keep that under advisement, important boy.” She winked back and then walked away, putting a little extra swing in her hips.

“She didn’t take our drink order,” Cory said suddenly. We all turned to look at him. The tips of his ears were red, and he shrugged. “Well, she didn’t.”

Sean burst out laughing and motioned for me to get out of the booth. “Who wants another?”

Cory and Fury both did, but I wasn’t going to drink another one of these shitty beers. “Get me a Rusty Nail. I might as well find out if they can make a decent scotch-based drink.”

Sean nodded and headed toward the bar.

“You know he’s going to be a while, right?” I asked. “If he strikes out with the waitress, he’ll find someone else to flirt with.”

“The kid comes to see us and spends all his time chatting up women.” Fury shook his head, but he was grinning. “Yeah, he’s definitely our brother.”

“Remember that summer we went to the Independence Day fair?” I asked. “The one where you, me, and Rome decided to make a bet to see how many phone numbers we could get?”

“Damn.” Fury ran his hand down his face. “I haven’t thought about that in years.”

“You were so pissed at Rome when he won.” I laughed as I pictured the expression on Fury’s face back then.

“I still say he cheated,” Fury said.

“How did he cheat?” Cory asked. “And how have I never heard about this bet?”

“Half of his numbers were from old women,” Fury explained.

“Not ‘old,’” I pointed out. “They were in their twenties.”

“Their late twenties,” Fury corrected. “And for us back then, that was old. We were only, what, sixteen? Seventeen?”

“Yes, but it wasn’t like any of us actually looked like we were that young. Remember those two college girls who freaked out when they started flirting with us and found out our real ages?” I reminded him.

“Right. I’d forgotten about them.” Fury picked up a handful of peanuts from the bowl on the table and began popping them into his mouth one at a time.

“Liz and Amie,” I said.

Fury gave me a surprised look. “You remember their names?”

“I may have run into them again a couple years later.” I grinned. “But I don’t kiss and tell.”

Unsurprisingly, Fury felt the need to one-up me and launched into a story about his first spring break here at Stanford. I didn’t know if it was a tale Cory had heard before, but he sat back in his seat and listened. The two of them had always had a unique relationship. Fury played as hard as he worked, and based on his interest in Club Privé, that was even harder than I’d realized. Cory played everything close to the chest, working his ass off but keeping to himself whatever he did to relax. If he actually relaxed at all.

I had my doubts.

Though I wasn’t really one to talk lately. I was doing my damnedest to enjoy myself, and on one level, I was. I liked being with my brothers, drinking, telling stories, laughing. But even as I listened to Fury, I couldn’t help looking around the room, glancing at the door every time I saw it open out of the corner of my eye. Searching for a familiar face.

And every time the face wasn’t hers, I wondered if she’d gone somewhere for spring break, her and her sister. Were they drinking and dancing and flirting? Had she fallen into bed with someone? Found someone else to make her scream?

I took half my Rusty Nail in one gulp as soon as Sean set it down in front of me.

Fuck.

So much for moving on.

* * *

“Everything okay?”

Cory’s question snapped me back to reality, and judging by the expression on his face, it hadn’t been the first time he’d asked it.