Page 60 of The Hardest Hit

“What? I’m sorry, but Naked Tuesday is an awesome invention. You can’t expect me to not laugh!”

“I can actually,” said Evan, and Olivia frowned. Evan wasn’t usually so grim.

“It was my idea,” said Olivia, still feeling nervous. “And he makes me dinner.”

“I love the idea,” said Dominique, smiling. “And I love that he makes you dinner. Max distinctly does not cook. Which means that if it weren’t for take-out, we would both starve.”

Olivia felt herself relax. Dominique was being nice? She was pretty sure it was nice. She was smiling and making eye contact and that usually meant nice.

“And does he pour you delicious wine?” continued Dominque. “Evan always finds the best bottles of things.”

“Yes, he—oh. I forgot. I brought some home,” said Olivia, looking up at Evan. “Tyler sent some back with me. He’s working at a winery in Washington now.”

“There’s a winery in DC?” asked Evan frowning.

“No, Washington, the state.”

“That does make more sense,” said Dominique.

“My brother makes wine,” said Olivia, realizing she’d taken an abrupt turn in the conversation without applying a turn signal. “He’s an enologist.”

“I’ve never met an enologist before,” said Dominique. “Does he bring great wine to every party?”

“Yes, he does,” said Olivia. “But I usually put out crap and then hoard whatever he brings for later.”

Evan barked out a laugh. “I do the same thing,” he said when they looked at him.

Dominique chuckled. “There’s obviously a reason you two get along. It’s so unfortunate that my brother is a lawyer. To think he could have been supplying me with wine all this time.”

“Well, yes, but we need him to keep Evan out of jail,” said Olivia, and then almost immediately regretted it when Dominique burst out laughing and Evan groaned.

“Did you see the video?” asked Dominique.

“Yes! That man punched Evan! I do not understand how the police could arrest Evan when he was the one who got punched!”

“Yes, well Evan won, you see. He broke the man’s jaw.”

“I did?”

“Yes. Jackson followed up. Aiden wanted to make sure he got charged with assault. But Aiden says that, in general, the police think whoever won was probably in the wrong.”

“Well, I don’t care if Evan broke every bone in his face. That person started it and he should be arrested.”

“Yes,” agreed Dominique, smiling. Olivia thought she looked pleased. “We all agree. But not to worry, Aiden will take care of it. Anyway, Olivia, it was lovely to meet you. Sorry for ruining Naked Tuesday. Evan, you saw Jackson’s text about meeting tomorrow at the house?”

“Yes, I’ll be there,” agreed Evan.

“Oh, good. Then I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” She added a smile and this time Olivia couldn’t tell what the smile meant.

“Sounds good,” Evan replied, but there was a cautious note to his voice.

The door closed behind Dominique and Olivia sighed in relief. “She seemed nice.”

“Yes, Nika is… very gracious,” he said. “Should we see if we can salvage dinner? Or just move straight to drinking your brother’s wine?”

“You look at dinner. I’ll go get a bottle out of my bag.”

22