Page 91 of The Hardest Hit

“You went on vacation? Who are you? Do I even know anymore?”

Olivia chuckled. “Yeah, I figured if I wasn’t going to go home then I sure as hell wasn’t going to sit alone in my apartment and mope. And also, um, Evan invited me to go on a work trip with him.”

“Oh, Evan invited you. Hmm.”

“Shut up,” said Olivia, grinning at her brother’s salacious tone.

He laughed. “Where’d you guys go?”

“Tokyo! It was awesome!”

“Seriously?”

“Yes! I bought you some interesting sake. But I still have to make it to the post office to ship it to you.”

“Cool! I just can’t believe you finally got out of the country. You went on like a twenty-minute rant about that last time we were drunk.”

“I know! They almost didn’t stamp my passport, but I made them do it. Evan kind of laughed at me.”

Tyler laughed. “So you and this guy are having a good time?”

“Um, yeah. We really are,” said Olivia. Olivia didn’t know what else to say about Evan without going into a Hamlet’s worth of a soliloquy, so she cut it short.

Tyler was silent. “You’re kind of serious about him, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she said. “I am. Why?” She changed her grip on her phone and prayed to the God she didn’t believe in that Tyler wasn’t going to say something horrible. He was the only family member she had that was on her side right now. She couldn’t lose him too.

“Nothing. Just jealous.”

Olivia breathed out a sigh of relief. She was pondering about how to ask about the sad note in Tyler’s voice, but he continued before she could formulate words. “Hey, speaking of Evan, did you give him the Reserve I sent you home with?”

“We split it last Naked Tuesday before our trip. It was great.”

“Yeah, apparently he thought so too. A phone order came through today for an entire case from Evan Deveraux. Considering, that it doesn’t go to our online retailers until the first of the year, I figured it was your guy.”

“Yes, that’s him. It was really good.”

“Yeah, except that it’s three hundred dollars a bottle.”

“Oh. I wish you would tell me these things before I drink them.”

“It spoils your judgment,” he said.

“I suppose. Anyway, Evan can afford it,” said Olivia with a shrug.

“What does he do, work for Amazon?”

“What?”

“Sorry, maybe that’s a Washington thing. Isn’t Deveraux the name of that woman that Pops hates?”

“What woman?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t paying attention. The one he hates at work.”

“No clue,” said Olivia. “You know I tune him out whenever possible.”

“Completely reasonable. But hey, speaking of Pops, did you talk to Sofia?”