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Jack is hanging off my neck, barely able to keep his feet under him, but I shake him off anyway, glaring at him in a way that would rattle the most ruthless businessmen. Jack barely seems to notice; my powers have never worked well on relatives. No, Jack has other things on his mind. He’s finally realized that he’d interrupted something, and I do not like the way he’s looking at Evie.
“Hey,” he slurs, offering a hand. “Jack.”
I risk a glance at Evie. She also looks like she’s been ripped out of a dream, blinking and flushed. She’s looking at Jack like she’s not quite sure what he is.
“My younger brother,” I say gruffly. Understanding floods her face.
“Oooh,” she says, taking his hand and shaking it lightly. “So you’re the one who dragged Nick here.”
A boozy grin crosses Jack’s face. “I’m the one,” he says. He claps me on the back. “He didn’t want to but it looks like he’s having fun now.”
I’m not sure what part of my expression implies that, but I don’t correct him.
“You’re here with friends?” Jack asks, looking around hopefully like there might be a gaggle of hot girls waiting on the sidelines.
“Just her bestie,” Mickey says, reappearing as quickly as she left and hooking an arm through Evie’s.
Jack looks even more pleased at the sight of the stunning girl. “You two should come up and join us,” he says. “We have a private area upstairs.”
The absolute last thing I want is for Evie to see me surrounded by Jack’s gaggle of underage idiots. “I don’t think—” I start quickly.
“We’d love to,” Evie says over me. She flashes me a grin that says she knows that this is going to be humiliating for me and she’s excited to see it. Before I can put in another word, Jack is leading the way up to the second story and all I can do is follow.
My absence has not aged any of Jack’s friends. They’re in the process of doing shots as we approach, and when Chip sees us with Evie and Mickey in tow he chokes on the liquor, a moment from doing a comical spit take.
The rest of the guys follow his gaze and their reactions would be funny if it weren’t Evie they were undressing with their eyes. They practically drool when they see her, shifting instantly into puffed up poses meant to display their meager muscles.
Evie and Mickey look at each other, and I’m delighted to see Evie’s expression seems to say that embarrassing me might not be worth it.
I walk up behind her and say into her ear, “I tried to get you out of it.”
She whips around at my sudden presence inches from her and looks defiantly up into my eyes. “They look nice,” she says.
We turn as one to see half a dozen pairs of hostile female eyes, the girls having realized that competition has arrived.
“Looks fun,” I say. “Sure you don’t want to slip out of here?”
“That hardly seems appropriate, Mr. Madison,” she teases.
Nothing about my thoughts right now is appropriate.
“Mr. Madison?” I ask. “Who’s that? I’m Nick, remember.” I cock my head. “We met on a train.”
“Hmmm… I don’t remember that ending so well,” she says.
“I don’t believe it’s ended yet at all.”
She stares into my eyes, and then the smallest of smiles teases at the edges of her lips. “Well, Nick, unfortunately I’m here with Mickey. And I’m not abandoning her to whatever this is behind us.”
Mickey, however, doesn’t seem to want to spend time here just to give Evie ammunition in our ongoing war. She taps on Evie’s shoulder and says, “Uh, babe? I’d go to the moon for you, but every friendship has its limits.” She nods at Chip, who’s making some sort of disgusting gesture with his tongue. “I think I’m going to go find that sexy Viking from earlier.”
Evie’s face doesn’t change. I can’t suppress my smile.
“Sounds like Mickey has defected,” I say.
Evie looks behind her again at the couches of teens, weighing if she wants to go into that pit of depravity alone just to spite me. Logic wins out.
“Apologize to your brother for me,” she says, starting to go.
