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“Speaking of being on top of someone in a bed, how are things with Carter?” Chloe asks Lauren.
It always starts with book talk, snacks, and booze, and it inevitably turns to gossip, snacks, and booze. It’s one of the things I love most about being one of the Fearless Four.
Lauren laughs at her sister’s question. “It’s still just physical. He’s hot and good with his hands, but I’m pretty sure the connection ends there.” She taps her temple as if to say he has nothing up in his head.
“Too bad,” Chloe laments. “I was hoping you’d marry him so I could look at him every Thanksgiving dinner.”
“He has a brother,” Lauren says.
“Single?” Chloe, Addy, and I all ask at the same time.
Lauren nods.
“Dibs!” Chloe yells first, and more laughter makes its way around the room.
“But gay,” Lauren finishes.
“Dammit!” Chloe curses, and she grabs another pretzel bite and dips it in the cheese sauce. “I guess I’ll just continue to live vicariously through book boyfriends.” She glances at me. “Unless Desi’s dad can hook us up with some tight ends.”
I make a face. “He won’t even hookmeup with one of them.” I roll my eyes. “Life’s so unfair sometimes.” My dad is the tight end coach for the San Diego Storm, and he’s also incredibly overprotective of me—which is why I moved in with Addy after graduation three years ago instead of moving back home with my parents.
And itisunfair. It’s unfair and unfortunate that my dad has access to all these amazing men who I root for on a weekly basis, but they won’t so much aslookat me because he’s adamant that no player of his will touch his daughter.
I’m twenty-freaking-five now. I can make my own decisions.
But he says I can do better than a football player who’s only around half the time. This stems from the fact that the last football player I dated broke my heart, and combined with the fact that I guess he sees things I don’t, I try to believe he’s overprotective out of a place of love rather than control.
“So unfair,” Addy agrees. We both laugh at the ridiculousness of the conversation.
“What about Braden?” I ask Addy.
A little smile graces her lips, but it’s Chloe who answers for her. “I saw the two of them walking down the hallway together the other day. I think she’s getting somewhere!”
“Shut up,” Addy says petulantly, shooting a glare at her colleague at the middle school where they met. Addy has a hugecrush on Braden, and they’ve been flirting with each other for the entire school year, but he has yet to make a move.
“Maybeyoushould make the first move,” I suggest to her.
She wrinkles her nose. “That’s so not me.”
“Step out of your comfort zone. Live a little,” I say.
“I’m not like you,” she protests. She’s more of a stay-in-on-a-weekend-to-read kind of girl, while my preferred way to spend my weekends is either being active outdoors, taking pictures, or partying. Those interests led me toward the career path of party planning, and I’ve landed the title of junior event planner at one of San Diego’s most exclusive venues.
Someday, I’d love to drop thejuniortitle. Someday, I’d love to be my own boss and run my own events. But right now, I’m still learning. I love what I do, and I love my friends, and I love my life exactly how it is.
There’s only one thing missing, and it’s a hot football player. I mean amanwho’s smart and good with his hands. Someone who will sweep me off my feet like those boys we read about in books who don’t seem to exist in real life.
I don’t need a man to be happy. I have a vibrator that gets the job done, but I wouldn’t mind a friend with benefits. Someone who I can turn to at the end of a long day for both sex and conversation without the side of commitment.
It’s harder to find than you’d think.
We gossip a little longer, and then Chloe yawns. “Sorry, but I gotta be up and at ‘em early tomorrow for a parent meeting before school.” She glances at her sister. “You ready?”
We always meet on Wednesdays since I’m usually working weekends, and this upcoming weekend is no different. I have a retirement party on Friday, a wedding on Saturday, and a quinceañera on Sunday.
Lauren stands and stretches. “I have an early day, too. My first client is coming in at nine thirty for a color and cut.”
“Nine thirty isn’t early,” Chloe points out.
