Page 220 of A Matter of Time

“She’s concerned that you guys aren’t gonna look pretty for pictures.”

“Owww,” he whispered, grimacing, patting the couch beside him. “Sit.”

“Did you do shots off the navels of women with loose morals?” I teased him.

“Of course.” He tried to smile, putting his head on my thigh as soon as I sat down.

I smiled at him as I was bumped from the other side and hands gripped my shoulders.

Lance Simmons and Alex Greene, Aja’s little brother, had joined us.

“Hey, fellas,” I teased them, looking sideways at Lance’s profile, as he appeared particularly pasty. “Have you both been barfing, or just you, Lancelot?”

“Just me,” he whimpered, coming around the couch, taking a seat beside me and putting his head down on my shoulder.

“I do feel like an evacuation might be imminent,” Alex said, folding his arms on the back of the cordovan leather couch.

“You’ll be okay. You just need to hydrate and eat something.”

“Oh no,” he assured me. “Food is completely out of the question.”

“Do your eyelids hurt?”

“If I straighten my head, I think it’ll explode.”

I saw Aja striding back from the bathroom, having rousted whoever was sleeping in the bathtub. “Your sister’s coming.”

He whimpered before she yelled, “You guys need to get up!”

I could imagine, to the others, that the volume of her voice was like getting whiplash—fast and painful. I felt it run down my spine, but I wasn’t suffering from a hangover.

“Oh God,” Alex groaned from behind me, and we all laughed when we heard the thump as he hit the floor. “I think my eyes are bleeding.”

“Guys!” we heard Jude whine from the bedroom. “Will you shut the hell up!”

She whirled around to go see him, and at that moment I thanked God that I was not Jude Coughlin. There wasn’t enough money in the world.

“Do something, J,” Rick begged me. “You’re the only one she loves.”

“J, you gotta make her stop yelling,” Alex begged me from the floor on the other side of the couch. “I seriously think it could kill me.”

“I can’t barf anymore,” Lance moaned into the couch. “My throat hurts.”

We all heard Jude let out a high-pitched scream from the bedroom.

“I think I’m gonna puke,” Rick said from my lap, covering his face with one of the throw pillows.

“For the love of God!” Aja was shouting at Jude. “I will kill you if you do not get up!”

“J,” Lance almost cried, “make her stop.”

“I think I might need to go to the hospital,” Rick informed me.

“You do not.”

“How do you know? I think my head is ready to explode.”

“Please make her stop screeching,” Alex begged.