Page 3 of The Start of Someday

I glance at Andy and find his lips pinched together as he continues to fight his laughter.

Briar, oblivious to my embarrassment, continues. “Well, look where we are,” she says, spreading her arms wide. “We are at the ultimate source of one-night stands. Time to take advantage, sister. Put up or shut up.”

“Maybe we’ll just”—Andy slips Briar’s mostly empty wine glass out of her hand and scoots it across the table so it’s out of her reach—“call it a night on the drinking, yeah?”

As Briar protests and Andy tries to convince her that one glass was enough, my eyes float around the room, considering what my best friend has said. Yes, she’s slightly intoxicated. But she’s also not at all wrong.

We’ve talked numerous times over the past few months since she’s been home about the fact that I am in desperate need of some sexy fun in my life. It has been over two years since I’ve climbed into bed with anyone, and that was back when I spent every weekday on a college campus and had access to hot guys galore. The pool of available men in Cedar Point is a bit less crowded, and nobody has caught my eye since I moved back.

The bar we’re in right now, Dock 7, is known for being the place to go if you’re looking for some no-strings-attached fun and the hotspot for people in town on vacation. It’s why the locals call the place Lucky’s, and since it’s the week before Christmas, the restaurant-slash-bar is packed to the gills with locals and visitors alike hoping to grab a drink, take a break from too much family time, and possibly find a ho, ho, ho.

Okay, that’s kind of unfair, even if it is clever.

I purse my lips, my eyes looking off in the direction the mystery guy went, and then I look down at the quarter he left behind.

It was a sexy and funny way to get my attention, and I’m a sucker for a guy with a sense of humor. Maybe I should go find him. I am majorly overdue to have a little fun, and who better to have a steamy night with than some kind of mysterious stranger who’s only passing through?

The longer I think about it, the more I realize I really do deserve it.

“Do you think he left?” I ask, my fingernails tapping along the side of my pint glass as my eyes continue to search the crowd.

“You’re not serious.”

I turn back to look at Andy, finding his expression stern and not at all as amused and playful as it was before.

“You don’t know the guy,” he adds. “It could be dangerous.”

I tilt my head and pin him with a glare. “Have you ever had a one-night stand before?”

Andy’s cheeks go pink, surely thinking back to the nights, years ago, way before Briar, when he and my brother would come here together looking for some of their own fun.

“That’s different.”

“Why? Because you’re big and bad and can protect yourself?”

Briar pipes up. “That’s sexist.”

“Thank you, friend. It is sexist.”

Andy lifts his hands in the air, clearly not wanting to be subjected to any more comments like that one. “Fine. I’ll be quiet about it. Excuse me for worrying that you’re going to go off and get murdered.”

“The only thing that will be getting murdered is her vagina.”

I slap a palm over my face at Briar’s remark.

“Okay, I could have lived without that,” Andy says, shaking his head and taking a long gulp from his beer.

Scooting around the table, I loop my arm into his. “Thanks for caring,” I tell him.

Andy has been friends with Rusty for a long time. He’s kind of like family, I guess, so it makes sense that he’d want me to be safe. But on a night I’m hoping to break some rules, a brother type is the last thing I need.

“And no telling Rusty,” I add.

“Trust me,” he says, pinning me with a look of his own. “I have absolutely zero interest in talking about this with your brother.”

I grin, my eyes returning to scan the area in search of the mystery guy. Thankfully, I don’t have to look for too long, because the crowd starts to shift and part at what seems like the exact right moment.

There he is, on the other side of the bar. Standing at another high-top table. Alone.

---