I’ve gotten the salt, sliced the limes, and am pouring the eight shots—because I don’t intend to make her take them alone—when the brunette from earlier sidles up to the counter.

“Is one of those for me?” She touches my arm and arches an eyebrow.

“Uh, sure. Here you go, girl.” I hand her one of the shots with a smile and a nod.

Now, please leave.

She doesn’t.

“Salt?”

I hand her the salt. She makes sure to maintain eye contact while she licks the back of her hand so it’ll stick where she shakes the salt on it, then she puts the glass to her lips and asks me to get her lime ready.

So, I hold up the little lime wedge for her to take as she, once again, licks her hand, slower than necessary. She winks at me this time. As if I needed more of a hint.

She shoots the tequila back, like a champ—I have to admit—but then, instead of taking the lime from me, she sucks on it directly from my fingers. Oh shit.

And as her lips are clamped down on the lime, brushing the edges of my fingers, sticky lime juice running down my palm, Macy returns, taking in the scene.

Goddammit.

“Hey, Mace.” I drop the lime and step away from the brunette, trying to ignore the lime juice dripping down my forearm. “I got your tequila. And some extras so you don’t have to take them alone.”

The brunette closes the distance I’d made between us. “We could do body shots,” she says with a smile.

Macy lets out an uncomfortable giggle and picks up four shots, two in each hand.

“I’ll leave you two to it, then. I’m going to see if Bex wants any of these. Thank you.” Macy gives me a little nod then leaves, taking the shots with her.

“No body shots for me tonight, sis. But I’m sure you can find someone who’d be more than happy to partake.” I grab a beer and back out of the kitchen before I can get wrangled into more conversation.

Macy spends the rest of the night with Bex and Livvy while I keep my distance. Watching from the outside.

Because that’s how it always is with us.

CHAPTER 3

MACY

“It’s going to be a lot, moving into a new place and planning a wedding at the same time. There’s also the honeymoon. I want to go to Greece. Jake wants to do Bali. But we’ll probably end up going to Hawaii because I don’t think my passport will be here in time, even expedited.”

I nod while I stir the rice. Bex is sitting on the other side of the counter, painting her nails and talking nonstop about the wedding plans. Spencer and Jake’s parents have already offered to host at their place on Bainbridge Island. It’s a huge house with massive lawns and sweeping views and private docks, right on the water.

“But hey, with us out, you and Spencer will have the place to yourselves. You can finally unpack, use the closet in the spare room.”

I smile. “Maybe.”

“Maybe? What the fuck, Mace. Does he still want you to move out after this?”

“You know how he feels about living together before we’re married. He doesn’t like how it looks. He’s very traditional.” He’s only begrudgingly let me and Bex stay at his apartment the last six weeks or so, and I can tell it’s stressing him.

Bex rolls her eyes. “Tell him to chill out. No one cares about that anymore.”

I shrug and check the clock. Spencer should be walking in any minute, and there’s two minutes left on the steak. I need to make sure they’re not a degree past medium rare this time.

The recipe says three to four minutes per side for medium rare, but it needs to just be three per side. Four is too long. I know this now. This is Spencer’s favorite meal, and I’ve made it many, many times, but there’s always room for improvement. Maybe I should get one of those meat thermometers.

The door clicks open. Spencer and Jake walk in wearing shorts and sweaty T-shirts. They were playing racquetball with a couple of the attendings they work with at the hospital.