Page 34 of Somebody To Love

A laugh escaped her. She couldn’t help it. BJ’s sister was funny, in a grumpy I-hate-the-world kind of way. Cassie turned to look at her and gasped. A hand covered the bride-to-be’s mouth, tears gathering in her eyes.

“Oh Penny, you look beautiful.”

Really? She’d say she looked okay or not bad, but far be it from her to argue with a woman who was about to get married.

“Thank you. I think the dresses are lovely.”

“Suck up,” Charlie muttered.

“Ohmigod, I can’t believe I’m getting married to Del in less than a week.” Cassie fanned at her eyes as they watered.

“Sweetie, none of us can believe you’re marrying my numbnuts brother.”

“Actually, I rather like his nuts.”

“Ew! Gross, TMI. Never say that again!” Charlie made a gagging sound. “Oh shit, now I have to scrub out my brain with bleach.”

Cassie winked, and Penny couldn’t help but laugh. These women were a lot of fun. They’d hung out here and there over the years, but never alone. BJ and the other Jackson brothers were usually present. She’d never gotten a chance to interact with the women without the men around. It was nice.

“You’re just mad because you’re not getting any.”

“I’m on a guy break. After Dipshit, I’m done with men.”

She had no idea who Cassie was talking about, but if she had to guess, she’d bet it was her last boyfriend. Whom she broke up with months ago. BJ really hadn’t liked the guy. From all she’d heard about him, Penny didn’t either.

“Not all men are as bad as Brad.”

The women chatted about men and relationships. Penny stood still and let Cassie walk around her, glancing at the dress from all angles to make sure it was to the bride’s liking. She really wanted to do well with this whole bridesmaid thing. Now that she finally had a small in into a woman’s circle, she didn’t want to do anything to rock the boat. She discovered she enjoyed having female companionship. Even if it was mostly surface.

So why the hell she opened her mouth to ask her next question was beyond her.

“Have either of you ever mixed sex with friendship?”

Both women stood stone still. She glanced at them, realizing her mistake too late. Oh no! Two sets of eyes gazed at her with speculation. Had she really asked about having sex with a friend? Because both women knew she only had one male friend. And one of them was related to him.

Crap on toast!

“Are you asking if we’ve ever had a friends-with-benefits type of relationship?” Charlie raised one brow, but bless her, did not call Penny out on her obvious insinuation.

“Um, uh, yes. I-I was wondering if…if it ever works out.” At their continued silence, she stumbled on. “The having sex and maintaining a friendship…thing.”

Oh shoot, this was worse than awful. She’d just formed a friendship with these women and now she’d ruined it by basically asking Charlie what she thought about Penny boning her brother. Stay cool. She doesn’t know it’s about BJ. Yeah right, who the heck else would it be about?

“Well,” Charlie said, carefully unzipping her dress and dropping it to the floor. Cassie huffed and grabbed it, quickly putting it back on the hanger. “I’ve only had one of those. It was with this guy I went to college with. We both were super busy with classes and stuff. We didn’t have time for a relationship, but we still had needs, ya know?”

She did indeed. At least, as of late.

“We had a mutual agreement. Worked out great for a while, then we stopped when he found a woman he wanted to seriously date.”

“And that didn’t bother you?”

She shrugged. “Naw. We didn’t have deep feelings for each other. But we didn’t really stay in touch after that either. No hard feelings. We were more casual acquaintances than close friends.”

Charlie’s head tilted, pale blue eyes—the same color as BJ’s—stared intently at her.

“I’d imagine it would be a lot more complicated if the two were, say, best friends and tried to add sex to the mix. Might get messy.”

Yeah, that’s what she was afraid of.

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