Page 64 of Unforgettable

TWENTY

Amanda

“How many margaritasare too many margaritas?”

“The limit does not exist!” I chanted back as Hazel and I picked up our third margarita from the bar top. After over an hour of dancing and drinking, I was at that perfect level of tipsy. Where everything was funny and I felt like there was nothing I couldn’t do.

“No, I definitely think there’s a limit and you two are close to finding it,” a voice interrupted from behind us, and on instinct, I swiveled to give the jackass a piece of my mind. But I stopped short when I was met with the smiling face of my brother.

“And that’s exactly why I brought fries for both of you and water.” He placed two servings of fries on the bar in front of us, as well as two full glasses of water. I stuck my nose up at the water, but the fries I immediately dug into.

“I didn’t know you were here tonight,” I admitted, with fries stuffed into my mouth.

“Josh asked me to help out since it’s Grady’s birthday. Guy pulls a pretty big crowd,” Adam clarified.

“It hasn’t been too bad,” Grady countered. Refilling the water Hazel had already sucked down.

“It’s the busiest I’ve seen it since I’ve been here.”

Grady chuckled and nudged the water I hadn’t touched closer to me, silently urging me to drink. “Just wait until St. Paddy’s day. It’s always chaos, which means all hands on deck.”

“Oh, yes!” I exclaimed at the memories. “St. Patrick’s Day here is the best! One time in college, Blakely and I—actually, maybe Devon, too—but we all dranksomuch green beer that our puke was green that night. We thought it was fucking hilarious until we passed out on the bathroom floor.” I chuckled around a mouthful of fries at the stupid college memory. “There was green glitter all over my bathroom floor for weeks.”

Not that I could say much, though, because I was pretty positive that the glitter was my bright idea.

Unsurprisingly, it was usually me, Josh and Reed that came up with the crazy shit and usually took it too far. There was a multitude of dumb ideas and half-assed plans that wound up with someone injured, but all of us laughing our asses off.

“You were the life of the party, weren’t you, sis?” Adam joked, shouldering me with a disbelieving look.

“Actually, she was.” Josh smiled as he saddled up next to Grady and leaned his forearms onto the bar in front of me.

The goose bumps on my arms were proof that my body’s reaction to these men was insane. It was nonsensical that my body would have that type of reaction just to Josh’s proximity.

Although I would have been lying if I hadn’t admitted that the short-sleeved blackMurphy’sshirt perfectly hugged his toned biceps. And it wasn’t fair that his dirty-blond hair was messy in all the right ways, pushed back from his tanned face and showing off his blue-green eyes.

And for some reason, I found myself mesmerized by his mouth. His lips were plump, and his teeth were straight but not perfectly straight, and that fact made him even more personable and charming.

When my eyes flitted back to his to once again gawk at the ocean-like color, it was Josh’s wink that made me suddenly realize I’d been staring and appraising him for far too fucking long.

It was the fucking alcohol, so I broke eye contact and chugged my water like I’d been stranded in the Sahara for weeks and weeks. I nearly choked, that’s how fast I gulped it down. And with raised brows, Grady refilled it without anyverbalquestions.

“You should have her tell you about the time—”

“Oh, no!” I interrupted Josh midsentence. “We are not going to tell my little brother about my college shenanigans. I refuse to be that much of a shitty influence.”

Josh chuckled and shook his head. “No offense, but I really think that ship has sailed. He’s already got enough of his own bad ideas. Hearing about the bullshit we got up to isn’t going to change him. Right, Adam?”

Adam shrugged and tossed a white dishrag over his shoulder. “Yeah, I can agree with that. So, tell me. I was too young to really have paid much attention when you were in college. Did you get arrested?”

“Twice,” Josh answered, and I swore in that moment I could have killed him. Or, at the very least, pinched him.

“Twice?! Why the fuck did you get arrested? I was mostly fucking around, but now I need to know.”

I rolled my eyes and groaned. “We really don’t need to make any trips down memory—”

“The first time was when she broke into a professor’s office because—Fuck!That hurt!” I actually pinched Josh that time instead of just thinking about it.

“No one wants to hear about that. It was like ten years ago.” I threw my hands out in exasperation.

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