Page 74 of Stolen Kiss

“Pow wow. We’re here for one night. Archer said you were all getting rat arsed and initiating Erica to girls night so we thought we’d come witness it. Looks like its two drinks too far for you to get yourselves up to the cottages,” Luke said.

“Is this to do with my brother?” Freya asked sobering by a few drinks.

“Runs deeper,” Archer said, now getting Erica to her feet.

Jason sauntered the few steps to where I was sitting and I grinned up at him. “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself,” he answered, dropping his head and kissing her mouth. “How drunk are you?”

“Do you disapprove?”

“The opposite, I’ve never seen you drunk. Can you stand or shall I carry you?”

“Even if I couldn’t walk, you would not be carrying me out of this pub, Jason Turner,”

“Hmm,” he hummed over her lips. “You’re a feisty drunk. I like it.”

Heidi pushed at his chest but he didn’t move. Not only didn’t he move he laughed. “Come on, Daisy has the makings for s’mores.”

“Oh, fabulous.”

“Do you know what kind of cake you want yet?” Jason asked.

Heidi tilted her head at the subject change and frowned. She didn’t.

“No, is this an urgent matter?”

“Yes, hurry up and tell me.”

“Okay, bossy,” Heidi said and stood.

“This isn’t bossy, sweetheart,” he said bending and putting a shoulder to her stomach. “This is bossy.

Heidi had enough sobriety to keep hold of her bag but not much else. “Put me down,” she said although she was laughing hard.

“The more noise you make the more attention you attract.”

Heidi kept to giggling, while using his belt loops to look at the others. Freya was hugging Luke’s arm while they walked and Erica was oblivious as Archer kissed her.

It hit her that her circle of friends was growing and she kinda liked it. The pub was small enough that everyone saw her being carried out. If they weren’t talking about her before they were now. She gave a shy wave before Jason carried her out into the night, down the road and plonked her on the back seat of the Turner buggy. The back bench looked out the back the, front bench had the steering wheel and the passenger seat. The middle bench looked forward. Luke was driving so Freya slipped in next to him. Then Archer and Erica sat in the middle and then Jason joined Heidi on the back bench. He pulled her into his side, wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“Did you have a good night, Erica?” Freya shouted over her shoulder.

“I had the best time, thank you for including me.”

“If you give me that Hemsworth number, I’ll invite you again,” Freya replied.

“Who or what is a Hemsworth?” Luke asked.

He took the corner sharper than any of them expected and they hung onto the rails.

“You don’t know the Hemsworth brothers? Hollywood actors, hot as fuck,” Freya declared.

Luke didn’t say anything, and we all looked his way. “What?” he said. “I’m driving, need to concentrate.”

Jason grinned at Heidi like he knew something the rest of them were oblivious to.

They piled into Archer and Erica’s back patio area where Daisy greeted them warmly with hugs and the making for s’mores. She’d also made warm cider and had them waiting in heated mugs.

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