Page 23 of Just This Once

“And tall…” I murmured, looking up at him. “Just how tallareyou now?”

He flushed through a laugh. “Still six, six,” he answered. “Just like the last time you saw me.”

I lifted my hand, swearing, “Oh, you looknothinglike you did at your high school graduation. I’m going to have to beat all the horny women off my Dopey with a stick whenever we go anywhere.”

“Dopey?” One of the girlfriends spoke up in question across the kitchen, reminding me that others were around. “You gave your own brother the dwarfDopey?”

“Are you kidding me?” I told her. “Of course, I did. Just look at these adorable Dumbo ears.” As soon as I lifted a handful of Alec’s curls to expose an ear, I dropped the locks again only to clutch his cheeks between my hands. “And that far-off, movie-daze gleam in his eyes. Who else would he be?”

As Alec laughed good-naturedly and nudged my hands away from his face, one of the girls said, “Wow, you reallydohave big ears, Younger.”

“Hey, shut up.” He blushed, sending her a warning roll of his eyes before he turned back to me. “Still determined to embarrass me to death, I see.”

“Embarrass you?” I shook my head insistently. “Never. Now, your friends,” I countered, winking toward Sleepy. “That’s another story entirely.”

“That ain’t no shit,” Keene mumbled with a bitter snort.

I turned my gaze his way and lifted my eyebrows. “Hey, Sneezy,” I greeted. “It’s nice to see you too.”

With a sickened wince, he sank closer to Parker, who was at the cabinet, pulling down a bottle of amber liquid from a cupboard and unscrewing the lid to fill a highball he already had sitting out.

I opened my mouth to warn him not to drink too much because I still needed a ride tonight, but one of the girlfriends started to laugh.

Clapping her palms together, she chortled, “Sneezy?Yougot the dwarf Sneezy? I love it.”

“I sneezed on heronetime,” Keene exploded, throwing up his hands in disgust.

“It was so gross,” I added. “He got me right in the mouth, and I swear to God, I almost threw up.”

As the women laughed, clearly entertained by Keene’s distress, he shook his head in irritation. “That’s it. I’m out.” Stalking toward the exit of the kitchen, he muttered, “Someone please tell me when she’s gone.”

“Wow,” Mrs. Bashful murmured, shaking her head in awe as she watched him go. “I think that is the very first time I’ve ever seen Keene try to escape a girl withouthitting on her first.”

“No, I saw him clash horns with Library Girl before too,” Hudson spoke up as he dipped a spoon into the pan of ruined food, only to wince and pull back as soon as he tasted it. But a second later, he tilted his head and lifted a finger. “You know, I think I can actually salvage this.”

“Ooh, who’s Library Girl?” I asked curiously, pretty sure I already liked her if she couldalsodrive Keene crazy. “No, wait.” I spun to Alec. “You told me about her, didn’t you? She saved…someone—Bashful’s girl?—from a kidnapper. Right?”

He smiled big. “Right.” Then he smacked his forehead. “Ack. I haven’t introduced you, have I? Sorry.” Motioning to the short, curvy, Hispanic beauty, he said, “This is Oaklynn Vargas. She’s dating Damien.” Then he pointed to the tall and slim Black queen. “Faith Woods. She’s with Hudson.” And finally, he hitched his head toward the bubbly, white one with wavy, auburn locks. “And our newest edition, Raina Bollen, who’s with?—”

“Happy,” I concluded as I inclined my head toward them cordially. “Ladies. It’s a pleasure.”

See. I could be nice. Grumpy didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.

I glanced his way with a taunting lift of the eyebrows, but he merely sent me a squinty glare in return as he took a big gulp of his drink, clearly not impressed by my awesome abilities.

I once again opened my mouth to tell him not to overindulge, but before I could, the back door opened yet again, admitting two more of my brother’s seven.

“I’ll have to clear it with everyone else,” Damien was saying over his shoulder as he led the way inside. “But yeah, it should be fine.”

“Really?” Foster gushed happily, jostling his shoulder. “Oh man, that would be great. She’ll be relieved as hell to hear it. Apparently, her sharing a room with my five-year-old sisterhasn’t been easy on either of them.” Catching sight of Raina, he went straight to her so he could pull her into a hug and kiss her in welcome. “Hey,” he greeted with a big smile as he looped his arms around her waist.

“Hi!” She seemed just as excited to see him back. It was so sickeningly sweet. “Look who we just met.”

“Who’s that?” he started to ask, only to jump and lurch protectively against her when he finally saw me. “Hope,” he blurted nervously. “H-hey. How’s it going?”

I really don’t know why he always acted so nervous around me. I probably picked on Happy the least of all. But I figured his tension—as if he were always braced for one of my attacks—was probably torturous enough.

“Hey, Happy,” I told him with a lift of my eyebrows before turning my attention to Damien. “And Bashful,” I added, prepared to make him blush and duck his head per his usual.

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