Page 64 of One Night With You

But I knew that we were all in the midst of our busy seasons, and this had been thrown together at the last minute. However, Claire and Aria were laughing in a corner, with Hugh standing near, with Daisy in his arms. We were all here, including Aria’s friend Travis.

He had the bottle of champagne in his hands,wiggling his brows at Aria.

“Dare me?”

Aria rolled her eyes. “No. Because it’s bubbles, and it’ll come through your nose again. We’re not twenty.”

“You’re no fun.” He still drank out of the bottle, and I met Crew’s gaze. He just gave a slight shake of his head, and we didn’t say anything. I wasn’t part of that friendship, and I didn’t know Travis well. But Aria knew what she was doing, and I couldn’t be the asshole big brother all the time.

But I had a feeling if her actual brothers could see the way that Travis acted around her? Then I didn’t think that they would be able to stand by. Not that I was doing a good job of it.

“Okay, we have appetizers, and dips. Mostly just things to dip. We have things to dip with, and dip for the dip. I think I’ve said dip enough times.” Phoebe shook her head and reached for her water.

“And that’s enough alcohol for me.”

“One drink in, lame.”

“You good, man?” Kane asked at Travis’s words. Travis held up both hands, nearly dropping the half full champagne bottle.

“Yeah. I’m good. But I really wish we could have been at the cabin. With snow all around us. Would’ve been a really fucking good view. But this is nice. Whose house is this again?”

Aria gave a pained smile.

“We’re at Crew’s.”

“Oh yeah. But you’re not a Montgomery, right? Who are you here with?” he asked, swaying a bit.

He shook it off and grinned a little too widely.

“It’s my house, so I guess you’re all here with me.”

“Hey there, can’t believe you’re just leaving me on read,” Lexington said, as he wrapped his arm around Crew’s shoulders. “And we’re not even going to talk about last night.” He fluttered his eyelashes, and Crew flipped him off.

“You’re fucking weird, man. But I love you.”

“Oh. That’s cool. Love is love. But I don’t like dick.” Travis took another swig out of the bottle, and Aria gave us all a pained expression.

“Travis, stop being an asshole.”

“You know I can’t stop, babe.”

I had no idea what Aria saw in that man, and I really didn’t know what I was supposed to say in this moment, other than wanting to rip that bottle out of the man’s hands and shake him until he figured out what the hell was going on.

Claire came up to my side, and I wrapped my arm around her.

“Okay, what dip are we going with?” I said, trying to ease the tension in the room.

“I made a quick and dirty spinach and artichoke dip. How about that?”

“I’m in.” I kissed the top of her head, and ignored Crew and Lexington’s looks, before we went back to eating.

“Did you hear that Livvy’s friend tried to set her up on a date?” Daisy asked, and I shook my head. We were all lounging around the living room, Travis having calmed down once he’d had some water. He had made sure that Aria had a plate of food, and was smiling gently at her, as they were in the middle of a conversation with Crew. It was like night and day with that guy, and I did not understand him.

“Wait, with Livvy?” I asked pulling myself back to the conversation.

“With Livvy. She backed out of it, and I don’t even know what her friend was thinking. But it was like a surprise blind date. Some guy just showed up.”

“Oh my God. Is the guy okay?” Claire asked, and I frowned, looking at her, while Daisy burst out into laughter, Hugh just grinning into his drink. “What? I assume she kicked him in the balls?”

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