Page 47 of Lyrical

“Okay, we’ll regroup.” Perry drummed her fingers on the table. “Daniel’s not having sex until he’s fifty and married. Is that acceptable, Jills?”

“Yes.”

“Now keep that visual in your head while we figure this out. It’ll make you feel better.” She took a sip of her drink. “Mmm… kiwi. Okay, so maybe Daniel has this hidden bad-boy side and se—I mean kissing is his only outlet. He needs to let loose somewhere, right?”

“That’s really not making me feel better, Perry.”

“Hmm… then how about this theory? He—”

“Seriously?” Stephen leaned over the table. “Did you two ever once stop to think that Cassie is a perfectly nice girl and Daniel is a guy who likes perfectly nice girls, and they’ll be perfectly fucking happy together? Did that ever once cross your mind?”

Perry looked at me and busted out laughing. “Sure, honey.” Stephen lifted his hands like he did a hundred times a day and sat back. “Men.” She shook her head. “No offense, Chase. I know you can’t help it.”

She wrapped her arms around Stephen’s neck. “You know I love you, right?”

“What does that have to do with this?”

“You are so unbelievably smart, but you lack the woman’s intuition gene, and well, that kinda makes you stupid right now.”

He just stared at her. She gave him a quick kiss, then looked at me. “But you know what, Jills? I think we’ve been going about it wrong. We can’t figure out both sides of the equation, not when we can’t think with a man’s brain. Stephen—”

“No.”

“No, what?”

“I’ve already told you what I thought, and you don’t want to hear it.”

“I wasn’t going to ask for another opinion. I was going to suggest taking him out for a little uncle-nephew bonding experience.”

“Perry, if you’re suggesting a strip club….” I said.

“No, silly. It hasn’t come to that yet. Stephen hasn’t had any one-on-one time with him since he’s been back. Wouldn’t it be nice just to get together and hang out for a couple hours?”

Stephen raised an eyebrow. “And do what?”

“I don’t know. Play pool, watch a game, talk business shit, whatever. The point is just to spend time with him and find out where his head’s at regarding Cassie.”

That wasn’t half bad. Daniel had always gotten along well with my brother. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to get together.

“I’m not going to see him just to pump him for information.”

“Of course not, but he’s comfortable with you and you’re both men, right?”

“You tell me.”

She whispered something in his ear, and he smiled. I didn’t hear a thing and it was already too much information.

She pulled back, running her fingers over his neck. “So just spend some time together, but it’s got to be only the two of you. I’m sure you would’ve done that at some point anyway. You don’t have to question him, just give him a chance to open up after you casually bring up the woman he was with at the party. Does that work for you, Jills?”

“Yes.”

“And you, sweetie?”

He sighed. “All right.”

“Yay.” She clapped. “You’re the best. I’m so glad I’m marrying you.”

“Yeah, yeah. But only because I want to catch up with my nephew. Beyond that, I can’t promise he’ll talk to me about this, and I’m not going to push it.”

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