Page 51 of One More Time
‘Spain, France, England … fuckingMonaco.’ Kim scrolled up on her phone. ‘A show every two or three days. Sometimes four days between countries. It goes from the end of July to …’ She groaned, ‘Next year. In July. It’s a full year. In Europe. Damn, a lot of these shows are already sold out.’
Lucy’s heart sank. She felt it settle on the overlarge burrito in her belly and tap out a sad tune.Dumb. This is a short-term thing with Nicky. Till Sunday. Nothing more.
‘See?’ Lucy said, gathering the futile little scraps of hope that had somehow formed without her noticing. She shoved those pesky things right into a familiar old mental box marked ‘Nicky Broome’ and locked them up tight.
‘Shit,’ Kim said before exhaling heavily and putting her phone down. ‘Okay, it’s like I said before. A nice distraction.’
‘Yep,’ Lucy agreed, wishing she’d gone for the fourth margarita instead of water.
The beat from the speakers slid into a rhythm that had a Pavlovian effect on Lucy. It felt like bouncing in a tub of joy bubbles. She couldn’t help but smile.
‘Oh, hello!’ yelled Kim. ‘I believe they’re playing our song! Sex injury or no sex injury we’re going out there.’
Kim took Lucy’s hand and dragged her out of the booth, their dick headbands springing to the beat of the Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Hypnotize’ as they sauntered to the dance floor.
There, Lucy lost herself in the music, screaming the lyrics with Kim until she was hoarse and dancing until the pain in her hamstring was nothing but an afterthought.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
NICKY
The door to Lucy’s suite swung open before he even had a chance to knock.
‘Who knew rock stars were so punctual?’ Lucy joked. Then she stopped as though stunned, and looked him over. Breathed, ‘God.’
‘What?’ Nicky asked, rattled. He looked down at what he’d thought was a perfectly respectable Tom Ford button-down and black pants. He really only had seventeen different kinds of sneakers, so he’d gone with the limited edition Jordans. Maybe he should have ordered some real grown-up shoes from the Prada in the casino shops?
‘Do you always look like you were spit out byGQor is this just a Las Vegas thing?’ Lucy teased.
Phew.
‘All of this is too much for just one city,’ he teased back.
‘Sounds about right,’ she quipped, ushering him into the room.
Lucy walked to one of the bedroom doors and knocked on it. ‘Chloe, get a move on!’ Then, to Nicky she said, ‘I told the wedding planner that brunch the morning after the bachelorette was ambitious, at best. But she insisted that it would all work out. She must be accustomed to dealing withresponsibleadults.’
‘Well, you look beautiful,’ Nicky said. Meaning it.
Lucy was wearing another ballet-pink sleeveless thing on top. Tight this time, with her strong arms looking good enough to lick. Snug black pants led down, down, down, to some seriously hot black heels. Gold hoops peeked out from her bob. Sexy as hell.
Lucy caught him checking her out. Her shoulders shook with a chuckle as she flitted around the suite grabbing things and shoving them in a handbag.
‘Well, all of this,’ she said, waving her hand in front of her face. ‘Is thanks to about twelve pounds of concealer, and the fact that I’m standing is only the result of near toxic levels of caffeine. So, don’t get your hopes up. Eventually, I’m going to crash and melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. Maybe not in that order.’
‘Fine by me,’ he said.
She stopped, looked at him with concern. ‘You really don’t have to do this, you know.’
‘Do you notwantme to go?’ he asked.
‘It’s not—’ Lucy heaved a sigh as though rethinking what she was about to say. ‘You are top-notch eye candy, Broome.’ She smiled, and God he wanted to kiss the pink lipstick right off her mouth. ‘But it’s a lot. It will for surebe uncomfortable. And this—’ she waved her hand between them ‘—is just supposed to be fun and casual, right?’
He nodded, even if the wordcasualwas entirely inaccurate from where he was standing.
‘All of this completely bonkers family and wedding stuff isn’t … exactly … uh,that.’
Now she was getting it.
