Page 30 of Dangerous Encore
6
Ethan
Violetand I spend the entire night, and most of the next day in bed. We don't bother getting into our clothes until we don't have achoice.
Even then, we're nearly late to our rehearsal dinner. We're in the back room of a chain restaurant, toasting with cheap champagne as member after member of Violet's family gets up to say something about the geeky goth girl who… to their amazement is still a geekygothgirl.
She's not wearing that heavy expression. She laughs off every mention of her attire—she's in her usual dark makeup in an especially sexy lace up corset dress and spiky heels. She smiles every time someone jokes about how they thought she'd marry anaccountant.
When Mary steps in to shut down Grandma's speech, Violet leans in towhisper.
"I kinda love that the uptight people in my family think you're no good." She nips at my ear. "But I know you… you know they'rewrong."
"Iknow."
Her voice gets low, breathy. "Can weditchyet?"
I look to the clock. "Yeah, but you know we have somewhere elsetobe."
"I wouldn'tmissit."
* * *
An hour later,we're at Logan's place in the hills. The Wicked Beat singer and I got to be pretty close our lastsharedtour.
I complained I missed Vi a thousand times an hour. He rolled his eyes and told me to get the fuck back to whatever video game we were playing atthetime.
Everyone is here—the band, significant others, Vi's best friend slash ex-roommate Athena, plus all the guys in Wicked Beat and a dozen or two otherfriends.
It's loud with laughter and glassesclinking.
Vi is squeezing my hand the way she always does in big groups—she's still not a fan of attention—but she's also wearing a widesmile.
This is ourparty.
This is what our life is supposed tolooklike.
Mal pops open a bottle of champagne. The cork hits the ceiling. Bubbly spills over thebottle.
He looks to his girlfriend Lacey andwinks.
She blushes and mouths something I don't want to make out. God only knows what he plans on doing with that bottle of champagnelater.
Piper holds out her glass. "Mefirst."
Mal goes around the room filling flutes with champagne. And damn is it a room. Calling Logan's place a mansion is doing it adisservice.
The packed dining room is the size of my and Violet's apartment. It's new and trendy, with hardwood floors and modern furniture. The sliding glass door behind us opens up to a sprawling backyard with a huge pool, a fire pit, and wet bar, and fuck knowswhatelse.
This place is practically the PlayboyMansion.
Which suits Logan, Iguess.
Violet squeezes my hand and rests her head against my shoulder. "You ever want a placelikethis?"
"I don't want our kids to grow upspoiled."
She lets out a soft sigh. "You're going to use that every time you can,aren'tyou?"
