Page 25 of Good Vibes Only
Whew.
I was struck, simply struck,by her beauty.
Struck by two chicks in as many days?I thought, snickering at myself.Don’t turn into a simp on me, Allred.
But then Sofia’s friend finally looked up, her deeply unimpressed eyes meeting mine, and I was struck by something else entirely.
“McKayla?” I blurted, shocked.
Hell, I guess butts reallydon’tget any better than hers.
And you wanna know the really fucked up part? I smiled. Because I was genuinely happy to see her. Confused, sure, but happy as hell. Safe to say she didn’t exactly look or sound too pleased to see me, though.
“Brett.” She let out a heavy sigh. “Hi.”
“What areyoudoing here?”
“It would seem,” she began cautiously, “that we have some friends in common.”
Which meant she wasn’t just making shit up when she’d told me she had hockey connections. Maybe there was more to her than I realized?
“Huh. Well, this is kinda funny, isn’t it?” I chuckled. “I guess you reallyaresome kind of hockey insider. Gotta admit, I’m surprised. You sounded totally clueless about hockey, so I thought you were blowing smoke up my ass.”
“And I guess you’re not a trust fund kid after all,” she murmured with a disappointed click of her tongue.
“Does that fact just eat you up inside?” I asked with a grin.
She groaned, a look of scorn in her fluttering eyes.
Connor held up his palms. “Hold up. Since when do you two know each other?”
“We just met the other day, actually,” I said.
“Where?” Brock asked.
“At her shop. We’re neighbors.”
“Business neighbors,” McKayla clarified.
“Oh?” Brock said with a note of surprise. A second later, he said it again, but with a kind of revelatory dread instead: “Oh.Oh God.”
“No kidding?” Connor asked, struggling to keep a shit-eating grin from spreading. “Your shop is right next to Showtime’s brewery?”
“Yeah, and it’s been a delight,” McKayla grumbled. “Nothing like nonstop construction during business hours to chase away your customer base, you know?”
“Holy shit. That sucks,” Connor said.
“Itdoessuck. Thank you so much for acknowledging it,” McKayla said, holding her nose high. “Somepeople”—she shot me a glance from the sides of her eyes—“seem to think it’s not such a big deal.”
“I didn’t say it’s not a big deal. I said it’s temporary. And yeah, it sucks, but there’s nothing I can do about it. The project is on a schedule; my hands are tied.”
Sofia stuck up for her best friend. “There’s gotta besomethingyou could do, Showtime.”
I shrugged. “Like what? The work’s gotta get done.”
Apparently, that wasn’t the right answer because both girls leered at me.
“So Showtime and McKayla are business neighbors,” Brock said, and backhanded his buddy’s stomach. “What do you think of that, Con?”
