Page 48 of Inviting Trouble
“Your pants are on fire,” Lauren said, sounding every bit the second-grade teacher she was. “I saw you two slow dancing. You could practically see the steam!”
“And I saw you looking after Viv instead of enjoying a good party,” Mad returned.
“She’s a sweetheart,” Lauren said with a smile. “I love kids. That’s why I became a teacher.”
“She’s not sweet,” Mad said. “I love her, but she’s not sweet.”
“All toddlers are sweet,” Lauren insisted. “With their chubby little cheeks and their little diaper waddle. And those curls!”
“You only watched her nap,” Mad said. “She wasn’t at full power yet.”
Lauren waved that away. “I think she’s great. When she woke up, she patted my cheek and called me thoo-per. I think she meant super.”
“Or stupid,” Mad said. “Sorry. Just putting that out there.”
Charlotte pulled the candy cane out of her mouth. “Stop trying to change the subject, Mad. What’s up with the love of your life?”
Mad got serious. “I don’t know. It seemed like it was going well. We hooked up, it was awesome, but one word from Ty and Park completely backed the hell off.”
Charlotte’s brown eyes flashed. “You tell Ty to butt out.” She scowled. “That one thinks he’s God’s gift to women.” She sucked her candy cane ferociously.
Mad faced front, feeling a little queasy and not sure if it was motion sickness or thinking about the way Park backed off.
“Ooh, Char,” Hailey chortled, wagging a finger in the air. “So much fire between you two!”
“Don’t even think about it,” Charlotte snapped, cutting off Hailey’s matchmaking tendencies. “Do you know what Ty did at the wedding reception?”
“What’d he do?” Hailey asked eagerly, peeking in the rearview mirror at Charlotte.
“Asked every single woman there to dance except me,” Charlotte announced. “Even Mad.”
“It’s true,” Mad said. “I told him to get lost. But, of course, in a more colorful way.”
“Of course,” Hailey said dryly.
“Do you really think he did it on purpose?” Lauren asked. “Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe he just ran out of songs to dance to. There were a lot of us women there.”
Mad turned back to shoot Lauren an exasperated look. The woman always saw the good in people and Ty had totally played Charlotte. But she didn’t need to say a word.
Charlotte did a classic head swivel and turned to Lauren. “Uh-uh. This was one big dis. He knew exactly what he was doing.”
“But why would he do that?” Lauren asked. “You’re the best dancer of all of us.”
“He’s playing a game,” Charlotte explained patiently. “Trying to get me to go to him.”
“She’s right,” Mad put in. “It was his hard-to-get ploy. My brothers are idiots.”
“Not all of them,” Lauren put in softly. “I wouldn’t have minded having a big brother to look after me. I just had my little sister. I was more like a mom to her than a sister because we’re ten years apart.”
“It’s great until they piss you off,” Mad said. “Then you just want to punch ’em.”
“Oh, I could never do that,” Lauren said earnestly. “Anyway, Josh and Jake are sweethearts.”
Hailey snorted. “Maybe Jake.”
“And Alex and Logan seemed nice,” Lauren added before popping the candy cane back in her mouth. She moved so quickly her long light brown hair got caught on the sticky candy. She carefully extricated her hair.
“They have their moments,” Mad conceded, turning back in her seat and sighing.
