Page 6 of Inviting Trouble
So why was she trembling at the thought?
She opened the refrigerator door and stared in shock at the bottle of champagne chilling there. “Hailey?” she called.
“It’s for the party!” Hailey caroled back. “In honor of Park’s service to our country.”
Mad shoved a hand in her dyed red hair, which was at that awkward growing-out stage after being short for so long. Hailey didn’t even know Park. This was so damn thoughtful.Sheshould’ve thought of doing something special like this. She didn’t know how to do this guy thing with someone she actually cared about. Her boyfriends were temporary whenever she had the itch for sex, which wasn’t that often.
She grabbed a six-pack of lite beer, something her brothers would turn their nose up at, which was the only reason they were still untouched. She snagged the bottle opener and brought them out to the living room. “Six beers for six women. Works out perfectly.” She set them on the coffee table and started popping the tops.
Hailey took a sip and wrinkled her nose. “Next time I’ll bring wine. So what’re you wearing tonight?” She took in Mad’s usual outfit—T-shirt, baggy cargo shorts, and black work boots.
Mad glanced down at herself. Okay, so she’d never gotten the hang of women’s fashion, and she liked being comfortable, but everything was clean and this was her favorite T-shirt. It read Try Me. She liked it because of the double meaning. Try Me could be a challenge to a fight or seduction as inyou want some of this?She enjoyed a good fight most of all, especially in the dojo with a well-matched opponent. She was a fourth-degree black belt and skilled with weapons.
“I’m not wearing a dress,” Mad said, cutting off Hailey’s go-to wardrobe. Hailey was her size but with bigger boobs and frequently offered to lend her an outfit for special occasions. If forced to wear something for a formal occasion, Mad had a black pants suit.
The women studied her and then exchanged looks with each other. Mad squirmed, knowing she wasn’t passing the girl test, yet not confident she could pull off the dress thing. She always felt so stiff and uncomfortable in dresses. She flopped on the sofa and propped her feet up on the coffee table.
Charlotte joined her on the sofa, pulling her long brown hair with auburn highlights over one shoulder and twirling it around her hand. “So how hot is he, like panty melting?”
Heat crept up Mad’s neck. She jerked her chin and took a long swallow of cold beer.
“Is he nice?” sweet Lauren asked. She was an elementary school teacher.
Mad snorted. “Of course he’s nice. He’s my blood brother, isn’t he?” Blood brother was what they called their honorary brothers, the guys her dad mentored as kids in the Police Athletic League. All of them had become like family.
“Tall, dark, and broody?” Charlotte asked.
Mad picked at the label on the beer bottle, unwilling to admit that was how she remembered Park best. Dark hair, intense hazel eyes that were mostly brown with some lighter green and gold, definitely broody, but also sweet. He’d become more serious after the Air Force, or maybe that was just how it seemed those few times she’d seen him because he’d been so distant.
Hailey sat on Mad’s other side. “He’s the only guy you ever blush over.”
She felt her cheeks heat. “I do not blush. You’re delusional.”
Carrie, Ally, and Lauren sat cross-legged on the floor around the coffee table and the women all looked to her, waiting for details. She knew what that meant—girl talk. The sharing had begun around books, but now included times like this, just hanging out. Mad liked listening to the talk, but still found it difficult to talk about herself. She was more used to hanging with guys, who were not big into “sharing and caring,” as Hailey called it.
Hailey put a hand on Mad’s arm. “It doesn’t leave this room. You can tell us anything.”
She tensed. It was just them, she told herself. Probably another hour before Ty got here with Park. Her dad was upstairs in the shower. The guys wouldn’t be here for a few more hours for the party.
“Spill, girl,” Charlotte said, elbowing her.
Mad took a deep breath, on the verge of confessing everything because it was eating her up inside. But the words died in her throat when the front door swung open. They never bothered to lock it until everyone was in for the night. She caught a glimpse of a tall man with dark short-cropped hair and leapt off the sofa, banging into the coffee table and spilling her beer in the process. The women rescued their own drinks before they spilled. Her heart raced, her mind a whirl before she realized it was just Alex, her older brother by four years.
“Hello, ladies,” Alex said warmly in his smooth voice.
The women sighed as one, except Mad, who rolled her eyes and headed to the kitchen for paper towels. She hated that she was so jittery.
“Dad home?” Alex called.
“Upstairs,” she hollered back.
She heard the front door open and close. She’d just returned to the living room when the front door opened again. The women let out a collective, “Awww.”
Alex held his sleeping daughter, twenty-month-old Vivian, and went upstairs where her dad kept a crib for her. Alex was a single dad from the very beginning. His fiancée, Tammy, died during the C-section. It hadn’t been easy for Alex to balance work and parenting, but her dad was retired from a long career as a cop and able to help out.
“She looks like an angel,” Lauren said. “Those sweet curls and chubby cheeks.”
“Only when she’s sleeping,” Mad replied. Her niece had a bit of the hell-on-wheels Campbell genes.
