Page 29 of Inviting Trouble
He caught her eye across the room and turned away.
“He keeps sneaking peeks at you,” Hailey said.
“He’s not,” Mad said. “He’s only looking at me because I’m looking at him.”
“What do you think, Char?” Hailey called, pulling Charlotte closer within earshot.
Charlotte’s brown eyes sparkled in anticipation of something fun with Hailey. “Huh? Think about what?”
“Is Park looking over at this hot thing?” Hailey said, tilting her head toward Mad.
Mad snorted and fought back the blush.
Charlotte made a big gesture of looking around the entire room before reporting back, tilting her head to make her long brown hair partially cover her face. “Yup.”
“What!” Mad exclaimed, her gaze darting back to Park. He was looking at Ty. “Stop messing with me. He is not.”
Charlotte smoothed her hair back from her face. “Just go over there.”
Mad was not prepared to make a move with Ty as witness.
Hailey put a stop to that line of thinking. “No. We have to separate him from the herd. She can’t flirt with her brothers as witnesses. Especially Ty. He’ll put her in a headlock or something. Geez. Your brothers are forever messing up your hair. Tell them to knock it off. It took hours to get this look.”
“No kidding,” Mad said. “You think they care?”
“We need a helmet around you with spikes,” Charlotte said.
“Yes, that’s attractive,” Hailey said with a rare sarcasm that had them cracking up.
“Happy Endings Book Club party,” a chauffer called.
“That’s us!” Hailey caroled, gesturing for them to follow.
They piled into the limo, where they passed around another bottle of champagne conveniently provided by Claire, not bothering with the plastic glasses. Mad took in her friends—Hailey, Charlotte, Lauren, Carrie, and Ally—and found herself smiling goofily.
“Okay,” Mad announced after taking a nice long swig of champagne. “You heard it here first. I’m heading out on the dance floor for a slow dance with Park. Step one in seduction.”
The women cheered.
Mad laughed and then hiccupped. “I need all of you out there with me so I don’t stick out. I’ve never danced before.”
“What do you mean you’ve never danced before?” Charlotte asked from across the limo. “Never? Not even at prom?”
“I went as Darth Vader to the prom,” Mad said solemnly.
The women stared and then burst out laughing.
“I remember you said that once,” Hailey said, taking the champagne bottle from Mad. “But you took the costume off at some point, right?”
Mad snorted. “Are you kidding? The guys loved it. We were all having light saber battles.”
“I’ll bet the girls loved having their dates hanging out with Darth Vader instead of them,” Charlotte said drily.
Mad had never thought about that. She’d just felt like a loser because no one asked her to the prom, so she went by herself in the only way that would make her feel comfortable—covered head to toe in black.
“Anyway,” Mad said, “no one wanted to ask the dark side to dance.”
“Oh, Mad,” her friends said in near unison notes of sympathy.
