Page 39 of The Brat Tamers

Her eyes grow as wide as dinner plates. “What?”

I giggle uncontrollably and motion to the black envelope. “Is that a note from them?”

She smiles and glances down. “Yes. They want me to meet them Saturday night.”

“Go.” I nod encouragingly.

“How can I?”

“Oh, Leti. I’ve been all around the world and have been introduced to all kinds of people, and the one thing I can tell you is happiness is fleeting, but finding someone to love you the way you want to be loved, that is special—once-in-a-lifetime style special. If you found three men who want to love you, whom you also love—well, you’ve hit the lottery, and you can’t turn your back on that regardless of what they consider a societal norm.”

“What about your guys? Have you heard from them?”

I give her a sad smile and shake my head. “No, not yet.”

“Do you want to, Pip?”

My smile widens, and I do something new. I’m truthful, honest, and vulnerable with my sister. “Yes, but I’m afraid. What if they don’t want me?”

“Of course, they want you. You’re amazing and vivacious and maybe a bit of a handful.”

“I think they like that.”

Leti hops off her stool. Then she lifts her hand up to show me how it shakes. “Look at me, I’m so nervous. I don’t think I can do this.”

I can’t let her back down and lose her chance at love and happiness. “I tell you what. If you go on this date with them, I’ll track down my men and let them know how I feel. We’ll both be putting ourselves out there, supporting each other while we do one of the scariest things in our lives.”

“Yeah?” Her eyes well up with tears again, which makes tears well up in mine.

“Yeah.” I hop off my stool and spread my arms wide, welcoming her embrace. “Now, let’s go shopping and buy ourselves a couple of amazing outfits.”

* * *

It’s Saturday, and I’ve spent the last two days reassuring Leti this is the right choice for her, although I’m not sure if this is the right choice for me. What if Lee, Case, or Porter changed their mind about me? What if they’ve already found another woman to warm their beds? What if they decided I was too much of a brat to be dealt with?

Well, no matter how this evening goes, I’m prepared to have fun. After I put Leti in a town car dressed in the sexiest dress we could find, I twist my hair up into a high ponytail and climb into my Range Rover, following the navigation to the address on the card Lee gave me. I’ve driven past this building a dozen times in the last ten days, and it is impenetrable unless they open the garage for food delivery, which I would say they do at least every other day. I’m guessing with three hungry men, none of them know when one orders food and therefore, as long as it is food delivery, they will open the door.

At least that’s what I’m banking on as I leave my car in a parking garage downtown and Uber to their address. I wait for the pizza delivery guy to drive up and ring the bell on the outside of the building. When the garage door opens, I sneak in behind him and duck behind their SUV, dropping my bag full of party tricks to the ground. Inside, I have a plethora of ammunition to fire in their direction to include water balloons, glitter cannons and silly string. It will hurt if they don’t want me, but at least they’ll be cleaning my memory away for months to come.

Case and Lee come down the elevator looking as delicious as ever in jogging pants and black tank tops. “Who are you?”

The pizza guy glances behind him and then back at them. “I’m from Dino’s.”

“We didn’t order any pizza.”

The poor driver looks down at the box. “I have an extra large beef stick for Lee, an extra large stuffed for Case, and an extra large salami for Porter.”

It takes everything within me not to giggle. I paid Dino’s extra to use phony pizza names.

Lee and Case exchange a look and then turn back to the delivery guy. “Show us the pizzas.”

Inside they are seeing regular pizzas: one combination, one veggie and one Margherita.

“Who paid for this?” Case takes the pizzas from the guy who is getting more and more nervous by the second.

“I don’t know, man. I’m just a delivery driver.” He backs away now that his hands are free. “Can I go? The tip is already covered.”

“Yeah, man. Have a nice night.” Lee glances around the garage and dammit, they are too smart for their own good.

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