She pulls out her cell to text Micah, and I chew absently on another fry. Man, she and Micah are practically married, if she needs to check with him about going out on a Friday night. It makes me a bit uneasy, and I think of my sister and the douchebag she calls her fiancé.
But Ev is happy. Maybe being married is not so bad after all? Is it possible? After leaving home, I swore to never ever consider marriage, and I’m not. Like, ever. Or love. I never even knew there were happily married couples out there in the world.
Not that there’s any reason to worry about that. I’ve been living in Madison for two years, and I haven’t even had a steady boyfriend. And by that I mean that despite my awesome sass, I haven’t even—
“All set.” Ev waves her phone in my face, so close all I see is blurry lines. “It’s a go.”
“Girls’ night out! Woohoo!” A grin splits my face. “I might even convince Amber to unglue herself from Jesse’s hot body for a few hours and join us.”
“You mean Micah can’t come?” Ev’s face falls a little.
Aw hell. “Sure he can. And his friends.” Wait a minute, this is an amazing idea. “Ask the Damage Boyz if they want to join us.”
“I’ll ask.”
I rub my hands together and cackle like a demented old woman, my family and the future forgotten. It’s a plan. If Ocean comes, I could rope him into having his palm read at long last.
And other parts of him. I mean, did you know that the snake is the mark of the Damage Boyz. All five of them have it—Micah, Jesse, Seth, Shane and Ocean. I wonder on what part of his body he had it inked…
Damn, I want to see his snake.
“Hey, Kay…”
“Hm?” I blink, refocusing on the present. “What?”
“Can you read the future in my fries? I want to know if Micah is thinking of proposing…”
“Proposing?” I blink again. What… oh. Oh! All right! “Anything for you, girl. Does that mean maybe that,” I wink, “there’s a bun in the oven? Are you hiding something under that long sweater of yours?”
“Kay!” She snickers. “No. You’d be the first to know. And you’d be making my wedding gown, so you wouldn’t miss it if I was.”
“Okay then. Just FYI, I’m dying to be an auntie. You’d better get hitched soon and make some babies for me to play with.”
Those fries had better give us good news.
***
“How about this?” a disembodied voice asks from behind me, and I jump three feet into the air, scattering my nail polish bottles on the bed. Thank God they’re all still closed.
“Amber, shit. You scared the living crap out of me.”
“Sorry.” She looks like a deer in headlights, blue eyes huge in her pale face. “I just wanted your opinion on my outfit.” She gives her short dress a hard tug.
“Girl, stop that, you’ll destroy your dress. You look amazing.” She does, too. With her dark hair loose and all those luscious curves in all the right places, she’s smoking hot in her short blue dress. “And you know it.”
“I don’t.” She squirms. She’s too much fun to tease. She’s shy and hates going out, hates crowds and noise. I’m touched that she said yes to my invitation tonight without a second thought.
Then again, she has changed quite a bit since she met Jesse. He draws her out of her shell and has made her believe in herself. Made her happy.
“Warning,” I say. “Jesse will be drooling all over you. Just FYI.”
Amber laughs breathlessly. “Shut up.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you! You’d better pack some tissues to wipe his chin just in case.”
She sits beside me on the bed and starts gathering the nail polish bottles. “You’re a crazy woman.”
“But you love me, right? As much as you love Jesse?”