"You know I never kiss and tell."
"Sad but true." She backed up a step and waved her arms, summoning the Brigade. When every last one of them had abandoned Val, some adopting a fake pout like Heidi had done, she turned to address her group. "The new guy is off-limits, Kittens." The sassy girl winked at me over her shoulder. "Evie's got this one."
My mouth opened, a denial on my tongue, but I shut my trap. Nobody needed to know the details of my whatever-this-was with Val.
"And now," Heidi said, "Eve will introduce us to the new hottie."
I glanced at Val, my brows raised.
He shrugged.
And I took that as permission to tell them.
To the Kittens, I said, "This is Val Silva. He's originally from Brazil but calls LA home these days. He was a soccer star for years, even went to the Olympics, but now he's a model."
"And he belongs to Evie," Heidi said with mock gravitas.
Shelby Thomas, the shortest member of the Brigade, shook her head. "What a bummer. I was looking forward to a good cat fight. Oh well, at least I don't need to keep my hair tied up if nobody's going to use it as leverage."
The brunette ripped the scrunchy out of her, setting her long locks free, and tossed the scrunchy high into the air.
It landed on Val's shoulder.
He wrapped the strip of lavender fabric around his wrist.
Shelby giggled.
"Let me finish the introductions," I said, and pointed to each lady in turn as I told Val their names. "Heidi. Shelby. Taylor. Allison. Heather. Sydney. Jane. Leah."
Val smiled. "Nice to meet you, ladies. What a lovely bunch you are."
Some of them smiled shyly. Others grinned. A few gave him saucy looks.
Heidi rose onto her tiptoes to glance around the area behind me where the other guests had gathered. "Where's our Ollie? Isn't he here yet?"
I turned around, searching the crowd until I spotted Ollie.
At the instant I spotted him, Heidi did too. She hopped on her toes and waved her arms in the air. "Get over here, sweetie! We missed you!"
Ollie smiled sheepishly at the people around him, shrugged, and pushed through the crowd to reach Heidi and the gals.
Heidi grabbed him in a bear hug.
"Cut that out," I chided. "Do I need to recite the rules right here? I thought we could hold off on that until you get settled in."
"We know the rules," Heidi said, releasing a blushing Ollie. "But I couldn't help myself. This boy is cuteness squared."
The rest of the Kittens took their turns hugging Ollie, but in the permitted fashion. Shelby ruffled his hair. Several of them kissed his cheek. In fact, they paid more attention to him than they had to Val.
Well, they had known Ollie for years.
I walked over to Val, who now stood alone.
He draped an arm around my waist. "I seem to have lost my appeal. Can't compete with Ollie."
"Yes, he does have that adorable-nerd vibe women love."
"Would you rather be hugging and kissing Ollie?" he asked with a smirk.