Epilogue - Olive
“Shot! Shot! Shot! WOOOOOO!”
I grimace as I choke back the tequila shot and sour lime wedge chaser. Yikes. Tequila is really Julia’s thing, but I’m playing along. I don’t want to be a stick-in-the-mud tonight, especially considering that this Girl’s Night Out is being held in honor of my engagement.
Sally, Lilah, Julia, and Chelsea coordinated my kidnapping from work. They even confiscated my phone, texting Brooks to tell him they would bring me home safe… and a little drunk.
Lilah slides onto the barstool next to me wearing a short red dress and a big smile. She hugs me, slightly unsteady thanks to our last round of shots, and grabs my hand, inspecting my ring.
“Are you sure he’s actually human?” she asks with a grin. “He’s almost too perfect for you.”
“He is, isn’t he? I got crazy lucky, I guess,” I say, stroking a fingertip over the magnificent ring he put on my finger last week. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much. “Are you all unpacked? How is home ownership going?” I ask.
Lilah avoids eye contact, a sure sign that she’s keeping something from me. “It’s great. It would be better if my neighbor didn’t have to mow his damn lawn every Saturday at 8am.”
Cocking my head to the side, I wiggle my eyebrows at her. “Is this the nerdy guy with the Texas accent?”
She smacks me on the shoulder with a slight laugh. “He’s not nerdy! Or maybe he is. I don’t know. But you can’t call someone nerdy just because they wear glasses. He’s too handsome to be called a nerd anyway,” she sighs an alcohol-laden breath.
“Oh yeah?” I ask. “How handsome?” I really shouldn’t take advantage of my sister being tipsy to dig for info, but she’s been so determined to hate the early-morning mower until now. Suddenly she’s all wistful sighs and I’m a nosy bitch so I can’t help myself. Chelsea, Sally and Julia have been tearing it up behind us, dancing wildly in the space they cleared of tables and chairs but it looks like it’s time to move to the next bar because Sally is circling her finger in the air in the universal signal for “Let’s move.”
Lilah, oblivious to all of their shenanigans, plunks her head down on the bar and moans, “He’s annoyingly handsome. It’s like someone rolled up all the sexiest bits of Henry Cavill and Dierks Bentley.”
“Well, that begs the question, Bentley in 2004 or 2020, and Henry Cavill in The Witcher or Henry Cavill in The Tudors?” I ask as Sally herds us off our bar stools and out onto the sidewalk.
Lilah laughs roughly and gives a full body shiver. “Henry Cavill circa Batman vs. Superman and Bentley… well all the time with the damn voice.”
“Mother of god, you’ve got the weirdest taste in men,” I laugh as we step out onto the street. The streetlights are all lit up, illuminating people walking down First Street. It finally feels like spring, the air warm and smelling like rain.
We only make it a couple of feet down the sidewalk before a big black SUV pulls into a driveway blocking our path. “Jesus! Watch it!” I yell. I’m interrupted by the driver’s door opening and I start to panic. Crap on a cracker. I hope I didn’t incite some crazy ass road rage just now.
A man’s foot hits the ground and I’m ready to rip my heels off, already debating whether to try to run away barefoot or hit him with my shoes, when Chelsea starts laughing.
“What took you so long?” she asks the man as he steps out of the shadow of the car door. She points at her watch. “It took you almost an hour to come find me. I feel like you’re slipping.”
“I knew you were having fun,” he says with a chuckle.
“Matt?” I start to ask why he’s crashing girl’s night, but a split-second later Brooks comes around from the passenger side, stalking towards me with a dark and possessive look on his face. Ooh. Yes, please! My inner bad girl does a little dance. Without saying a word, he tosses me over his shoulder.
“Who’s got her phone?” he demands. I can’t see what’s going on, just a solid view of my fiancé’s backside. I can’t say I’m complaining.
Upside down or not, I can hear just fine. “I’ve got it,” says Julia with an exasperated laugh. “You could have let us have her for one night, you know. Here, take it.”
I hear the sound of something slapping into a hand as Brooks grumbles. “You turned her phone off. How am I supposed to relax when I have no idea where you took her? Besides, I had plans for her tonight.”
I’m jostled as he tucks my phone in his pocket and heads back to the SUV.
“Ok, ew!” Julia calls out after us. I laugh as I use his lower back to push myself up and wave at them.
“Thanks for the girl’s night!” I call back. “Next time we turn off all the phones.”
Brooks growls underneath me like a pissed off bear. He deposits me in the passenger seat, reaching over me to do the seatbelt. Looking back at my sisters and friends, I see Matt has an arm around Chelsea and they’re all heading off down the street.
“Are we just stealing Matt’s car now?”
“He’s got a driver on standby. He’ll make sure everyone else gets home safe,” Brooks says. His voice is surprisingly gentle. “I should feel bad for kidnapping you but I don’t.” His words are defiant but the look on his face is resigned, like he’s just waiting for me to tell him off.
Slipping my arms around his neck, I purr, “The girls and I, we had our fun. I’m ready to go home with you now. Besides, you said you had plans for me?”