“You shouldn’t be so mischievous. You are a lovely, pleasant, married woman. Aren’t married ladies supposed to be calm and happy and not annoying?” I asked.
“I have no idea where you heard or read that,” Eliza said. “And my husband is deployed, so I need some entertainment in my life. If that means joking around about a certain dark-haired, chiseled-jawed stranger at a bar for you? Well, I’m going to have fun.”
“Oh, yes, that sounds like a plan.” Brenna clapped her hands as she grinned.
“I don’t like you guys.” I pouted.
“Don’t pout. You’re an adult,” Paige said, her eyes dancing with laughter.
Her boyfriend, Colton, cleared his throat. “If it’s all right with you, I’m going to go get grilled by Paige’s brothers rather than sit here listening to this. I feel like I don’t have enough estrogen, and I’m eavesdropping on the secret meeting of an organization I shouldn’t know about.”
He grinned, and I rolled my eyes before Paige went up on her tiptoes to kiss him soundly. I averted my gaze because some things having to do with my little sister I did not need to see.
“He seems nice,” Brenna said, watching Colton walk away.
My sister smiled. “He’s great. He makes me laugh, he’s kind, he has a good job, and he isn’t riddled with debt.”
Eliza laughed. “And that’s what you’re worried about?” she asked.
Paige shook her head. “No, that’s what my dad would worry about, so I’m learning to tack it on for when I’m around him. Sorry. I’m just trying to get used to the idea that I have a committed boyfriend. Not some guy I date for a couple of days and never see again. And it’s not like a high school boyfriend where it’s all about weird anxiety and wanting to throw up.”
I looked at Brenna and analyzed that comment, then we all snorted, holding back our laughter. “I’m sorry, but high school boyfriends make you want to throw up?” I asked, pressing my lips together after I’d said the words.
“You know what I mean. When we were younger, it was always stressful and anxiety-riddled because of social constructs inherent within school walls. This feels nice.”
“So, it’s serious?” Eliza asked.
“Maybe.”
I listened with half an ear as my friends and Paige began discussing Colton and all his qualities. I liked the guy, but I didn’t know him well enough to judge. He’d have to run the Montgomery gauntlet if he wanted to go the distance with Paige. And not because we were overprotective. Okay, not only because we were overprotective. Mainly because Paige wouldn’t date anybody seriously without us loving him. We were family, and that’s how we worked.
It had been different with Jonah because it hadn’t been real. And Paige hadn’t even been old enough to drive, so I knew she didn’t have as many memories of him as I did. There hadn’t been love there. Not the kind shared between a husband and his wife. But there had been love between two best friends who didn’t want to leave each other alone in the dark.
I shook away those melancholic thoughts as Eliza looked at me, her gaze troubled.
“What’s wrong?” my best friend asked. She’d pulled her dark hair away from her face tonight, all twisted together on the top of her head. It would tumble around her shoulders later when we danced, and she would look like a beautiful princess in the woods, carefree and happy. I knew she missed her husband with each passing day. And Marshall would be coming home soon, God willing. I didn’t know how she did it day in and day out, but she was a force to be reckoned with and a light in all of our lives. It helped that she was brilliant, sweet, and always had my back.
“Okay, seriously, what is with you?” Brenna asked.
Brenna had dark hair, fair skin, and the most kissable lips I had ever seen. At least, that’s what one of our guy friends back in college had said when he was drunk and had pulled away from very kissable Brenna. She was gorgeous, and I had never actually seen her go on a date before. She might razz Paige and me about relationships and the men in our lives, but Brenna did not date.
I would love to know why, but I had a feeling I knew exactly why. I looked over her shoulder at the group of my brothers and held back a wince.
That was why.
“I think I need to dance,” I said. My brain was going in a thousand different directions, and I couldn’t focus.
“Dancing would be good,” Eliza said, studying my face. “Or maybe you should go over and see if Jacob Queen needs anything.”
“He is my neighbor. He’s Jonah’s brother,” I whispered fiercely. All three sets of eyes softened, and I could have cursed myself. “Okay, no bad feelings. These are happy times. It is our weeknight, single beer, dancing night. We all have to go to work in the morning, so let’s make sure we get our dancing out of the way now so we can go to sleep early.”
“You’re so responsible,” Paige said as if she weren’t the first person at the office each day.
“Go see Jacob.”
“Too late,” Brenna said, wincing, and I looked over as Archer, Benjamin, Beckett, and the two boyfriend tagalongs made their way to the bar.
“Oh, God, no. No, no, no, no, no.”
Paige snorted. “I cannot believe that Colton and Marc are going along with this.”
“I think they probably just didn’t want to be left behind,” Eliza said. “I mean, it’s a lot of testosterone and posturing. Look at them being like peacocks, fluttering around that poor, sweet man at the bar all alone, needing to be rescued...”
I flipped off my best friend, and she laughed, Brenna and Paige joining in.
“I hate you all.” I stomped my way over to the bar where my brothers were now glowering down at Jacob, who was calmly licking his thumb, trying to get some wing sauce off.
My gaze zeroed in on his tongue as it swiped over his skin, and I swallowed hard, telling myself that I was losing my mind. It was hot. And I was parched. That’s all it was.
I was not having deliciously decadent thoughts about Jacob Queen’s tongue. There were things that I shouldn’t do. Lines I could not cross. And weird, sweaty thoughts about where that tongue might go on my body was not something I should ever think about.
Of course, now it was the only thing I was thinking about.
I hated him, remember? Yes, that helped. I might be saving his life right now, but that was only because I was a good person, not because I liked him. I still hated Jacob Queen.
And if I made that my mantra, I might be able to make it through the day. To their credit, both Archer’s and Paige’s boyfriends were off to the side, talking to each other, keeping an eye on the group at the bar but not joining in.
I eyed them, and they both held up their hands in mock-innocence before taking a step back as if they’d choreographed it. They looked at each other before they burst out laughing and then walked back over to the girls.
I narrowed my eyes at them as they left and mouthed the word: cowards.
Archer’s boyfriend shrugged, and they took my seat and one of the empty ones at the girls’ table.
Okay, time to do this.
“What are we talking about?” I asked, putting my arms around the twins’ waists. Both Beckett and Benjamin glared down at me.