She grabbed her ass and laughed. “Ask me tomorrow. My butt is not used to riding.” She nodded to the bottle in my hand. “Are you assuming you’re coming in for a drink?”
“I was hoping.” Hell, I was hoping I wouldn’t even have to ask.
She giggled and headed toward the front door. “Well, seeing as you saved me tonight, I guess I could invite you in for a drink.” She rummaged around in her purse and pulled out her keys.
My eyes were trained on her ass, and I watched the rhythmic sway of her hips.
“Are you looking at my ass, Zephyr?” she questioned.
“Yeah.” The word was out of my mouth before I could even think. “I mean, no.”
Her laughter floated around me. “You’re a putz, Zephyr.” She unlocked the front door and walked in. “Bring your bottle of booze in and shut the door behind you.”
That was the invitation I was hoping for.
Lynn flopped down on the couch and waved her hand toward the kitchen. “I’m too exhausted to entertain you and be a good hostess. You know where the glasses are.”
I chuckled and headed to the kitchen. “Make sure you get those eggrolls out of your purse. I don’t think you want to find them in there in the morning.”
Lynn held up her purse. “Got them right here. Make sure you grab the sweet and sour from the fridge on your way back.”
“You got it, darlin’.”
“And a plate,” she added.
“Do you want a drink?” I asked.
“Uh,” she mumbled. “A girly one, or one of your manly ones?”
I set the bottle of whiskey on the counter and grabbed two glasses from the cabinet. “Whichever one you want.” I didn’t care what she drank as long as it was what she wanted.
“It was a shit night. Give me the strong shit.”
I chuckled and grabbed a few ice cubes from the freezer. “Coming right up.” I made two drinks and walked into the living room with the glasses and a plate with the sweet and sour sauce tucked under my arm. “Grab something.”
Lynn reached up and grabbed the drinks. “This is going to make me cringe, isn’t it?” She sniffed the dark brown liquid and wrinkled her nose.
I set the plate and sauce on the coffee table. “It’ll fog your mind enough to where you won’t even remember what happened.”
“So you’re trying to get me blackout drunk, huh?” She handed me a glass and clinked hers against it. “I’m down with that.”
I watched as she took a sip and instantly gagged. “So smooth,” she gasped. She set her glass on the table and shoved an eggroll into her mouth. “I bet that will put hair on my chest.”
“I’ll check later,” I drawled. I grabbed an eggroll and sat back on the couch.
“We’ll see,” Lynn mumbled.
She didn’t know it, but I didn’t plan on leaving tonight. I had watched Lynn firsthand the past few days, and she was spreading herself way too thin. She was doing everything for everyone, and no one was doing anything for her.
That was going to change.
“So, you wanna tell me the story of your dad or watch TV?” She had a choice because I didn’t want to stress her out any more than she already was. If she didn’t want to talk tonight, there was always tomorrow.
Lynn grabbed the bottle of sweet and sour and squirted a blob onto the plate. “I told you the story with my dad.”
“You gave me the twenty-second condensed story, Lynn. I wanna hear the rest.”
She rolled her eyes and grabbed the plate. She dropped her eggroll onto it and sat back on the couch. She kicked her feet up on the coffee table and sighed. “If I say I want to watch TV, are you going to be mad at me?”
I chuckled, finished my eggroll, and took a sip of my drink. “You’re the boss, darlin’. We can do whatever you want.”
She scoffed. “Your laidbackness is surprising.”
“Laidbackness? You just make that word up?”
Lynn laughed. “Yes.” She grabbed her glass and took a timid sip. “If you want to talk about my dad, I’m going to need to drink this glass.”
“If that’s the case, we’ll end up talking about him next week if you drink it that slow.”
She side-eyed me. “If I drink this any quicker, I am going to grow hair on my chest.” She reached over and grabbed the TV remote. “We’re watching TV and not talking about my dad or sister for the rest of the night. My brain needs a rest.”
“If that’s what you want.” If she wanted to watch TV, that’s what we would do. If she wanted me to see if she was growing hair on her chest from the whiskey, we could do that, too.
She flipped through the channels before she landed on some cop show. “I love this show.”
I had no idea what it was. I never really watched TV unless someone else had it on in the common room of the clubhouse. “Whatever you want, darlin’.”
She glanced at me. “You tell me that a lot.”
“Something tells me that you didn’t hear it very often before.”
She scoffed and laid her head back. “Oh, I’ve heard it before, but it’s normally coming out of my mouth.”
I leaned forward and unlaced my boots. “Then I guess it’s time I say it to you.”
“You planning on staying?” she asked.
I toed off my boots and set them on the side of the couch. “Yeah.”
She sipped her drink and, this time, she didn’t cringe. “I suppose that’s okay.”
I chuckled and grabbed another eggroll from the plate. All the drama from the night seemed to finally settled, and I realized I hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
“Do you want a pizza or something?” she asked. “I’m pretty sure I could eat all of these eggrolls and still be hungry.”
I pulled out my phone. “Yeah. What do you want on it?”
“Oh, uh,” she stuttered. “I wasn’t trying to imply you needed to order.”
I shook my head and laughed. “I’m gonna tell you right now, Lynn. You don’t need to take care of me. I’m not here for you to bend over backwards and stress you out.”
“Then why are you here?” she whispered.
I looked up from my phone, and my eyes connected with hers. “‘Cause it feels right being here.”
“Oh,” she gasped.
“Now, what do you want on the pizza?” I asked again. “And don’t tell me whatever you want because I’ll eat anything. Don’t worry about me, just think about what you want.”
She worried her bottom lip with her teeth. “Uh, well, Pizza Stop has a chicken, bacon, and ranch that is amazing.”
“Chicken, bacon, ranch it is, then.”
She tried to reach for my phone, but I moved it away.
“But if that doesn’t sound good to you, then we can get something else,” she rambled. “I eat anything, too.”
I shook my head and connected the call to Pizza Stop. “You need to knock that shit off, Lynn.”
She sat back and folded her arms over her chest. “What does that mean?”
I held up a finger. “Yeah. Can I get a large chicken, bacon, and ranch?” I rattled off the address when they confirmed they could deliver and ended the call.