Only now she was on her feet and headed for the door, and Dean didn’t push his luck by insisting on staying longer. She hadn’t uttered the words booty call once since they’d stepped off the balcony and gone back inside. He had to consider that a mini-victory.
Dean caught her chin in his fingers and tilted her head so he could press one final lingering kiss goodbye to her lips. When he pulled back, her eyes were sparkling a whole lot more than when he’d arrived.
“I’ll call you,” he promised.
Emma nodded. She seemed about to say something, but then changed her mind and simply smiled. “Thanks for coming over.”
The temptation to do a dance of triumph in the hallway was strong, but he managed to hold it together until he was in the elevator. And then if he happened to do a little undignified moving and shaking, he figured only the security guards would witness his enthusiasm.
As he rode down to the lobby, Dean pulled out his phone to check his calendar. He still had plans to make, and a woman to win over. Tonight had been a good start, but by the time he was through, Emma was going to remember exactly why she’d fallen in love with him.
And then she’d fall all over again.
Suz
“Really? That was the best you could do?” Chase sidled up to Suz, a bottle of Corona in his hand and a mocking smirk on his face.
Suz scowled at her brother before following his gaze across the backyard, where her father had cornered Suz’s date by the barbecue and was spending more time grilling him than the steaks. Poor Charlton looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here, and Suz didn’t blame him. She didn’t particularly want to be here either.
“You’d be amazed how hard it is to find a nice, respectable man these days,” she said glumly.
Her brother snickered, his blue eyes fixing on Charlton’s salmon-colored polo shirt and perfectly starched khakis. “Where’d you find him? Please don’t tell me you stood outside a country club holding a sign.”
“He’s the son of the new editor-in-chief of the paper. He’s been hanging around the office getting in everyone’s way, so I told him I’d show him the ropes if he did me a solid.” She drained the rest of her Diet Coke before reaching for another can from the cooler on the oak deck. That was the other requirement in the deal she’d made with her brothers—if you were the one bringing the date, you had to stay sober.
Her male siblings were definitely taking advantage of their free pass this evening. Mike, the eldest, was already on his way to getting totally sloshed, his cheeks flushed and arms gesturing rapidly as he regaled Jake about his latest arrest. Through the glass doors, Suz could see her baby brother Dyson sneaking sips of his rum and Coke while their mother chatted his ear off as she tossed a salad. Gage, as usual, was on the deck texting on his phone, most likely to one of his numerous admirers.
And Chase was living up to his pain-in-the-ass status as he sipped his beer, then said, “What kind of name is Charlton, anyway? Is his last name Heston?”
“God, I wish.” She heaved out a big sigh. “At least then he’d probably have a gun on him, and I could shoot myself in the head.”
Chase burst out laughing. “Ever the drama queen, aren’t you, Susie?”
He tugged playfully on her hair, and she resisted the urge to smack him. Suz loved her family. She really, truly did. But these monthly gatherings took a toll on her sometimes. That thing called privacy didn’t exist in the Jones family. She couldn’t take a step without bumping into one of her brothers, or so much as cough without her mother appearing at her side asking if she was coming down with something.
It was exhausting at the best of times, but when her thoughts were already muddled and her mood started in the gutter, the family stuff became unbearable.
Damn Colby for twisting her up in knots like this. Except…well, no, this was nobody’s fault but hers. She never should’ve asked him to be her date—in hindsight, it had been a seriously crappy thing to do—but she was still powering forward under that old Colby-is-just-a-hot-friend mindset. She’d worked so hard to keep him in the friend zone she sometimes forgot just how much she was attracted to him.
And he was attracted to her, too. No, even worse—he liked her. As in, he wanted to be her boyfriend.
Before her panicky mind could obsess over that, her brother proved his annoying interruptions could be good for something, at least today.
“If you were hurting this bad for date options this month, you should’ve brought a friend instead,” Chase told her. “You know, Lynn, or that Pepper chick, or…I don’t know…some other acquaintance.”
Suz’s eyes narrowed. “Some other acquaintance, huh? Anyone in particular?”
“Naah. Just…whoever.”
Her brother donned an indifferent look, but she saw right through him. And since she was tired of obsessing about her own romantic issues, she immediately pounced on the opportunity to focus on someone else’s love life.
Tormenting Chase was infinitely more satisfying.