Zoe thunked her head to the steering wheel. “I know!”
Darcy laughed, and the sound was so genuine that Zoe lifted her head. For a very long time Darcy’s life hadn’t lent itself to fun or amusement of any sort. Too long. Wild and restless had been Darcy’s MO at any cost. Then two years ago that wild-and-restlessness had led her to a terrible—and nearly tragic—auto accident. It had been a drawn-out, horrendous recovery, but Darcy had as much grit and inner strength as she did crazy, and though she’d probably always limp, she was back to some semblance of normal. “I love seeing you happy,” Zoe blurted out.
Darcy reached for Zoe’s hand. “Thanks, and it’s nice to be happy, but that’s not going to get you a subject change. I want to discuss your new roommate’s fine ass.”
Zoe couldn’t help it, she laughed. “You do realize that this is Wyatt’s friend you’re talking about.”
“Uh-huh. And I’m currently sleeping with and planning on marrying Wyatt’s other good friend. Your point?”
“My point is . . .” What was her point again? “I don’t have time to talk about Parker right now.”
“Well, I do,” Darcy said. “Let’s talk about what I saw between you two.”
“You saw nothing.”
“Oh how wrong you are, my favorite sister. I saw some seriously smokin’ chemistry.” Darcy said this with great delight. She really loved it when she thought Zoe was wrong.
But for the record, Zoe was never wrong.
“When the two of you were talking, you were leaning into each other,” Darcy said. “Full eye contact. We both know what that means.”
Well, damn. Maybe she was a little bit wrong. Just this one time. “That maybe we both forgot our glasses and had to lean in just to see each other?”
“Liar, liar,” Darcy said. “You have twenty-twenty vision and eyes in the back of your head. Also,” she went on, lifting a finger like she was cross-examining Zoe on the stand, “he touched you. And when he did, you”—she poked that finger in Zoe’s direction now, like there was any doubt who she was talking about—“smiled a dreamy smile.”
Zoe choked on a laugh. “Please. I do not have a dreamy smile.”
“You so have a dreamy smile. And that smile was saying to Parker, ‘Oh yes, take me right now.’”
“You’ve hit your head again, right?” Zoe asked, reaching out to touch her sister’s forehead as if checking for a fever.
Darcy grinned and smacked her hand away. “Fine, if you’re going to be in denial, then you should know, Kel asked me to get you to go out with him.”
Zoe blinked. “When did you have occasion to see the sheriff?”
“Worried?”
“Should I be?” Zoe countered, but hell yes she was worried. It hadn’t been all that long ago when Darcy had been trouble-seeking, and she’d often found it. Kel was a patient man, and a very good man, and also extremely good looking, but—“Wait. Kel asked you to ask me out?”
“Took you long enough,” Darcy said. “Ran into him at physical therapy, where he was sparring with AJ. And let me just say watching two really sexy, really hot guys go at it in the ring in the name of sport . . . Pretty damn sexy even if I think boxing is crazy.”
“Focus, Darcy.”
“Right,” Darcy said, giving herself a visible shake. “Well, he heard that you were seeking blind dates, so—”
“Oh my God,” Zoe said, and closed her eyes. “This is so embarrassing.”
“And he wanted to know, if I set you up with him if it’d qualify for a blind date since you two know each other and all,” Darcy went on. “And I said yep.”
“You did not,” Zoe said.
“I did. And he said Monday was his next free night, so . . .”
Zoe stared at Darcy. “I’m not going out with Kel.”
“What’s tripping you up, the fact that he’s really good looking, or that he’s also a great guy?” Darcy asked. “Or maybe it’s that you do have a thing for Parker, after all.”