Brook Lynn tentatively placed the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
“Cruel, honey. Cruel.” Jase’s husky voice filtered through the implants and drifted into her head, making her shiver. “I might not survive that severe of a punishment.”
She tried for a tough tone. “Well, I’m hard-core. And you should have considered the consequences before you kicked me out.”
“Kicked you out?” He sounded as if he’d just choked on his own tongue. “You blazed out the door after I asked you to stay.”
The girls crowded around her, whispering, “What’d he say?” and “Put him on speaker. I want to hear this.”
She batted them away, got dizzy, tripped over her own feet and ended up in a puddle of silk scarves. “Jase, I need you to stop trying to place the blame on my delicate flower shoulders and come find me. This is a 911 sexergency. You have made me more frustrated than a zombie at a salad bar. Fix it!”
Behind her, Jessie Kay and Kenna burst into laughter.
“You been drinking, honey?” he asked.
“Only this much.” She pinched the fingers of her free hand to indicate a little.
“Doing your fun list, then?”
“I am. And guess what? It’s fun!” She pushed to her feet to twirl around the room...and then had to sit back down and stick her head between her legs before she passed out or threw up. “Or it was. Now it’s not.”
The phone was swiped out of her hand.
“Hey,” she protested.
“Jase,” Kenna said. “This is Kenna Starr, and I just want to assure you...” She went silent. “Yes, we are...No, no, of course not...Well, that’s a little extreme.” Her eyes widened and swung to Brook Lynn. “I would never let anything...Okay, all right.”
Curiosity poured through Brook Lynn. “What’s he saying?”
“You are...Wow,” Kenna said to him, disregarding her. “I’m going to have to refuse your oh, so generous offer...What! That’s blackmail!” A pause. “But I promised and...well, she does seem to like you...Fine! You win. I’m going to hang up before I change my mind.”
“What was that about?” Jessie Kay demanded.
“Yeah,” Brook Lynn said. “Tell me before things get ugly.”
Kenna placed a hand over her mouth as a chuckle escaped. “I’m supposed to take you home, ensuring you do not speak to any man between the ages of sixteen and fifty. Sixty, if they look like they work out. I’m also supposed to refuse to help you with any more items on your fun list—and so are you,” she said to Jessie Kay. “Jase has called dibs, and he’s willing to go to extraordinary lengths to make sure he gets what he considers his. Even creating a mess at Dane’s office that causes him to have to work late nights for the next six weeks!”
“Dibs,” Brook Lynn echoed. He wanted to help her? Had insisted on it, even scaring away the competition?
And he wanted her to avoid other men?
Was it her birthday?
“Give me that phone,” Brook Lynn said. “I need to ask him where exactly we stand, where we’re going with this and where he wants to end up.” Simple questions.
“No way,” Kenna said. “He’ll do what he threatened and come here.”
“Even better!”
“No!”
“Give me!” she demanded, lunging for her friend.
Kenna threw the flip to Jessie Kay, who dropped it and kicked it across the store. Brook Lynn crawled to her sister and grabbed her phone.
“Why don’t you play a little hard to get?” Jessie Kay gasped out.
“Why should I? I gambled, and I won. Now I want my prize. I deserve it.”
Kenna raced over and swatted Brook Lynn’s wrist until she dropped the other phone. “Did you know she would turn into a needy hobag after a few drinks?” she demanded of Jessie Kay.
“No!” Jessie Kay tried to back away, saying, “It’s as much a surprise to me as it is to you.”