Page 63 of Nothing to No One

“No, but don’t you think you should let people figure it out for themselves?”

“There’s only so many hours in the day, Rox Out. Sometimes skipping the first few pages is a good thing.” Switching it up, Tripp leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, cradling his glass in both hands. “Here’s what you need to know about Roxie Soon-to-be-Lomond.” He winked at Roxie and the woman tsked in return. “She’s a Chicago girl who takes loyalty seriously. She works hard to get things done, and almost as hard to hide that truth. She came from her regular girl life to her current billion-dollar status by way of a TV talk show contest that sent her around the world with the man now betrothed to marry her. God knows how drunk he was when making that decision. He’s always been staunchly anti-drugs, but I guess he could’ve been spiked or whatever.”

“Tri—”

“She’s smart, vicious when she needs to be, she’s astute. She talks too much and there’s nothing, honest to God nothing, that she wouldn’t do for someone, anyone, in need. Unless that someone wronged her, which means, yeah, pretty much everybody.”

“There are people I wouldn’t go to any lengths for.”

“Yeah, the people who wronged you, I just said—” Tripp shrugged. “Okay, I take back astute. She has the attention span of a gnat.”

“Myattention span’s—I’m sorry, how many women did you pick up on the way here?” Roxie asked. “And we came in a private car! How did you even manage to get that blonde’s number?”

“That blonde, this blonde, any blonde, I’ll take a brunette and a redhead too. I’m an equal opportunities fornicator.”

“Maybe I should tell Bambi what she needs to know about Tripp Breckenridge.”

“Maybe the two of you…” Struan said, coming over, holding out glasses to each of the women, “should stop sniping at each other and tell us why you came.”

“Not for nothing, Struan, baby, but in the movie, Bambi is a boy,” Roxie said for no reason she could fathom. “Everyone thinks he’s this cute, little, innocent fawn, but by the end of the movie, he’s a hot, horny stag I’d ride all kindsa ways.”

“Okay. Should I send out a press release?”

“I’m saying Bambi is not to be underestimated, perception doesn’t always tell the whole truth.” Roxie accepted her drink. “And he has excellent taste in friends.”

“Friends?”

“Thumper,” Tripp explained. “The rabbit. Like Lola Bunny.”

“That’s what you came to tell us? The deer and the rabbit will be friends?”

“You know why we came. It’s all over the place out there. Roman Lowe meets the woman of his dreams, moves on from the tragic mess that was his life. People are all over Sway. We’ve got folks camped outside the house.”

“Nothing new there,” Tripp said, accepting a glass from his friend. “What food have you got around here?”

“What do you want?”

“It’s after midnight,” Roxie said. “Maybe you two put a kibbutz on your feast and lose a few pounds while we straighten out some kinks. Pay close enough attention, you might learn something.”

“Don’t kid yourself, Rox Out.”

Tripp caught the bag of whatever Struan threw over their heads. He opened it to scoop a handful of nuts into his mouth.

“How can you still be hungry anyway?” Roxie asked. “You ate right before we came out.”

“A couple of times,” Tripp said. “Twins are twice the effort.” He pointed right at her. “Bambi knows what I’m talking about.” Ew. “A man needs to keep his energy up.”

“Okay,” Struan said on a snicker, seating himself at the opposite end of the couch, nearest his friend. “If the goal was to freak Bambi out, I think you’ve achieved it. We should kick you out, she’ll want to get to bed now.”

Putting it in that way reminded her of the previous night.

“These situations aren’t easy even when everyone is on the same page,” Roxie said, arching a brow, sipping from her glass. “Not bad.”

“Never going to beat your man in this house.”

Roxie’s smile became sly. “Never gonna beat him with your bank balance either.”

“Money means squat to you, Roxanna,” Tripp said. “Stru would run rings around your guy in the gym, then who’d take you home?”

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