Page 59 of Tequila Tuesdays

“It’s a charity event. Grace set me up with her banker who needed a female partner to play in his foursome.”

“So is it a date?”

Ava looked a little nervous, which wasn’t like her. “I’m not sure, actually.” She refolded her napkin in her lap.

“Well, whatever it is, I think he’s lucky to have you as his golf partner. You have a mean putting game and you look great in golf shorts.”

Ava gave me a genuine smile. “Why thank you, Harley.” She shifted in her chair and leaned forward. “Speaking of shorts, are you still wearing those ratty cutoff sweats to bed? Because if you everdodecide to clear the cobwebs out of your vagina, those aren’t going to help.”

My favorite pajamas were worn-in cutoff sweats and old t-shirts that had been washed so many times they felt like tissue paper. It was my favorite outfit to wear after work and then to bed. And it saved on laundry.

“It’s too weird to have my mom worry about my sleepwear and talk about cobwebs in my vagina. You’re intentionally inflicting emotional distress.”

Ava rolled her eyes at the legal term and held up her perfectly manicured hand. “I’m just trying to help. You need a pedicure too. And when’s the last time you had a good wax job downthere?” She motioned to my vagina with her salad fork.

The ladies in the booth next to us gave her a strange look, and I choked on my chicken salad and shook my head. “God, woman, will you stop obsessing about my privates? It’s creepy.”

“Maybe if you’d give it a little attention once in a while, I wouldn’t have to worry about it,” she shot back.

The ladies next to us were now openly staring. I wondered if Ava somehow knew about Damien, and that was why she brought up my sleepwear and getting waxeddown there. My hour lunch break felt like it had lasted three hours by the time we finished.

Damien went with me to Frankie’s service that evening. The service was short and most the people there appeared to be her family. Many of them looked like they’d lived a hard life.

If Damien hadn’t been with me, the whole evening would have been depressing and sad. But I’d taken him to El Gordos for dinner afterward, and we’d talked and decompressed together.

“What’s your best memory of Frankie?” Damien asked after our server set down our drinks and chips.

“Hmmm. Maybe how supportive she was of the other drug court participants. She cheered everyone on and seemed to internalize every setback.” I took a chip and scooped up some salsa. I closed my eyes and hummed. I loved their salsa.

Damien sat back and smiled. “Good?”

“Mm hum. So good.” I chewed and swallowed. “Or it might be that day last season when we were playing your team, and she gave me a decent set. She wassoexcited.”

Damien took a chip and loaded it up as well. “No offense, but she was a pretty bad player. She looked scared every time the ball came close to her.”

I sipped my margarita and nodded. “Yeah, I called her our black hole. But her serves were so unpredictable, that we’d usually score several points off them because no one knew where the hell they’d land. Including her.”

He smiled and laid his arm on the table. I reached over and grabbed it.

“Looking back on that match and knowing you now, I’msorry I hit you.” I was bad at apologizing, and I just wanted to get it over with. “It wasn’t on purpose, but I was mad and nailed it as hard as I could. Your face just kind of got in the way.”

Shaking his head, he put his hand over mine. “That’s a pretty half-assed apology, but I’ll take it. I’m also sorry for whatever I said about your team. I was just trying to get under your skin and throw you off.”

“That usually has the opposite effect on me.”

He grinned. “Yeah, I noticed.”

He turned his forearm around and took hold of my hand. Then he rubbed his thumb slowly across my palm, and my pulse skipped a beat. Holy shit, I didn’t realize how many nerve endings were in my hand.

I cleared my throat. “What have you heard about Connor and his brother?”

“Connor asked us to change all the codes to his home, and he’s supporting charges against Noah.”

“Do you know if Javier quit?”

Damien shook his head. “I haven’t heard, but I wouldn’t blame him if he did.”

“If I were Connor, I’d try to keep him. And I like Isa. She didn’t seem rattled by what was going on, did she?”

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