Page 76 of Dirty Puck

“Think you and Baker will ever have one together?”

“It’s a bit early to think about that,” I responded in what I thought to be a perfectly calm, reasonable answer.

“Look at her blush,” Lexi went on. “She’s totally giving him babies.” Blush? Was I blushing? That wouldn’t work.

“Listen,” I said to end this topic once and for all. “I love my boy, wouldn’t trade him for the world, but we’re a package deal. Baker took us on without question. I think we need couples’ time before deciding to add to the chaos.”

Thankfully, Chesney, already two glasses in, leaned into me, holding her wineglass by the stem and said, “I’m just saying, I love the energy of Vegas. The high ceilings, the velvet ropes, the dealers in tuxes. It’s like adult Disneyland.”

“When were you here before?” I asked.

“For my aunt’s”—she counted on her fingers— “fifth wedding. She and my mom wanted me there, but I was a broke college student, and my boyfriend played for a farm team. She offered to pay, so who was I to turn it down?” The wine sloshed onto my skirt.

“Someone cut her off,” Brielle, the glamorous brunette on the other side of her, a second-line’s girlfriend, said. Yeah, I didn’t envy Chesney’s hangover tomorrow.

As dinner wound down, the conversation turned to where we planned to head next.

“I’m ready to hit the blackjack table, just for tradition,” Cassie, another second-line girlfriend, and more classy than sassy like Brielle, added. “Win or lose, it’s the thrill.”

“I can’t gamble,” I said, sipping water. “I’m too cheap. One lost twenty and I’d be curled in a ball questioning all my life choices.”

That earned a full-table laugh.

“With Baker Reece as your man?” she asked. “He tight with those strings?”

“Not at all. He’s the most generous man I’ve ever met.” That was the truth. “But I don’t even buy lottery tickets. I’d rather spoil Benny.”

“I’m with her,” Jaycee said. “I just can’t justify it to myself.”

“Okay, but what if you won?” Brielle asked. “What’s the first stupid thing you’d buy?”

Jaycee opened her mouth, closed it, and then said, “Honestly? I’d buy my best friend, Micki, a freaking clue.”

“Why, what’s up?” Lexi asked. “I don’t live by you all. Don’t keep me out of the loop.”

“She crushed Linc’s heart. Crushed him.”

“That’s why he’s gone all drunken super-tramp?”

Jaycee nodded. “I’ve tried to get her to open up to me, but she refuses. He’s a good man. She screwed that one up.”

“Maybe we can find her a clue at one of the shops on the strip,” I offered. They laughed again, louder this time, and I flushed. It felt good. Easy. Like maybe I belonged more than I’d thought.

After a round of decadent desserts and more laughter flowing like the wine, for the first time in what felt like forever, I wasn’t working, worrying, or watching the clock.

The group split off once we headed back to the Bellagio with Chesney, Cassie, and Brielle heading over to hit the casino, while Lexi and Jaycee introduced me to the world of luxury purses.

“I still think we should’ve hit Hermès first,” Lexi said, adjusting her oversized sunglasses as we strutted into the hotel lobby. “That line at Dior is going to be a nightmare.”

“I’m telling y’all,” I muttered, already half-laughing, “if I so much as step foot in Chanel, I’ll break out in hives.” And I really thought I meant it. Yes, Reece had given me a card with money, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

The women—all effortless and glossy, armed with titanium AmEx cards and the kind of confidence that came from being adored in public—just grinned.

“You’ll survive. It’s retail therapy,” Jaycee decided, looping her arm through mine. “And, honey, your first real vacation deserves a damn prescription dose.”

I’d never had a group like this—women who knew how to spend and laugh and toast to nothing in particular. They weren’t just hockey wives; they were a little intimidating, a little chaotic, and surprisingly kind.

We hit Chanel first, just to test my hives theory—evil women. I took back what I said about kindness. Then we followed it with Dior, Fendi, and YSL. Somewhere between spritzing perfume on silk wrists and sipping complimentary prosecco, I caught myself smiling like I didn’t have a care in the world.

---