Page 5 of Only for Tonight
“Nothing,” Zoe and Zara both say at the same time before looking at each other and laughing.
“Go away and let the grown-ups talk.” Zara shoos me with her hand in the air as I turn and look around, spotting my cousin Zoey, who is right beside her husband, Nash, who has a hand on her hip.
“Well, well, well,” Zoey starts in. She was named after her Aunt Zoe, but they added a Y to not confuse anyone. It didn’t help since it sounds the same. “Look who decided to join the party.”
“I got here earlier but I ran into Jaxon and Tori,” I inform her, pointing over my shoulder. “Where’s Callie?” I look around for my sister and don’t spot her. Callie? My sister is eight years younger than me, Brookes is two years older than her. He reminds us all the time that he suffers from middle child syndrome since we constantly forget about including him in things. We do that because he’s a guy and not because he’s the middle child.
“Last I saw, she said this was her final goodbye and she was dying of embarrassment,” Zoey says laughing. A waiter comes over with a tray of champagne and I take a flute.
“Somehow,” I state, taking a sip of the cold bubbly drink, “I think she’ll survive.”
“She did go over to Zara.” She points to her cousin, who stands next to her cowboy husband rubbing her little baby belly. Her twins are already three years old and she’s happy that this one is a single. “She asked if there were any cowboys she could ride and then return.”
I about spit out my drink. “You know what we should do?” Zoey mentions. “Shots.” Nash immediately groans.
“I don’t think you should do shots at all.” Nash shakes his head but follows Zoey as she grabs my free hand and pulls it to one of the bars set up. “Maybe we should eat first,” he tries to tell her.
“One shot”—she looks over her shoulder—“and then we’ll hit up the buffet. Having shots is the whole reason I married you.”
“Great,” he deadpans, “I thought it was my charm.” The two of them eloped one night in Vegas. They hadn’t even been out on one date before he proposed. The rude reality is, they hadn’t even kissed. Which is insane, but here we are, all these years later, and she’s happily married, living in LA, and has a little nine-month-old. She even gave up her career in order to stay home with the baby.
“One shot.” I hold up my finger when we get to the bar. “I have to eat, and I have an early flight tomorrow morning to go back home to New York, and flying while hungover is not something I want to do ever again,” I inform Zoey, who orders two lemon drop shots. She holds up one of the shot glasses as I put down my champagne to grab the other one.
“To tonight,” she cheers, holding her shot glass up.
I smile at her. “To tonight,” I repeat, clinking her glass and then taking the shot, never really knowing just how much this one night is going to change my whole life.
three
Jaxon
The sound of the music playing fills the room, along with some of the lights that are changing from blue to white to red to green and then back again. The dance floor filled up as people all around are enjoying themselves.
“You know, you standing here in the back of the room, just watching everyone, is giving off stalker vibes,” Tori says when she comes to stand next to me. “Someone is going to report you sooner or later.”
I chuckle at her. “I’m just watching everything. It’s the first Saturday that I’ve had off since August, so I’m soaking in every single moment.” I put my hands in my pockets. “I would much rather be lounging on my couch than here with this loud music.”
“Oh my God,” Tori moans, “you are so old.” She puts her hand through my arm. “Come on, let’s go mingle.”
“I think I’m good,” I tell her as she drags me halfway through the room. “I’m going to go and check out the silent auction.”
“I’m going to go check out the bar.” She points over my shoulder. “I’m assuming you don’t want anything.”
“You would be assuming right,” I confirm and she rolls her eyes before walking through the cluster of people to get to one of the bars.
I head toward the back of the room where the tables are set up for the silent auction items.
I walk along the table reading one sheet after another, before picking up the pen when I spot a weekend away in Palm Springs. “Are you going to bid on that?” My father leans over and reads the top of it.
“It’s for the kids,” I defend, picking up my pen and writing down a bid of ten thousand dollars. I think I’m probably going to win since no one else has written their name down on the page.
“At least you can drive there.” He looks at me and I just stare at him.
“It’s a two-to-three-hour drive with no traffic.” I gawk at him. “With traffic it’ll probably be twelve hours.”
“Well, I guess you’re flying, then.”
“I guess that would be the plan.” I shrug.
