Page 52 of Man Cuffed
“What? Canada is cold and dark. Maybe they need to stay warm.”
“Noooooo!” Aubrey says. “At weddings, dumbass!”
Then I get it. I look at the line and the dots. I think of the texts. Of the kiss. Of the scene I want to play out with Mac. The path is all right there in front of me.
Mac has already asked me to be his pretend date at this wedding. I just need to turn the pretend into the real. And how hard could that be? It’s like I’ve trained my whole life for this! I’m an actress who specializes in making the pretend real. Or at least feel real.
“Aubrey, I think you’re onto something,” I admit. “I need a plan.”
“Now she gets it!” Aubrey tears the page neatly from her notebook and hands it to me, along with the pen. “Add some detail.”
At the bottom of the page, I write “props list.” Because every good production needs props.
“Hand-washables!” Cassidy says. “That’s first on the list. What kind of lingerie would your cop like?”
“Hmm.” He’s a strong, sensible man. Just the kind to like skimpy lingerie. I write “see-through lace” on the props list. And also, “book of Hemingway quotes.”
“Ooh,” Aubrey says. “Is that a gift for him?”
“No way. It’s going to help me get into character. I love a challenge.” I flap my hands like a jazz dancer on cocaine, and another round of drinks magically appears before us. “The happy portion of the evening starts now,” I inform my friends.
“Oh, good!” Cassidy says. “Draw me a line! DO ME, AUBREY!”
Heads turn at nearby tables, because Cassidy isn’t a quiet girl after she gets a drink up her. What the hell was Greg thinking? Cassidy is great. We all are.
And Mac Maguire better get with the program.
15Moanies
Meg
“Now cut them small, okay?” Liam says. “These should be only about an inch wide, so that you can pop the whole thing in your mouth.” He hands me a knife to cut up the pan of brownies we just made.
Personally I think one-inch brownies sounds a little stingy, but Liam is a pretty smart guy, so I do as he says. “Like this?”
“Exactly. We call thesemoanies,” my brother-in-law tells me as he squirts dish soap into the mixing bowl. “It’s actually Brynn’s recipe. She named them.”
“Oh. Whymoanies?” Except I already have my answer. Brynn is my sister Sadie’s friend, and she gives lots of her recipes odd names.
“You’ll see. Try one.”
I pop a brownie into my mouth. “Ooohhhhhhh.” I do see. You can’t eat this without moaning.
“Yeah, but Brynn also thinks they have super powers.”
“Will I be able to fly after I eat this?”
He snorts. “No. But have you ever heard that chocolate is an aphrodisiac? Brynn thinks there’s something potent about this recipe. When I told her you needed something for that cop friend of yours, this was her pick.”
“Innnteresting,” I say, licking my lips. The brownies are a last minute treat for Mac. I’m bringing them on my ride-along, which starts in half an hour. “These are great, whatever they’re called.”
“True story.”
“Can I leave some for you and your girls? Where’d Sadie go, by the way?”
“In there. Look,” he says, nudging me toward the doorway to the den. “You’ll see. Happens every night.”
I poke my head into the den and see my sister asleep on the sofa, her baby son asleep on top of her, face down on her breast, where he’d been nursing before they both nodded off.
