Page 43 of Forever Never
“Too many boozy brunches and first dates with men who find you wildly intriguing?”
Remi choked on her drink, and Kimber winced. “Sorry. I’m shutting up now. Let’s move to the bar. Brick can referee, and we can talk about something that doesn’t make me feel violent.”
“Any hints on what that might be?” Remi glanced over her shoulder to where the man in question stood in front of bottles of bad decisions waiting to happen.
“Like the initiative thing that Mom dumped on us.” Kimber rose, collecting her coat and drink, leaving Remi no choice but to follow.
She took her time, gathering her things and trudging toward the bar.
This was why acting on impulse was bad. She could have been at home in front of the fire with a bowl of macaroni and cheese in her lap streaming trashy TV. Butnooooooo. She was too scared to be alone so she’d put on stupid pants and braved the frigid night air just to be annoyed by her sister and glared at by a bartender.
She really needed to look into making better life choices.
“We thought we could talk about your idea from last night,” Kimber was saying to Brick.
Remi busied herself by dumping her coat over the back of the stool.
“Go easy on that,” Brick said, nodding toward her drink.
She looked him dead in the eyes while taking several long swallows from the straw.
Darius hooted until Brick shot him a look. “It’s on you if she gets out of control,” Brick warned the man.
“It’s Remi. She’d get out of control on ice water and potato chips,” Darius insisted.
“Donotmake her another one,” Brick warned.
“Donotstart with the overbearing protector routine,” Remi complained. She was already feeling a lick of warmth spread through her. Though she wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or the argumentative bearded bear in front of her.
“While you two are bickering, I’ll take another one,” Kimber said, waving her empty glass.
“What the hell, Kims? Did it evaporate?” Remi asked.
“The initiative,” Kimber insisted, more sharply this time.
Brick crossed his arms on the other side of the stretch of wood. “What about it?”
“Let’s talk how to organize it while keeping the entire thing as simple as possible,” Kimber said.
To be contrary, Remi polished off the rest of her drink with a noisy slurp while her sister and nemesis discussed things like how to drum up volunteers and frequency of visits. Brick looked like he wanted to slap the glass out of her hand. When he left to deliver two sandwiches on plates piled high with French fries, Darius put another vodka soda in front of Kimber and then slid a tall glass of pink, frothy liquid at Remi with a wink.
“What is this?” she asked, sniffing it. “It smells like grain alcohol.”
“I call it a pink flamingo,” Darius said. “Just don’t breathe near open flames.”
“You’re hauling her ass home when she can’t walk,” Brick announced, throwing a towel at Darius.
“You said not to make her another Tiki Tea,” Darius pointed out.
“Excuse me, gentlemen—and I use that term very loosely. But I can walk my own damn self home,” Remi argued.
“No, you can’t,” the entire bar chimed in.
“Can we get back to how to enlist volunteers?” Kimber asked.
Remi half-listened while they debated screening and enforcement.
“Are we boring you?” Brick asked, his tone neutral, but there was something happening behind those blue eyes of his.
