Page 8 of Knockout (Whiskey Dolls 2)

I felt my bottom lip jut out in a pout. “We’re having fun, but it’s leading to something, I can feel it.”

She wasn’t buying it. “Any slower, and you’d actually be moving backward. Do you even know his name yet?”

“Yes!” I cried, then pulled my bottom lip between my teeth. “Well, I mean, I know his nickname, anyway. And I’ll have you know, the flirting isveryfun. I feel like I’m in high school again.”

“Makes sense,” our other friend Alma said. “High schoolers are usually too chicken shit to make a move also.”

“Come on, Lay,” Charlotte cut in as I flipped Alma off. “Nona and Gypsy both claim this is a standup guy. What could go wrong?”

“You know, people thought Ted Bundy was a stand-up guy until he started eating them.”

“You’re thinking of Dahmer,” Alma proclaimed. “Dahmer was the cannibal, not Bundy.”

“Tomato, to-mah-to. Either way, you could be setting me up with a psychopath. And wouldn’t you feel like a bunch of assholes if I wound up dead in a ditch somewhere.”

Marin shrugged casually. “Meh. You’ve lived a good life, right? I’m willing to risk it.” With a hard glower, I reached out and pinched the skin at the back of her bicep until she yelped and jumped away. “I was just kidding! Gah! That’s going to leave a bruise, you jerk.”

“Good, you deserve it.”

She pouted and rubbed at the spot on her arm as Charlotte continued. “I really think you’ll have a good time with this guy. He sounds pretty incredible.”

I curled my top lip up and shook my head. “You know, you’ve gotten soft since you got married,” I said in an accusatory tone. “What happened to the badass that kneecapped Marin’s dickhead of an ex, huh?”

“She’s still in there,” Charlotte told me. “She just gets orgasms on a regular basis now, so she’s mellowed out a bit.”

I wasn’t jealous or bitter about that. Not at all. Who needed regular orgasms from a tall, sexy man built like a freaking mountain. Not me.

Damn it, I needed new friends. Preferably ones who were single or were at least dating average looking men. Then again, there was something in the water in our county. The men in Grapevine, Hope Valley, and the other town close by, Hidalgo, wereinsane. This little area of ours seriously knew how to breed fine-ass mountain men.

I could tell by the look on my friends’ faces, especially Charlotte’s and Marin’s, that they weren’t going to give up. My friends were like that when they got something in their heads. Hell, we all were. Dogs with bones, plain and simple. That was how Marin had ended up on the blind date from hell, all thanks to me. “I don’t know...”

“Just think about it.” She clasped her hands in front of her. “Pretty please?”

“I’ll think about it,” I finally relented on a sigh before lifting a finger in the air. “But I make no promises. Got it?”

“Deal!”

Bending down, I grabbed the strap of my gym bag and hefted it over my shoulder, shooting my friends an unhappy look. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m leaving before you can force me into something else.”

I turned on my heel amidst their laughter and walked as fast as I could out of the studio. The freaking jerks.

They were lucky I loved them.

5

Layla

By the time I pulled into the parking garage of my building and tucked my car into its designated spot, the adrenaline high from rehearsal had worn off. My body was tired, my muscles fatigued. I needed a nice long soak in my tub with some bath salts and a glass of wine. After that, I had a date with my couch andThe Witcheron Netflix. I couldn’t think of a better way to close out a long day than with Henry Cavill looking hot as hell in leather pants. Because . . .dat ass!

That thought had me smiling as I stepped into the elevator and hit the button for my floor. I watched the red numbers climb slowly, counting up from the parking levels until it suddenly stopped at the lobby. For such an amazing building, the elevator was agonizingly slow. It could take minutes if you were the only one in it, but if the car made multiple stops, it could feel like forever before you made it to where you needed to go.

The doors slid open and the good mood I’d been in all day evaporated like a single drop of water falling onto desert sand.

“Of freaking course,” I grumbled sullenly as Jude Kingsley stepped into the elevator.

He returned my glare before stopping beside me and turned to face the front. “And I’d been having such a good day up to this point,” he muttered bitterly.

I let out a snort and fluttered my eyelashes. “What, did you pop a little kid’s balloon? Maybe cut in front of a pregnant lady in line at the coffee shop?” I snapped my fingers. “Oh, I know! You kicked a poor, innocent puppy on the sidewalk. That’s what had you so chipper, isn’t it?”

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