Page 6 of Tempted Hearts
“Delaney’s friend?”
“Yeah,” he said, exasperated. “Jules. Surprised you don’t know her name since you’ve met before and are usually pretty good at names. And I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about her?—”
I got the point. “I wasn’t an asshole. Just busting your ass, which she apparently didn’t like very much.”
Taking a sip of my drink, letting the smooth liquid work its way down my chest, I allowed my gaze to linger on her since Juliette was our current topic of conversation.
“Well… I like her.”
Parker liked everyone.
“She’s brash,” I said. “And curses more than Mason.”
“So what? It’s not a problem when he does it.”
Juliette’s nearly pitch-black hair was falling just below her shoulders. Usually she wore a handkerchief holding it back, an interesting style choice that also, somehow, really worked. But not today.
“She’s chaos,” I tried again, since Parker was right. “Personified.”
Parker laughed. “I won’t argue with that.”
With fantastic tits and an ass I’d love to grab onto with both hands as I pumped into her from behind.
Fuck.
That was about as necessary a visual as the one I’d had when she topped into the rowboat. Maybe I’d snapped at her simply because I was annoyed with myself for noticing the perky brunette, off-limits as a one-night stand, being one of Delaney’s good friends.
Maybe? Who are you kidding?
“I really hope she’s a little more organized than Delaney. One of them needs to hang on to their passports. How she can run a successful business but forgets her purse at restaurants at least once a month is beyond me.”
“Worried your fiancée won’t get back for the wedding?”
Now that, if we were keeping track, did venture into asshole territory. I hadn’t intended on such a sharp tone.
Parker wasn’t pleased. And he was a hard guy to piss off.
“Ignore me.” I sighed heavily, considering how much else to add.
“This is more than the tenure?”
Usually, I wouldn’t entertain the truth. But the fact that he should have been calling me out, and instead was concerned about me, struck a chord.
“The tenure,” I hedged. “The city. My parents.” For starters. But I’d stop there. “Take your pick.”
“Commute,” he said. “If you hate it that much. Life’s too short to live somewhere you don’t like. Did you know that they say people who live near water are statistically happier?”
I was becoming less and less enamored with living in Manhattan, and if finding a new place was the only problem, I’d move out tomorrow.
“Makes sense,” I said.
“So what’s up with your parents?”
Juliette spun around in a circle, as if she were a ballerina, just before breaking down in a fit of laughter along with everyone around her. As the white bulb lights illuminated, the scene before us transitioning from daytime to dusk, I imagined her like a firefly, flitting from one end of the yard to another. Impossible not to watch, lighting up everywhere she went, making people smile.
Chaotic. But magnetic. That’s what it was about her that made it impossible to look away.
I realized Parker was waiting for an answer.
