Page 21 of Dirty Like Brody
Katie eyed me across the hot tub. I avoided her gaze, suddenly fascinated with the sugar crystals on the rim of my daiquiri. “Jessa?” she asked sweetly. “You ever hooked up with anyone we might just love to knowabout?”
“Hooked up? What do you mean, hooked up?” I tried to look as incredibly blank as possible. Or possibly drunk. So I couldn’t be expected tokeepup.
“Hooked. Up. It’s a universal definition,” Becca said. “Meaning any part of his body down yourpants.”
“Or up your skirt,” Roniadded.
Okay. Safethere.
“Wrong,” Katie said. “Kissing is hooking up. I’m the bride here. I make therules.”
Uh-oh.
“We know Jesse’s out,” she added with a grin when I didn’t respond. “So that leaves Zane orDylan.”
“Or Elle,” Roni put inhelpfully.
Yup. That girl was all kinds of helpful. Which was kind of why I liked her; Roni nudged me out of my comfort zone. If she had to, she’d kick me the hell out of it. Right now, though, it was a little more thaninconvenient.
“I don’t think I’m her cup of tea,” Ioffered.
“Please,” Roni said. “Bikini model much? You’re everyone’s cupoftea.”
I rolledmyeyes.
“Does Brody count?” Amanda inquired, sipping her drink and not lookingatme.
“Brody’s not in the band,” Devipointedout.
“Hells yes, Brody counts!” Maggie put it. “I need some dirt on that man. If any of you besides Amanda have hooked up with Brody, Iwannaknow.”
“As do I,” Amanda said, sounding half-intrigued, half-apprehensive, and still not lookingatme.
“C’mon Jessa.” Katie’s words were starting to slur. “’Fess up. Any Dirty romances in your past? Orpresent?”
Now everyone was looking at meagain.
Even Amanda was lookingatme.
“I hooked up with Zane,” Roni announced. This news was greeted with a collective gasp of delight, tinged with perversecuriosity.
Roni didn’t know much about my history with Brody, though obviously she’d picked up onsomethingtonight, and maybe she’d felt the need to save me. Or maybe she felt like bragging. Maybe she was just bored and trying to get this chat moving along. But I wasn’t exactly relieved she’dspokenup.
Not when I caught the look on Maggie’s face. She tried to hide it behind her giant cocktail glass, but it was there in her eyes—the same thing I felt when I saw Brody withAmanda.
Stone cold envy… and just that little bit ofloathing.
Maggie and I had been friends for a long time. I knew she had a crush on Zane, years ago; or at least, she pretended it was years ago. But I’d seen the guarded way she looked at him tonight, and I’d suffered enough longing over the years, over a man who wasn’t mine, to understand that look. And while I knew Maggie wasn’t really the type to act on that attraction, or whatever it was, because of how seriously she took her job with the band, I knew it couldn’t exactly be fun for her to come face-to-face with women whohadacted on their attraction to Zane… which I was pretty sure she did on a regularbasis.
Zane had always beenaslut.
“Was it… good?” Katieinquired.
“Of course it was good,” Becca said. “Lookathim.”
“Shit, yeah, it was good,” Roni said, thrilled with her rapt audience. “He does this thing with his tongue and his middlefinger—”
“Jessa had a crushonJude.”
