Page 10 of Smartasses
Nice going, Aubrey Dean. You’re world class.
“What was that?” she asked, leaning in close to Carter and keeping her voice as quiet as possible in the loud dining room.
“I froze.” He shrugged. “My big nose must have gotten in the way of my brain.”
It took just about everything she had not to lift her fist and shake it at the sky while screaming Men! at that moment.
“Don’t be so sensitive,” she said. “You’ve made the sexiest humans to have ever existed list, so you’ll live.”
“Three times.” He held up three fingers. “That’s how many times I made the list.”
“Really?” she whisper-yelled. “That’s what you’re gonna focus on right now when your cover almost got blown straight out of the water?”
He snagged a mini-pastry off her plate, tore off a bite, and held it out as if to hand feed her. “Good thing I have you to save the day.”
Then he gave her a grin. It wasn’t just any grin either. It was the one that showed off his dimples and made him look like a good guy who would do all the bad things—and her panties went up in flames as she accepted the bite.
Feeding Aubrey might have been too much, but she was the kind of woman who inspired that kind of take-it-to-the-next-level reaction in him. He’d have to watch that. Just because he happened to have a thing for troublemakers and wild women, in general, didn’t mean he needed to get any closer to this one. It didn’t help that the move confirmed that her lips were as soft as he’d imagined last night. What could he say? All that rocking of the boat had given his dick ideas.
“So you went to school with Aubrey’s brother, huh?” Benjamin asked, uh-huh-sure-buddy dripping from each syllable.
Yeah, that was not where this conversation needed to go. The less said about Carter, the better. Time to redirect.
“That’s right,” Carter said with a nod before turning his attention to Grace, who was reaching down every other breath to tug at the hemline of her shorts. “Have your missing pants turned up?”
“No.” Grace took a sip of juice. “It seems I won’t see them again until I get home after the cruise.”
“That’s…” He paused, trying to come up with a response that wouldn’t hint at his own involvement with the prank. “Weird.”
Kendall chuckled. “That’s being friends with Aubrey.”
“You have no proof it was me.” Aubrey’s gasp would have gotten her kicked out of any casting call.
“Just a long track record of shenanigans.” Liv clinked her coffee mug against Aubrey’s, wearing a huge, conspiratorial smile.
The byplay between the friends was straight out of a raucous comedy where friends who haven’t seen each other in a while do something crazy when they finally see each other again. Kind of like booking a singles cruise. Hello, life imitating art.
“Oh really,” he said, relaxing back against the seat and draping his arm over the back so his fingertips almost but not quite brushed Aubrey’s shoulders. “She’s a troublemaker?”
Liv leaned forward, planting her forearms on the table. “You wouldn’t believe some of the things she got up to in college.”
Oh, this should be good. “Try me.”
A faint blush climbed up Aubrey’s face until even the tip of her nose had a splotch of red on it. “You don’t wanna hear these boring stories.”
“Boring?” Benjamin’s voice cracked in disbelief. “You’re the reason I started putting aside money for bail.”
“That was only one time,” Aubrey said as she sank back against the seat, the move bringing her shoulder into contact with his fingers.
The little buzz of awareness from something as small as that made him tense enough that he forgot to respond with a follow-up question that was desperately needed. Her friends, however, were already in storytelling mode, and nothing was going to stop them.
“She went toe-to-toe with the local animal control agent trying to catch the cat that hung around our dorm,” Grace said.
Everyone at the table—including Aubrey—started laughing at the shared memory.
“The charge was disturbing the peace,” Kendall said between giggles. “Aka, Aubrey has a big mouth and always jumps right into trouble with both feet without considering other options first.”
“All of that is true,” Aubrey said. “However, Wilfred Kitty didn’t end up going to the kill shelter.”
