Hot Finish (Fast Track #3)(17)
Author: Erin McCarthy

“Me and my friend are going up to the lake to crash in on Jonas’s boys’ weekend and we totally need you to drive because we’re drunk.”

Now what was the proper response for that? “No,” Suzanne said. Was the girl nuts? She wasn’t hauling her drunk skinny ass out to the lake. Jonas probably wouldn’t mind but the other guys would kill her for dumping Nikki in their laps.

And Ryder was there. No way was she driving out to the lake with Ryder there.

She hadn’t heard a word from him in five days and she was weirded out by that. While they certainly didn’t talk every day, this seemed like a glaringly long gap in communication. Then again, maybe she was just hypersensitive since they’d shared that kiss. Hell, she was, she knew she was. In the past two years, there had been times when she’d gone weeks without talking to Ryder and hadn’t thought anything of it. They were divorced after all.

Sort of.

But that had been before he’d planted his lips on her.

“You have to!” Nikki wailed. “If you don’t, I’ll get arrested for DUI and then I won’t be able to get married!”

The girl had a point. And if she didn’t get married, Suzanne didn’t get paid.

Damn it.

“Alright, are you at home? I’ll be there in ten minutes.” But she was picking up Imogen first, because there was no way in hell she could be in a car with Dumb and Dumber all by her lonesome.

Imogen resisted the idea, but caved after Suzanne threatened her with getting Ty drunk and having Imogen’s face tattooed on his backside.

“Ty is going to be upset that I’m crashing his guys’ weekend,” Imogen said, pushing up her glasses after closing the car door and fastening her seat belt.

Probably, but Suzanne would be damned if she’d admit it. “No, he’s not. I bet he’s been texting you all night, hasn’t he?”

As she pulled down the street and headed toward Nikki’s apartment, she glanced over at Imogen. Her silence spoke volumes. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

“Yes, he has been texting me, that’s true. But that doesn’t mean he actually physically wants me present.”

“Are you kidding? Once Nikki and her friend blow in, Ty’s going to want to jump onto your lap and be held.” The very image was about the only thing amusing Suzanne lately. “He might even call you mommy.”

“That’s disgusting,” Imogen replied. But she did smile. “Maybe you’re right. It’s a bit awkward for him with Nikki sometimes, since they used to date.”

“Yeah, I don’t get how that really works. I mean, you think Jonas would feel some kind of guilt, or jealousy, or something, but he seems to think it’s totally normal that Nikki cheated on Ty with him. And now wants him in his wedding party? It’s kind of weird.”

“I think it would be significantly more awkward if Nikki or Ty had genuine feelings for each other. But theirs was merely a mutually satisfying temporary arrangement.”

Booty call. Suzanne got that. “Well, it’s a good thing my life isn’t complicated like that,” she said with a healthy does of sarcasm. “I mean, I’m just still married to my ex-husband. That pales in comparison.”

Imogen laughed, then her amusement was cut short as they pulled up in front of Nikki’s apartment building. Nikki and one of her bridesmaids whose name Suzanne couldn’t remember, were doing stripper dances on the telephone poles adjacent to the parking lot. “Oh, my goodness.”

“Good Lord.” Suzanne shook her head. “I was young and stupid once, too, but I like to think I saved my gyrating for men, not inanimate objects. Somehow that just seems a notch classier.”

“Are they even old enough to drink?”

“Nikki is twenty-two. All grown up.” Suzanne got out of the car and yelled to Nikki, “Come on, let’s go. Time’s a wastin’ when there’s wine to be tastin’.”

“There’s wine?” Nikki asked. “Hooray!” She threw her arms up and stumbled over to Suzanne in her fuzzy boots and fuzzy coat. “You’re the bestest, greatest, most awesomest ever.”

Suzanne accepted the hug, patting Nikki on the back. When she wasn’t tossing pizzas onto the floor or screaming at her fiancé, Nikki was a sweet girl.

The other girl said, “I’d better get laid once we get there. That’s the only reason to go into the woods at night.”

Charming. Though the girl kind of had a point.

Nikki burped loudly. “Evan Monroe is there.”

“Ooohhh. That will work.” Her eyes widened and she hiked up her skinny jeans, a smile on her face.

Suzanne got in the car and shot Imogen a look. Imogen looked as nervous as she felt. Pulling out her phone, she texted Ryder.

Incoming blondes. Retreat if possible.

She did still care about the man. It was only fair to warn him.

RYDER heard Nikki and her friend before he saw them. They were singing a song at the top of their lungs, though it was so garbled he couldn’t have said what song it was. He had appreciated the warning from Suzanne, but he couldn’t abandon Ty and Evan.

Besides, he’d ridden up with Ty, and he knew McCordle wasn’t going to surrender their camping trip without a protest.

Jonas actually smiled as he heard his fiancée’s wobbly voice. “Hey, that was fast. They’re here already.”

“Yippee,” was Ty’s opinion.

His own thoughts matched Ty’s, but Evan was the one who gave voice to the basic problem in front of them.

“Great. Now I have to be cold and annoyed.”

Nikki saw Jonas as they came up the path and she ran to him, tripping and nearly landing in the fire pit. Jonas grabbed her arm and prevented a barbequed Nikki. “Whoa, babe. You alright?”

“I’m drunk,” she told him with a giggle.

“What did you drink?” he asked. “You never drink.”

“Skinny bitches,” she said, her words slurring a little as she collapsed onto his lap, her fur coat lifting up to surround her cheeks. “Vodka and Diet Coke with a lime. The other drinks have too many calories.” She smacked her own bottom. “Can’t get fat.”

Ryder was about to ask how many skinny bitches the skinny, uh, Nikki had consumed when he realized Imogen and Suzanne had walked into the campsite, too. He sat up straighter and pulled off his knit cap. Damn it, now his hair was f**ked up, and Suzanne looked smoking hot in jeans and a puffy white vest with a tight black turtleneck under it. He crammed the stupid hat back on his head, figuring that was better than jacked-up hair. Though he wondered exactly why he cared, as Ty jumped up out of his chair.