There were two things I was looking forward to on that particular Friday night.

First, the pint of Half Baked that was waiting for me in the freezer.

Second, I knew Michael was due to work on the salon later that evening, and I was fully intending to hold that ice cream hostage until he told me exactly why he’d ghosted my ass the other night.

Of course, those two things being the highlight of my Friday evening probably meant my existence was entirely pathetic for a twenty-eight year old. The fact that the twins were entranced by a Baby Einstein DVD, the yoga pants I was wearing were clean, and I’d remembered to put on deodorant that morning just meant I was winning all the things.

Which is why I was more than a little taken off guard when Julia and Cole barged through the front door.

“I’m kidnapping you,” she announced, hands on hips, big sister voice in full effect.

I rolled my eyes. “Uh-huh.”

She pointed behind her to Cole, my towering hulk of a brother-in-law. “He’s babysitting. You’ve been working too much, and getting ready for the twins’ birthday party this weekend and you need a break. You have ten minutes to get ready.”

My eyes shifted from Julia to Cole and back again. He held up his hands like, do not ask me, and then settled on the floor by the twins. Jacob attacked him instantly and Piper smacked his face.

“You’re…” my voice trailed off because my brain hadn’t exactly caught up.

“Kidnapping you,” Julia finished. “We haven’t had a proper girls’ night since you had the twins, so get your ass down the hall, change your clothes, put on some lipstick, and get in the car.”

“So bossy,” I grumbled, but I couldn’t deny my excitement at the immediate change of plans. I’d had a few girlfriends at the salon, but they were a couple years younger than me, and the role of single mom to twins just wasn’t quite what any of them had in mind for a good time, so our friendships had faded out. It wasn’t their fault, not entirely. I could’ve worked harder to maintain them, but all my spare energy went into things like, remember to shower today and don’t forget to feed the children.

I poked my head around the corner. “They haven’t had dinner yet, by the way.”

Julia waved me off. “I’ll tell him what he needs to do. Go.”

Right.

The going-out section of my closet was about as untouched for the last eighteen months as my hoohah, so it took me a solid chunk of my ten minutes to find some ripped skinny jeans that made my ass look phenomenal, a flowy white shirt that was entirely inappropriate for Denver in early November (thank goodness for my coat addiction from the early ‘00s), and giant silver hoops that made me feel like a goddess.

I ran down the hallway and held up two different necklaces. “Choker or long pendant?”

Julia shifted Piper in her arms and squinted at my choices. “Neither. You don’t need a necklace with those earrings.”

“Valid point.” I tossed them onto the bathroom counter, slicked nude lipstick on puckered lips, swiped some mascara over my lashes and pinched my cheeks. When I turned to the side, I couldn’t help but nod. “Not too shabby, I have to say.”

“Quit staring at yourself and let’s go,” Julia yelled from down the hall.

“Where are we going?” I asked while I slipped my arms into my leather jacket.

“We’re meeting Kat, Rory and Anna at some place that Rory found and wants to try. Union Lodge Number one?”

“You know, I asked that question before I remembered that I have no social life and therefore have no clue where any of these places are.”

She smiled.

“Cole, did she go over the bedtime routine with you?”

He nodded, completely at ease with my two little monkeys crawling all over him. “I’m all set. She made me sign a contract in blood that I wouldn’t keep them up past their Brooke-appointed bedtime.”

“Pajamas are set out,” Julia said from behind me, “he took copious notes on what they can eat for dinner, and he promises not to give them beer or cigars or anything else illegal.”

Cole blew a raspberry on Piper’s stomach. “Not until you’re at least five, kiddo.”

I kissed the kids, Julia kissed Cole, and fifteen minutes after they walked into my house, we were pulling out of my driveway and heading downtown. The leaves had fallen off the trees quickly after we had the first hard frost of the year, and the spindly branches gave my street an eerie quality, even with the sun still shining.

The snow-capped peaks of the mountains out the car window still thrilled me to no end, even after living in Denver pretty much my entire life. My parents met and were married on the east coast, and Julia had more memories of living in Connecticut than I did, but Colorado was the only place I’d considered home.

By the time we found parking and huddled together to walk the couple blocks to the bar, I’d forgotten about my ice cream in the freezer, and felt a strange relief at not having to face Michael. The way he’d left the other night was so bizarre after a … well, really awesome week of hanging out. Complications sprang up everywhere, and that was the last thing I needed in my life. Which meant that Julia’s kidnapping was providential, a necessary intervention that I probably would never have staged for myself.

Through the floor to ceiling glass windows in the front, we could see Rory and Anna in a tufted leather booth sipping on elaborate cocktails. Julia and I slipped through the creaky wooden doors and into the packed warmth of the very hipster-y bar. So many mustaches and black-framed glasses, oh my.

Rory gave me a side hug when I sat down next to her in the booth. I accepted it gladly, still amazed that the sleek, blonde beauty who was married to Cole’s friend Garrett was so friendly to me, simply because I was Julia’s sister. “I’m so glad you could come. You look amazing, by the way.”

“Thanks, so do you.” I eyed her black off the shoulder top with serious envy. “I probably don’t want to know how much that cost.”

She smiled over the rim of her martini glass. “Probably not. Brooke, you know my sister-in-law, Anna, right?”

Anna grinned at me, and I marveled again at how freaking beautiful she was, all flawless olive skin and cheekbones that would make an angel weep. And her hair. Oh, her glossy black hair. My fingers twitched in my lap because of how badly I wanted to do her hair. Thankfully, social graces had been practically beaten into us as children, so I refrained from reaching out and touching it.

But if she offered, I would not be saying no.

“Yeah,” I told Rory, “Anna was at my house a couple weeks ago actually. She gave me some great design advice for the salon I’m having put in.”

Rory’s eyes sharpened with interest. “That’s right. Michael’s doing that for you, right?”

Julia coughed into her hand, and I narrowed my eyes at her.

Our waitress came by the table to take our drink orders, so I couldn’t press her on what that little sound meant. The cocktail menu was like a history lesson, each drink with a thorough description of its origins and ingredients. Because I thought she might look down on me if I asked for whatever had the most alcohol in it, I pointed at the first thing I saw.

“I’ll, uhh, I’ll have the Martinez?”

She nodded and took our orders to the bar.

“So,” Anna said in a sneaky voice that I did not like at all. “Michael, huh?”

“No.” I pointed my finger at her. “No, nope, no. Don’t take that match-makery tone with me.”

Rory snorted. “She just knows Michael. We all do. You can’t tell me he’s not the biggest flirt you’ve ever met in your life.”

With a sigh, I ran my hands over the leather on either side of my legs. “Isn’t there anything else we can talk about?”

Rory lifted a perfectly manicured eyebrow. “Well, let’s see … Garrett and I are a boring old married couple who do nothing but work and screw each other senseless when not working. Anna is married to a man with the personality of a lamp post and refuses to leave him even though he doesn’t know she exists and Julia is waiting not-so-patiently to either be given a foster baby that she can cuddle until the end of time, or get pregnant. How’s that for a recap?”

My jaw fell open and I looked frantically at Anna and Julia. Julia shook her head and laughed, and I knew my sister well enough that the sound wasn’t forced or uncomfortable. Anna shifted in her seat and gave her sister-in-law a speaking glance, loaded with so much subtext that I almost choked on it.

“Umm,” I said weakly. “I guess that’s pretty good.”

Rory looked at me expectantly and I had to admit, she was incredibly intimidating when she looked expectant. Thankfully, I was saved by Kat rushing up to the table and scooching us all closer on our side of the bench.

“Holy hannah, I’m sorry I’m late.” She unwound a bright blue scarf from around her neck and her messy blonde hair settled around her shoulders. “What did I miss?”

“We’re trying to get Brooke to spill the beans about Michael doing work at her house and she’s trying to deflect.”

Kat’s eyes were round in her pixie face. “Don’t deflect. Rory doesn’t like it when you do that. It’s so much easier to just tell her what she wants to know.”

We were still laughing about that when the waitress delivered our drinks. Mine was freaking delicious, the gin and bitters making me moan shamelessly as it warmed my throat and belly all the way down. When I opened my eyes, they were all staring at me. Even Julia, who I was now going to brand as a dirty little traitor for making me face this particular firing squad.

I moaned and dropped my head back. “There’s nothing to tell. Michael and I are friends. Seriously.”

“Just friends?” Kat asked. “Come on, we all know him. Having platonic female friends is hardly up his alley.”

My first instinct was to defend Michael. Tell them how amazing he’d been to me, to my kids. How he showed Jacob how to hold a hammer. How he swooped in with pizza and wine and was the only thing that stopped me from having a complete emotional breakdown from the callous words out of my mother’s mouth. But if I did that, they’d think I was into Michael.

And we were just friends.

“Just friends,” I said and damn it, I even sounded convincing. Go me. “We hang out sometimes after he finishes working. And I made rules. He can’t flirt.”

“And he obeys that rule?” Julia asked on a laugh.

“He does.” I shrugged and traced the condensation on my glass. “It’s nice to have someone to hang out with sometimes.”

Quiet covered the table, the hum of conversation and laughter around the bar kept it from being awkward, but I still felt it nonetheless. My relationship with Michael wasn’t something I had to explain and rationalize. It worked for us. Or did before he bolted the other night.

“We can understand that,” Julia said.

“But he’s so hot,” Anna interjected immediately, and the girls all laughed. Even I did, because yes. Yes he was. “And when I was there a couple weeks ago, there was sparkage. Like, I could see all the little lightning bolts between you two.” She leaned forward and fixed me with a serious look. “Lightning bolts. You can’t ignore that stuff once you see it.”

I covered my face with my hands and groaned, much to their delight.

“I know,” I admitted behind my palms, because maybe that made it less of an admission when it was hidden behind my skin. “I know there are lightning bolts. It sucks. It sucks so bad, you guys. I don’t have time in my life for lightning bolts. Lightning bolts need to stay far, far away from me right now.”

Kat sighed, and I hated how dreamy it sounded. In fact, I was shaking my head before she even started talking.

“But I don’t see why it’s such a bad thing. He obviously likes you.”

My hands dropped from my face. “He hasn’t made a single move. Not that I want him to right now,” I clarified when her eyes brightened.

“I agree with Kat,” Julia said. “Michael wouldn’t spend so much time with just any woman. He clearly doesn’t mind your baggage.”

“Oh, thanks. Nice nickname for my children.”

“It’s more than the kids, and you know it,” she replied gently.

I tapped my chin after taking another healthy sip of my drink. “You mean like our horribly selfish parents and my absentee baby daddy who is Lord knows where?”

“Yeah. Like that.”

“You really don’t know where the kids’ dad is?” Anna asked.

Ugh. Great. And now Kevin was responsible for yet another shit thing. He cast a pall over girls’ night. What a dirty, jerkish pall-caster.

“Nope.” In my head, my answer came off as flippant and unconcerned, but the weight in that one word was enough to make every face looking at me darken in concern. “He was never a social media guy and the number I had for him was disconnected pretty soon after he left. Dad said he’d hire a P.I. if I really wanted to track him down, but,” I shrugged and stared at the table, not wanting to meet anyone’s eyes, “I think I was too pissed about him leaving me to even want to try and find him. I think I was afraid that if he was found, he’d still refuse to step up and help. Not knowing where he is almost makes it easier.”

“I didn’t know that,” Julia said quietly. “That dad offered to hire someone to find Kevin.”

“I don’t really like to talk about it.”

“We don’t blame you,” Rory said, giving me a small smile. “And we won’t give you shit about Michael.”

I waved her off. “No, it’s fine. Really. Because we’re just friends.”

“Friends who you stare at like you want to rip their clothes off,” Anna mumbled. “Seriously, what is in that Whitfield gene pool? They are …” She shook her head and let out a slow breath. “Yeah.”

Not helpful. So not helpful. I looked around the table. “Could someone step on her foot for me?”

Rory raised her hand. “I will.”

Kat laughed and touched my arm. “Listen, we all love Michael. But we also know exactly how he deals with relationships. You two are adults. If you decide you want the lightning bolts, maybe he’s your guy.”

I sighed. “I can’t. It would be too complicated.”

“Then just use him for his,” Rory paused and cleared her throat. “For his power tools.”

“I bet that boy’s drill is in excellent working condition,” Anna whispered, then slapped a hand over her mouth when we all burst out laughing. “What? It probably is.”

I fanned my face as discreetly as possible. Did they crank the heat in the bar?

Rory took a small sip of her drink and nailed me with a comically innocent look. “And how long has it been since you’ve seen any drill action?”

Julia held up her hands. “Okay, this is still my little sister we’re talking about. And Michael.”

“You know she had kids, right?” Anna asked. “Did you assume it was immaculate conception?”

I snickered, happy that the topic was shifting a little.

My face was burning at the thought of Michael’s tools, but my smile was wide and by the time Julia and I hugged everyone goodbye, my stomach hurt from laughing. It was only ten when we walked quickly back to her car, the frigid air cutting through my jacket like it wasn’t there, but I had a healthy buzz going so I didn’t feel like I wanted to die. Healthy enough that I prayed fervently that Michael was not still at my house when we got back.

Because now all I could think about were things like hammering and nails and drills and what his abs looked like underneath all those stupid white t-shirts he favored. Please, oh please, I chanted in my head. Please be gone.

Of course he wasn’t gone. His truck was in the driveway like a giant white harbinger of doom, or harbinger of me having zilch in the willpower department. I couldn’t tell which was worse.

“Michael is still here,” Julia mused. She sounded smarmy, too. Naturally, I punched her in the shoulder. “Oww. Defensive much?”

Instead of answering, I let out a deep sigh and stared at my house through the windshield of her car. “I don’t know what to do about that man. I made a rule that he’s not allowed to work without a shirt on because I can’t be held accountable for my actions when he doesn’t. His abs, Julia. They’re so beautiful, I almost cried.”

Julia tried to keep a straight face. After about two point three seconds, she lost the battle, dissolving into cackles of laughter that only a big sister can manage to pull off. She wiped under her eyes, and I shoved my car door open. “Oh, come on. I’m sorry! That’s funny.”

I slammed the door behind me and managed to walk to the front door in a straight line, which was impressive considering the amount of gin still floating through my body. Julia hurried behind me, still laughing under her breath when I unlocked the front door.

Cole and Michael were sitting on the couch, laughing at something they were watching. Michael’s smile, swear to high heaven, it made me so tingly that I all but sprinted into the kitchen without saying a word to them. This was all Anna’s fault. Lightning bolts and drills and friends looking at you like they wanted to rip your clothes off.

UGH.

“Welcome home,” Cole called out after me. I think I waved over my shoulder, but I didn’t stop until I was in front of the fridge. My options were open the freezer door and shove my head inside until my internal temperature went down a couple degrees, or chug an entire gallon of water and hope that the alcohol came out of my system fast.

“Water,” I whispered. “Definitely water.”

“Talking to yourself?” Michael asked from behind me.

I screamed and whipped around, my hand clasped over my heart. “You need to cut that shit out. Someday I’m going to have a heart attack and you’ll feel really bad.”

His eyes tracked over me, slow and steady, and oh man, did that not help anything. “You look nice.”

Do not swoon. Do not go all melty. “Thanks,” I said weakly instead. “Julia kidnapped me.”

“So I heard.” He kept talking with a little smirk on his face. I hated it. I hated it because it was so attractive on him. “Cole managed all right as a babysitter.”

And hallelujah, my favorite brother-in-law ever chose that moment to come into the kitchen. “All right? I was awesome. They both told me at bed time that I’m their second favorite person in the world.”

I laughed and turned around to pour myself a giant glass of water. “Did they now?”

“Cole, we should go,” Julia said. I glared at her over my shoulder and she glared right back as she wrapped her arm through her husband’s.

Cole looked down at her, clearly confused, but then Julia got that meaningful wifely look in her eye and he nodded. “Yes. Yes we should.” He slapped Michael on the back. “Good to see you, man. Thanks for keeping me company. Brooke, you’re raising the smartest set of twins in the history of the world. Keep it up.”

Michael laughed, and I managed a strangled goodbye when they scurried out, whispering to each other the entire way. Fricken traitors. The front door slammed, and Michael and I stood in loaded silence while their car started and backed out of the driveway.

“Have fun tonight?” he asked, still smirking. Why was he smirking? Was I being tested by a higher power?

“Mmhmm.” I looked away and took a sip of water. Then another.

He was still staring. Still smirking.

I slammed my water glass down on the counter. “Rule number eighty-seven. No smirking when you look at me like that.”

His smile spread and he crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re hardly at eighty-seven, unless you’re making up rules in your head that you’re not sharing. If so, you’re required to share. That’s rule number ”

You know that vein in a guy’s arm? The one that splits down the top of biceps? Michael had that vein. When his arms were crossed like that, oh lawdy, did it make that vein prominent against his muscle. I wanted to bite it.

“You need to leave,” I blurted out.

Michael’s eyebrows popped up in surprise. “What?”

“Umm. Yeah. I think you need to leave. I’m … really tired. The gin I had is making me, uhh, sleepy.”

Now his eyebrows were folded down over his eyes. Actually, he looked a little worried. “Is this because I bolted the other night? I’m sorry about—”

“No,” I interrupted and held up my hand. Because really, I could not hear him be sweet. I’d mount him like a stallion if he did one more thing to fray my already thin willpower. I was never drinking gin again. It did evil things to my head. “It’s not that. I’m just …” I floundered, pleading at him with my buzzed little eyes, because if he pushed me on this, I wouldn’t be able to hold it in.

“Really tired,” he finished, a soft smile on his face. It wasn’t the smirk, but it was almost as bad.

“Yeah.”

“Sure thing.” Michael cleared his throat and nodded at me. “I’ll let myself out.”

“Yeah.”

He was almost out the door when he stopped and looked back at me. “Is it still okay if I’m back tomorrow to work? I was hoping to have all the drywall mud sanded and cleaned up before their party.”

“Yeah.”

Michael narrowed his eyes. “You okay?”

I blinked. Took a deep breath. Then I nodded. “Yeah. I’m okay. And that’s fine.”

It was so obvious he didn’t want to leave, but he did, closing the door gently behind him. It opened up again, and his head popped through. “Lock up behind me. I’m not leaving until I hear it.”

I managed to smile at him, but it was wobbly. I did as he asked, sliding the dead bolt with a decisive click. His steps off the porch were muffled by the door, and I slumped against it when I heard his truck fire up.

“Oh, this is bad,” I whispered.