Page 68 of Love Again

After pretending to fool around with napkins, forks, plates, and the three luscious desserts she laid out, she seems suddenly uninterested and moves quickly to my side and grabs an elbow.

I nearly drop the beer Travis just handed me.

“I have to open this,” I say, moving toward the table.

“Here,” she says, and she twists it in her palm. She flips the cap to the plastic bucket under the table. “Okay, now you’re walking with me.” We head off to the water’s edge, and the whole time, she’s hissing in my ear. I can’t help but notice how much closer the shoreline is to the fire. The tides here are fourteen feet and come and go fast.

“I don’t understand, Devon. You worked with him in Colorado. He’s here. I mean, I get that he’s David Keller’s brother, but that can be water under the bridge, right? You work for that guy now.”

“What’s your point?”

“What do you mean ‘what’s my point’? I mean, look at him. He’s gorgeous, and I saw you looking at him. And not in an oh-that’s-my-colleague sort of way. More like a I want y—”

I hold up a hand. “It wouldn’t work,” I say, shaking my head.

Chloe nurses her beer for a moment and then swirls what’s left in the bottle. It’s nearly empty, so she’s way ahead of me. None of us are heavy drinkers, so it doesn’t take much alcohol to loosen our tongues or inhibitions. Travis is the only one that can knock back a six-pack and not bat an eye.

Chloe’s voice is low. “Are you a virgin?”

“What the hell,” I say. Lowering my voice even further, I finish with a “No.”

“I ask because you were when I left, and according to Laurel, you never have boyfriends or girlfriends.”

“Laurel doesn’t know everything about me.”

Chloe’s in it thick and she knows it. She waits a minute before exhaling, as if trying to figure out a measured response to my seemingly ridiculous comment.

“Okay. You guys lived together for the last eighteen months, and she said in that time there’s been no texts, no phone calls, no nothing. Plus, there’s been two—at least two—serious attempts by guys at the station to get you into bed, and nothing.”

This has to stop. I lean forward and give her a quick hug. “Chloe, for the sake of our sisterhood, you need to drop this. I’m happy. Everything is good, and I’m not going to start dating Luke.”

“You’re insane.”

Just then, Laurel steps up and joins our little kissing group of two. Now there’s three of us. This is getting out of hand.

“Are you talking to her about Luke?” she says conspiratorially.

“Trying and getting nowhere,” says Chloe before draining the rest of her beer.

I rub my forehead. Two Russos are a force. Three is a disaster. I cast a glance toward the fire. Cory rests high on Travis’s shoulders, always the place to be after the Andre the Seal game. Travis isn’t drinking, but chatting amicably with Luke and pointing toward me. Luke waves and I wave back, which doesn’t help my situation with my sisters.

“He’s getting along with everybody. Bryce said he’s awesome,” says Claire.

“When did Bryce meet him?”

“They had breakfast the other day. Said he’s great.”

“And,” says Laurel, “Mateus says he really knows his stuff. He’s pretty impressed with his work on this case they have going.”

“First, I don’t date men because you all think they’re great. This is not a Democratic situation where you guys vote and then I do what you say.”

“Oh man, she’s getting grouchy,” says Laurel, and I can tell Chloe wants to back off. I give her a one-arm hug. “It’s fine, Chloe, we’re good. I . . . it’s a lot.”

“Could you at least tell us how you guys met?”

I give them the quick-rundown story—the parachute, the fire, the truck, the hospital. I leave out the part that he stayed. Laurel’s eyes grow wide. “You never talk about your work, about smokejumping, and now I know why. I am so glad you’re not doing that anymore.”

I’m glad her focus is on smokejumping and not on Luke or me.