buy a guy a drink, or convince him to give her his underwear.”
He paused.
“Trying to remember what underwear you put on this morning?” Ford asked.
“Trying to remember if I put on underwear this morning.” Tucker grinned slyly. “I guess one of you boys will have to field that one.”
“And . . . that just shot to the top of the list of things I did not need to know tonight.” Charlie polished off his drink and set it down. Then he turned to Ford. “You ready?”
Ford’s eyes flickered back to the brunette in the red heels. “Why don’t you guys go ahead? I’ll settle up the check and join you in a bit.”
Maybe.
Charlie stared at him, flabbergasted. “What has gotten into you? There are ten women over there whose collective goal tonight is to get wild and crazy as they celebrate the beauty and power of being female.”
“Ooh . . . the redhead in the black dress just licked a lollipop shaped like a penis. Seriously, why are we still sitting here?” Tucker followed Ford’s gaze, spotted the brunette in the red heels, and grinned. “Ah, another hen in the henhouse.”
Ford watched as the brunette laughed and shook her head at something one of her friends said. Then his eyes roamed lower, liking the way those skinny jeans fit her curves.
“So . . . you appear to be set here,” Charlie said teasingly. “I guess Tuck and I will see you later, then.”
Just then, the brunette and her two friends stood up from the table and made their way to the front door.
Sitting in the back of the bar, Ford felt a flicker of disappointment as he watched her leave.
Tucker commiserated with a shrug. “Well, you win some, you lose some.”
“Or in Tuck’s case, you lose some, and then you lose some more,” Charlie said.
Tucker shot Charlie a glare, and then pointed to the table of women who’d invited them over. “On the bright side: bachelorette party.”
Ford considered this. Having been friends with Charlie and Tucker since their freshman year of college, he suspected this fascination with the bachelorette party was, in some part, their attempt to distract him and have fun after everything that had happened with his father last week. And, seeing how he was more than happy to be distracted, he settled up their tab and followed his friends over to the table of women, who cheered at their arrival.
There definitely were worse ways to spend a Friday night.
Four
VICTORIA GOT BACK to her loft shortly after ten o’clock that night. Deliberately ignoring the remaining unpacked boxes—she would deal with them later—she headed straight to her bedroom. After stripping out of her bar clothes, she changed into shorts and a T-shirt and practically rubbed her hands with glee as she eyed her bed.
She couldn’t wait to crawl in.
She made quick work of brushing her teeth and scrubbing off her makeup. Out of habit, she grabbed her e-reader as she climbed into bed. In her old place, to deal with her insomnia, she’d often distracted herself from listening for strange noises by reading. But tonight, she felt safer in the smaller space of her loft, protected not only by the alarm system for her unit, but also by the security of the building in general. There was an upside to being surrounded by neighbors—with all the people in the building awake on a Friday night, it made an extremely unappealing target for anyone on the outside.
With that in mind, she set the e-reader on her nightstand, next to her trusty phone. She turned off the lamp and pulled up the covers, feeling more relaxed and comfortable in bed than she had in a month. As exhausted as she was, she could probably sleep right through to Sunday.
She drifted off with a smile, thinking that would be just fine.
* * *
A DOOR SLAMMED shut.
Victoria shot up in bed when she heard footsteps on hardwood floors. Disoriented by the relatively unfamiliar surroundings, it took her a moment to remember that she was in her new place, the loft. She heard muffled voices, several of them, and instinctively reached for her phone.
Then she realized the sound wasn’t coming from inside her place, but rather through her bedroom wall, the wall she shared with the unit next to hers.
She flopped back down onto the bed and exhaled in relief.
The footsteps on the hardwood floors sounded like high heels, several pairs of them, and she could hear both men and women talking and laughing.