She lifted her head and opened her eyes to find her friends looking straight at her. “Okay, fine. He’s a jerk. I get that. But once his launch party has passed, my communication with Clayton will be very few and far between.”
“You think that’s gonna stop him?”
Meeting Brody’s fuming gaze once more, Ro was serious when she vowed, “If it doesn’t, I’ll take the necessary steps to fire him as a client.”
The tanned protector leaned in closer, his peering eyes fixing with hers as he made his own gruff promise. “That bastard eventhinksabout touching you again, you firing him will be the least of his worries.”
Ro’s heart thumped hard against her ribs as she remained frozen beneath his stare. Brody had always watched out for her and Megan. But this…
His reaction to what had happened was over the top, even for him. Almost as if he’d been defending the honor of his woman, rather than a friend.
If only.
“I appreciate your concern, Brody. Really, I do.” She licked her lips, her tongue feeling a bit heavier than normal. “But it’s done and over with, so can we please just drop it and focus on the fact that it’s Cade’s birthday?”
Resorting to the basics, Ro tilted her brows up a smidge and gave the man the best pleading, puppy dog eyes she could muster. The edges of his sexy face blurred, but she blinked a few times and her vision cleared in time to see the curt dip of his chin.
“Fine.”
“Great.”
And for the next long stretch, that’s exactly what they did. The group moved on from the tense conversation to ones filled with stories, smiles, and laughter. Soon even Ro found herself feeling relaxed and stress-free.
But when she stood to go back to the bar for a water, she realized she was a littletoorelaxed.
Whoa!
She threw a hand to the side, her fingers gripping the table’s edge to steady herself. Meg looked up at her and chuckled.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m…good.” She was good, right?
If good means talking with a whiskey tongue and standing with a tilt, you’re right as rain.
Ro started to take a step away from the table, but stopped when the entire room began to spin.
“How much have you had to drink?” A worried Megan watched her closely.
“Just a watered down Amaretto Sour, a couple shots and that.” She risked it and used the hand holding the chair to point to the glass that had once held her blue, fruity drink.
“That’s it?”
“Yep.” Ro nodded her heavy head.
“You don’t usually get this tipsy this soon.”
It was true. While she didn’t do a lot of hard liquor, Ro’s tolerance when it came to alcohol was typically much stronger than her present condition attested to.
“Probably just had too much on an empty stomach,” she assumed. “Should’ve eaten more before drinking.”
And you should probably head home now, before you do something stupid like drink more and pass out in the middle of the bar.
With tingling, heavy fingers, Ro reached into her skirt’s pocket and retrieved her cell. She had to blink several times to get the facial recognition to accept her image and unlock the home screen.
Through heavy, fumbled movements, she managed to find and open the app to order a ride from the bar to home. Seeing an available driver only a few blocks away—one with a high customer rating, no less—Ro started to finalize the transaction.
“What are you doing?” Meg asked from the seat next to her.