Well Hung (15 page)

C
harlotte hands
me a margarita when I walk into Max’s living room in his pad in Battery Park City.

“It’s my secret recipe. Made with Gummi Bears,” she says with a big smile.

I take the glass and down a gulp. It’s cold, delicious, and mildly candy-sweet. “Not very secret since you’ve spilled the beans, now is it?”

She laughs and pats the cushions, so I take the seat next to her on the huge L-shaped chocolate-brown couch facing the windows. The gang’s all here. Nick is parked in the corner of the sofa, with Harper curled up next to him. Chase is on the other end, and I catch a glimpse of Natalie and Josie in the kitchen with Max. Spencer is by Charlotte’s side, and he raises a glass to me.

“Glad to hear you won the best-man derby. Just don’t make a move on the bridesmaid,” he jokes, clasping Charlotte’s shoulder.

I hold up my hand. “No worries there, man. Pretty sure your wife’s not the only bridesmaid who’s off-limits,” I say, since Harper asked Charlotte and Josie to be bridesmaids, as well as a few other friends.

“Speaking of bridesmaids,” Harper says, stretching across Nick to tap my knee. “My friend Abby knows someone in need of your carpentry services. You remember her? You guys are both encyclopedias of animal facts. I’ll have her reach out to Natalie.”

“Excellent. Appreciate you spreading the good word for us, especially to someone who can crush it in bar trivia, too,” I say, and Harper laughs. Then I lift my chin toward the view of the tip of Manhattan and mouth
nice
.

I haven’t been to Max’s new place, but damn, this pad is first-class. Up here on the twenty-fifth floor, there’s a view of the Statue of Liberty and the Hudson River. Early evening sun shines in the floor-to-ceiling windows.

“Hey, Max,” I call out, turning my head toward the kitchen. “You building cars for Seinfeld and Leno now or something? This place is out of this world.”

He strides in from the kitchen with a beer in one hand and a margarita in the other, and laughs in a deep baritone. “I can’t divulge all my celebrity clients.”

“Oh yeah, it’s privileged information,” Chase says, sketching air quotes.

“How
is
business? Good, I trust?” I ask Max.

He sets down the margarita on a coaster atop a blond wood coffee table that looks to be handcrafted, and takes a swig of his beer. “You know, I really can’t complain.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s the understatement of the year,” Chase says, a note of pride in his voice. “He’s killing it.”

I raise my glass to Max. “To continued good fortune on the business front,” I say, and gesture to the lot of us. Charlotte and Spencer’s bars are bona fide hits, with three thriving locations and a fourth opening soon. Nick just launched a second late-night naughty cartoon on a premium network, and both his shows are rocking in the ratings, while Harper continues to be one of the most popular kids’ magicians in New York. Josie’s a star in the world of flour, and Max is the king of the custom car business in Manhattan, building beautiful, powerful vehicles from the ground up. While Chase is the golden boy, Max is the dark knight, as I like to call him. Dark hair, dark eyes, big build, and he drives a sleek car the color of midnight that would make Batman jealous.

Max taps his bottle to my glass then nods to his brother. “I’ll drink to that. And to the fact that my little brother is back in town.”

“Aww, you missed me,” Chase says with a goofy smile.

Max smacks him on the back. “I just missed the free medical care.”

“Family,” Chase deadpans. “Can’t live with them, can’t perform a lobotomy on them without permission.”

“Where’s Mia?” I ask, since their sister is the only who’s not here tonight.

“Mia had to go out of town on a business trip.” Max points his thumb in the direction of the kitchen. “I better go check on the chicken.”

I look at Chase and furrow my brow. Max is not known for his prowess at the stove. “He cooked for you?”

Chase laughs and shakes his head. “Nope. Josie and Natalie did. Did you know your wife makes the best grilled chicken?”

All conversation ceases in a heartbeat.

Spencer straightens. “What?”

My brother’s jaw drops. “No fucking way.”

Harper throws a pillow at me. “You didn’t.”

From the kitchen, Josie shrieks. “When I told you to show her the sights, I didn’t mean the Little White Wedding Chapel.”

My sister strides across the tiled floor, huffing and puffing, her heels clicking purposefully, and shoves me hard on the chest.

“Ouch.” I crane my neck and meet Natalie’s gaze from the kitchen. “Did I mention my bud has the biggest mouth in Manhattan?”

Natalie shrugs with a what-can-you-do smile. “Guess that’s why cats have no collarbones. So it’s easier for them to get out of the bag.”

And for one brief moment, it’s just me and my almost ex-wife, whose sense of humor makes me want to join her in the kitchen, kiss the hell out of her, then help her make the rest of the meal. Hell, I’d happily do dishes with her, too.

“Is this true?” Josie’s green eyes are wide as she directs her question to Natalie. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“Thanks, Chase, for sharing that little tidbit,” I mutter at the same time.

But before Natalie can answer, Spencer’s laughter booms. “Oh yes. I’ll second that.” He raises his margarita glass. “I can’t thank you enough, Chase. You have just given me fodder for the next several years.” Spencer stares at me with a cat-eating-the-canary smile. “Now, I believe we all want to hear the lovely story of how Wyatt proposed to my wife’s sister.”

Nick smirks at me and shakes his head. “Dude. I told you Vegas was a recipe for trouble. I knew you were up to something.”

Josie whacks my elbow. “I asked you if you said something stupid to her in Vegas. I was right.”

“I said ‘let’s get married.’ Okay? There. Are you all happy?” I gesture to the crew, and all seven of them are having a big fat laugh at my expense.

“Wait.” Natalie’s firm voice cuts across the apartment. Everyone turns to the blue-eyed blonde in the kitchen doorway. “Why is no one getting on my case? Why is everyone on Wyatt’s case? Do you think I wasn’t involved? That it was just one of his big, crazy ideas? I did play a part, people. I did say yes. A lot of yeses, as a matter of fact,” she says, and Josie’s eyebrows shoot into her hairline at that barely veiled innuendo. “Then I said the big yes.”

Harper shakes her head, her long sheet of red hair moving with her. “Is this you guys pranking us?”

“I assure you, there’s no pranking.” Natalie marches over to me, parks herself on my lap, holds my face, and plants a kiss on my lips. Once more, all my thoughts fade to just the two of us. Her soft lips. Her sweet breath. Her intoxicating taste. My eyes float closed, and even though this is the shortest kiss in the history of time, it still knocks the air from my lungs. When she pulls away, I feel dizzy.

Everyone else is speechless. They’re just staring at us.

Natalie ends the silence. “You’ll all just have to accept that Wyatt Hammer kisses me like it’s the only thing he wants to do in the whole world, and I couldn’t resist him. But don’t worry. We’re getting a divorce, and that’s that. Now can we please eat?”

“Wait,” Spencer says, clearing his throat. He gestures from her to me and back. “You’re not together now? Because it sure seemed like you were.”

Then he flinches and drops a hand to his thigh where Charlotte’s squeezing his leg. “I mean,” Spencer says, correcting himself, “let’s eat.”

When it registers what just happened—Charlotte pinched him to shut him up—I can’t help but wonder what Natalie has been telling her sister.

Because Charlotte clearly knows everything I do, and maybe even more.

* * *

J
osie’s coconut
layer cake is divine.

Chase rolls his eyes for the twentieth time. “I just want to get in a tub and bathe in this cake.”

I arch an eyebrow. “A cake tub?”

Chase nods. “Absolutely. Just fill it up to the top.”

Josie laughs then asks, “Should we fill it with cake batter or finished cake?”

“Finished cake. Then frosting,” he answers.

She sets down her fork. “Does that mean you want to be frosted in this cake tub, too, Chase?”

He takes another bite. “With this cake, yes please.” He tilts his head to the side, looking at her across the table. “By the way, I like the new ’do,” he says, gesturing to her hair. Josie’s a brunette, but she’s dyed several strands pink.

She twirls a pink streak. “Thank you. I did it while you were gone.”

“Because you missed me?”

She wriggles an eyebrow. “Ha. Yes, when I think of you, I think pink.”

Soon, it’s time to clear our plates, and as we clean, Natalie and I wind up alone in the kitchen at the sink. “That was . . . weird,” I say.

“The way Chase flirts with your sister?”

I laugh. “Well, yeah. But the whole thing with us, too.”

“Did you feel like they were staring at us all through dinner?” she asks as she rinses a dessert plate.

“Like we were in the zoo.”

“I think they wanted us to kiss again.”

“They weren’t the only ones,” I say softly, then take the plate from her hand and slide it into the dish rack.

She meets my gaze as the water runs. Her voice is soft, just for me. “They
definitely
weren’t the only ones.”

I run a fingertip gently along her neck, from her earlobe down to her collarbone. “Right here. I want to kiss you right here.”

I demonstrate, dusting my lips ever so faintly against the delicious skin of her neck, breathing her in.

She shudders. “When you kiss me like that, it makes me forget to breathe,” she whispers, then turns her face so our lips brush lightly.

And I’m the one to shudder.

When we leave, we crowd in the elevator together, Spencer with his arm around Charlotte, Nick holding hands with Harper, Chase telling Josie a story of the marble he removed yesterday from a kid’s nose, and Natalie next to me. She’s so close, I could hold her hand, drape an arm over her shoulder, kiss her hair.

All the things I want to do.

And I want her to go home with me tonight, too.

But she doesn’t. When we reach the street, we go our separate ways.