Chapter 9
Mike leaned down and hollered,“Eric’s friend.Jenny,this isSheila.She runs our front loader.”
“She works with you?”Jenny had thought the person Mike worked with who was throwing the party was male.Did Eric tell her that?Or had she just assumed it?
Sheila glared at Jenny,daring her to start something.“You got a problem with that?”
“What?No!Girl power.”Jenny flashed her a quick grin.“What’s a front loader?”
Fortunately there were other guests arriving,and Sheila’s attention drifted to a couple behind her.With another ear-splitting shriek,she reached past Jenny and cried out,“Nicky!Love the little one!Let me guess,is she that girl from Frozen?”
Jenny felt an arm wrap around her waist,and suddenly found herself pulled against Eric.“Don’t mind her,”he said—he had to yell into her ear to be heard over the noise,but his closeness made it feel like an intimate whisper instead.“She’s always ready to fight about what she does for a living.People think she can’t hack it because she’s a woman,or they think she’s a lesbian—which she isn’t,she’s been married fifteen years and has like five kids or something,but you know how people are.Just keep out of her way if you can.”
She turned to holler back,“Shouldn’t be too hard.I didn’t come here for her anyway.”
Eric hugged her closer,and Jenny nestled against him.Now thiswas right where she wanted to stay the rest of the evening.If they could just find that beer…
Mike carved a path through the crowd,making a beeline for the kitchen.There they found a cooler full of unlabeled beer bottles.The music was only marginally muffled in the kitchen,but the men crowded around the cooler did their best to make up for the lull.“Mike!”someone cried,and Jenny heard the snapof bottle caps cracking open.
Then Eric handed her a cold bottle.“What kind is this?”she asked.
He shrugged,taking a swig from his own bottle.“The guy brews his own.Hey,Rog?What kind is this?”
“Jalape?o IPA,”came back the shouted answer.
Jenny sniffed at the cool mist swirling from the bottleneck.“I don’t even know what that means.Is it hot?”
“How can it be hot?”Eric asked with a laugh.“It’s fresh out of the cooler.It’s good.Try it.”
Tentatively she took a sip.It tasted like beer—regular plain old beer.Nothing hot or spicy about it.“Why’s he call it jalape?o?”
Eric half-turned to mutter,“Don’t ask.He’s sort of a beer snob,and he’ll seriously talk your ear off if you let him.”
She liked his closeness,the feel of his body against hers,and the warmth of the beer in her belly.There was the heat,on the back of her throat,pooling at her crotch,but she suspected it had little to do with the booze and everything to do with Eric’s hand on her hip,his arm resting lightly against the side of her breast,his bicep warm against her cheek.
Taking another sip of the beer,she asked,“Where’s Mike?”
Eric nodded at the cooler,and Jenny glanced over his shoulder to see his hunk of a boyfriend chatting with a tall,angular mandressed as a swashbuckling pirate,complete with Jack Sparrow hairpiece.“He made the mistake of asking Roger about the beer.You want to dance,or something?Because he’s going to be there for a while.”
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In the dining room,the table was pushed alongside one wall and heavily laden with food.Eric held Jenny’s hand as he led her through the crowd milling around the punch bowls and snacks into the family room,where music pulsated from a state-of-the-art stereo system with surround sound.The very walls seemed to reverberate from the noise,and the room was jammed with people gyrating to the music.Somehow Eric found a spot barely large enough for the two of them;he pulled Jenny inclose and kept his arm around her waist as their hips swayed in time with the beat.Raising her voice,Jenny yelled,“I can’teven make out what song this is!”
“Me either!”Eric replied,grinning.When he took a swig of his beer,he almost bumped his head into the person behind him.“Having fun?”
Jenny laughed.She had free alcohol and a hot guy dancing up on her—how much more fun could it get?
She soon found out when strong hands gripped her from behind.She half-turned,surprised to find Mike there.“Hey you!”shecried,arching her butt to bump into him.
With a wink,he leaned over her shoulder and gave Eric a quick kiss.“Thought I’d lost you two.I brought refills.”
Now Jenny felt the coolness against her hip,and Mike held up three beers by their necks,foam sloshing over the lips of the bottles.She hadn’t realized her drink was empty until he swapped it out for a full one.As she swigged it down,Eric said,“Next round’s on me!”
“It’s free,right?”Jenny asked with a grin.“If so,I’m buying!”
As the crowd rocked around them,Jenny grew used to Mike’s hands on the back of her waist,Eric’s on the front.She laughed whenever they leaned past her to claim a kiss,and once when her beer buzz kicked in,she puckered up and added her lipsinto the mix,too.All she got was a smear of Eric’s white face paint on her nose for the trouble,but Eric nipped at one side of her neck on one side as Mike nuzzled her ear,making her giggle girlishly.Her body thrummed with unspent energy,her nerves on fire,her blood sizzling from the closeness of two sexy young men interested in each other and,seemingly,in her,as well.She loved it.The louder the music got,the closer together they danced,and the more she had to drink,the less she wanted the evening to end.