Last Call (Cocktail #5) (3 page)

But as busy as I was, I’d always carve out time for a quick overnight to Mendocino to take a peek at whatever Viv was working on. Sometimes with Simon, sometimes without; it was an easy drive to a lovely location. Viv had converted her attic into a working studio where she started painting the most incredible pieces, all inspired by her recently adopted home of Mendocino. I sold a few to some clients, and word was beginning to spread. Some of her work was featured in a few stores in her area, and she even had a showing at a local art fair here in San Francisco. New pieces? I’d make it work.

“Let me look at my calendar on Monday, see when I might be able to get up there?”

“Sounds good. Simon, how about you coming this time too? We just got two new kayaks,” Viv offered, hopeful her adventure partner would come along.

“We’ll see. I’ve got a big trip coming up soon; lots to plan between now and then,” Simon said. But I could see his eyes dancing at the thought of kayaking.

“Oh fuck it, you’re coming up too, and that’s that. Now, I need another root beer. Let’s roll, Clark,” Viv said, making the decision for him.

“Impossible woman,” Clark muttered under his breath, but followed her across the room toward the bar. With a wide grin on his face.

“Those two aren’t wasting any time, are they?” Simon said.

“Speaking of not wasting any time . . .” I pointed toward the head table, where Mimi and Ryan were engaging in some pre–wedding night foreplay.

“It’s going to be a long night, isn’t it?”

“I’ll keep you entertained,” I murmured, sliding my hand down his back and giving his magnificent buns a quick squeeze.

“Naughty Girl,” he said, slipping his hands into my hair and pulling me in for a long, slow kiss. I let him; I didn’t care. Surrounded by people at a wedding reception? I kissed him back, his sweet lips opening and his even sweeter tongue tangling with mine. My breath came quickly, my skin heated, and I was ready to take him up on his quickie offer. Until I heard the beginning of the toasts starting over the microphone, signaling it was time for us to return to the head table and be upstanding and proper members of the wedding party.

“Later,” he whispered. And promised. Mmm.

T
he reception went off without a hitch. We all danced, we drank, we danced some more, we definitely drank some more. Sophia and Viv, finally meeting and bonding
over their ginger ales, swapped birthing stories and talked endlessly over some kind of sling you carry a baby in.

Whatever it was, they talked about it for hours, it seemed. But since Sophia was the first mommy in our little clan, I was glad she had a new friend who could relate to what she was going through.

By the time we said our good nights to Mimi and Ryan, on their way to spend a night at the Palace Hotel before leaving early the next morning for a honeymoon in Bora Bora, I was pleasantly sauced, and more than pleasantly horny for the man who’d been requesting Glenn Miller all night. But I still found a moment with my girl before she left.

“You were truly the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen. Seriously, Mimi, it was an incredible day.”

“It was pretty great, wasn’t it?” She grinned, lifting up one foot to peer at the sole. “I’ve got soot foot.”

“They’re pretty filthy,” I agreed. “But you totally pulled it off.”

“I know!” She laughed, and fell into a hug.

“Indulging in the fairer sex already?” Sophia asked, appearing out of nowhere.

“Oh c’mere, you,” Mimi cried, pulling her into our Mushtown. “You girls are my best friends, you know that?”

“Best friends? Then how come your cousin was your maid of honor?” Sophia teased, and Mimi’s face crinkled.

“You know very well it wasn’t an option; my mother never would have let me get out of it. I had to have her, and—”

“Tiny. Slow your roll. I was kidding.” Sophia laughed, and kissed her on the forehead. “You looked amazing today. Shit, we all did. You threw a great party; congratulations.”

“Thank you! And thank you, God, that you didn’t fall for Ryan. And thank you, God, for not letting me fall for Neil. I mean, he’s super dreamy, and a great kisser, but—”

“Thank God we all ended up with the ones we did. How ‘bout we leave it at that?” I interrupted, chuckling as I remembered the weekend at Lake Tahoe when the four of them righted their dating wrongs. What could have ended badly had ended up here. Two of them married, two of them having a baby. We all looked across the dance floor at our three guys. Ties loosened, jackets abandoned, hair messy. Jesus Christ, they were handsome.

“I’m going to get my husband and take him to the honeymoon suite at the Palace,” Mimi said with a smile that was equally dreamy . . . and lascivious.

“I’m going to get Simon and let him do things to me in the back of the limo on the way back to Sausalito.”

“I’m going to get Neil, a few more pieces of that wedding cake to go, and let him eat me while I eat the cake.”

“Oh, for the love of—!”

“Good night, nurse!”

And we sent Mimi off on her honeymoon.

Ninety minutes later
 . . .

“S
imon. Simon. Oh, Jesus, Simon, that’s so good, right there, right there, don’t stop . . .”

Ninety seconds later
 . . .

“I can’t believe you ate cake while I did that to you.”

“Don’t worry about it. You can eat cake while I do this to you . . .”

“Caroline, you naughty girl. In the back of a limo—oh, wow, that’s good. And this cake is terrific.”

“So tell me again where we’re going? Shopping for pit bulls?” I asked, waiting in the backseat of the Range Rover with Sophia while Simon and Neil stopped for gas. We were headed out of town for the night, spending some time in Sophia’s hometown of Monterey. Just a few hours down the coast, it was like a whole new world.

“Yes. Exactly. We’re going shopping for pit bulls, Caroline,” Sophia replied dryly.

“Well? Aren’t we?”

“It’s not like shopping for a new handbag. Neil wants a puppy, and so do I. I think it’ll be nice to have a puppy and a baby at the same time.”

“I think it’d be nuts to have a puppy and a baby at the same time, but hey, I’m just along for the ride,” I said. When she showed me her middle finger, I showed her one right back. “Seriously, that’s a lot all at once, don’t you think?”

“We were planning on getting a dog after the baby, but when my cousin Lucas started texting me these pictures of their latest litter, I just melted. I mean, look at this! Could you resist?” she said, scrolling through her phone and then holding it up to show me six or seven of the tiniest, most adorable puppies, lined up in a row on a pillow, with a proud mama behind them. Some were gray, some were black and white, all of them darling. “And look, video!”

“Oh, God, you’re killing me,” I sighed, as I watched the puppies wriggling all over the place, jumping and playing and being twelve kinds of cute. “I don’t know how I’m going to get Simon out of there without bringing one home.”

“Clive would kill you,” Sophia replied, shutting off her phone as the boys came back to the car.

“With his bare paws,” I agreed.

“Bare paws? Who’re we talking about?” Simon asked as he slid behind the wheel.

“Clive. Killing us.”

“I have nightmares about that,” he replied, shivering. “That cat’s way too fucking smart.”

“How’s his harem doing?” Neil asked.

Simon socked him one on the arm. “Dude. Don’t call them that.”

“His girlfriends. Sister wives. Whatever. How do you guys not have kittens running all over the place?” Neil asked, rubbing his arm.

“Clive was neutered a long time ago. No nuts for
my boy,” I said. “He won those girls over solely with his personality.”

When Clive had returned home after his stint as a runaway, he didn’t come alone. He’d brought along three lovely lady cats, all of whom adopted Simon and me. We now lived with four, count them, four cats. Norah, Ella, and Dinah now joined Clive in ruling our household, and we just did what we could to get out of the way. Our bed was a bit crowded some nights, but in truth? We wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Okay, Neil, let’s go over the plan one more time. We pick out one puppy—one—and let’s try and go for whichever one seems the calmest. Deal?” Sophia said, reaching up front and putting her hand on his shoulder.

“We’ll see,” he nodded. His face turned red ten seconds later. Sophia had begun to squeeze, obviously. “One puppy. You got it,” he managed, and she gave him a pat on the head. “Cello players. Strongest hands you can imagine. Normally a good thing. But sometimes . . .” he told Simon, who just laughed as we zoomed down the highway, bound for Monterey.

“A
nd this is where we keep all the newer dogs, the ones we haven’t worked with as much. Sometimes they can go right in with the other dogs, but they usually need a little doggie detox,” the tall blonde said, grinning and making the tour sound fresh, though she’d obviously given it hundreds of times.

We’d made it to Monterey in just under two hours, which was a refreshing change. Whenever Mimi was on a road trip, it always seemed like we had to stop every thirty miles or so for snacks. Once we reached Monterey it was a quick drive up into the hills to Our Gang, a rescue center for abused and abandoned pit bulls. Not knowing much about the breed myself, and only hearing the stories that are usually reported on the news, I didn’t know quite what to expect. I certainly didn’t expect a former beauty queen to be running the joint. Sophia had filled me in on Chloe, and how she’d gotten the gig, and for someone who’d only been running her own business for just over a year, it was impressive.

“Where are the puppies? I want to see the puppies!” Neil said, practically dancing through the barn we were standing in.

“Easy, Neil, they’re just around the corner.” Chloe laughed, patting the dog next to her. Sammy Davis Jr. was gentle and sweet, and obviously the mascot of the entire operation. Every volunteer she had working today stopped to say hello to him. Since I had a cat named Clive, who was I to judge what people named their pets?

“So how many people do you have working here?” I asked Chloe as we headed to where I assumed the puppies were.

“Full time there’s just three of us, but I have six more part-time paid staff, and usually from seven to ten part-time volunteers, depending on the time of year and where we are in the semester. We’ve partnered up with
a local veterinary college, and there’s usually someone interning here for credit. Plus my boyfriend, Lucas. He’s a veterinarian here in town, and he’s up here all the time.”

“You mean my cousin Lucas,” Sophia piped up.

“No, I mean my boyfriend, Lucas,” Chloe replied, tilting her head and smiling sweetly back at her.

“He’s my cousin.”

“He’s my boyfriend.”

“Shit, I like you so much better than his ex!” Sophia exclaimed, just as a very good-looking guy came around the corner.

“You picking on my cousin, Chlo?” he asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his side.

“I have to. She’s being prickly,” Chloe replied promptly, and Sophia stuck out her tongue. “Lucas, this is Simon and Caroline, they’re friends of—”

“They’re my friends, and I can introduce them,” Sophia interrupted. With as much crap as she was giving Chloe, I could tell she really liked her. “This is Simon and Caroline.”

“Nice to meet you Caroline, Simon,” Lucas said, reaching out and first shaking my hand, and then Simon’s. “I hear you guys are picking out a puppy to take back to the city?”

“Oh no, not us. Those two.” Simon pointed at Neil and Sophia. “We’ve got all we can handle with four cats at home.”

“Four cats? Wow, impressive,” Lucas said as we headed into a separate area. And then we finally saw . . . the puppies. And they were every bit as cute as promised. Neil immediately fell to the floor, letting them crawl all over him in a giant wave of adorable.

“Oh my God! These guys are awesome!” he cried out, now lying down in the pile of waggly tails. They swarmed him, to his delight.

As we watched our friend roll around on the floor, laughing his head off, I had a sudden vision of what Neil would be like as a father.

“You do know that you’ll never get to play good cop with your kid, right?” I whispered to Sophia, who just shook her head as she looked on in amusement.

“Oh yeah, that’s obvious,” she said, then turned to me with a grin. “Besides, I look really good when I’m playing bad cop.”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” Simon said, then lay down in the pile with his friend.

And as I watched Simon play with the puppies, I had a sudden vision of him rolling around on the floor in our home, in Sausalito, covered in kittens and babies. Mmm, good vision.

“So, obviously they’re all adorable,” Chloe said, watching the two grown men having a ball with a bunch of dogs. “Any thoughts on which you think you’d like?”

“Good lord, how in the world are we going to choose?” Sophia bent down to pick up a sweet little one that had begun nuzzling at her foot.

Ha! Sophie’s choice . . . I bit it back and said nothing. I did look down to see Simon, grinning up at me with hands full of puppies.

“A hundred percent no,” I said, arching my eyebrow.

I
n the end, it was the puppies who made the choice for Sophia and Neil. Not one, not two, but three puppies had been adopted. Cute won out over common sense, and even Sophia was excited about the prospect of having a houseful of paws and toddler toes all at once. Truth was, I’d never seen her happier. She still talked a great game, tough as nails and seeming to have Neil by the balls, but she was thrilled with the turn her life was taking. The puppy trifecta was just one more sign that our leggy redhead was being domesticated.

We were all racing toward our thirties, settling down a bit perhaps, but never actually settling.

Lucas and Chloe invited us to stay for dinner. Neil and Sophia were staying the night. Simon and I had made reservations at a little boutique hotel down by the ocean, and I was looking forward to being lulled to sleep by the sounds of the waves. I was also looking forward to making Chloe give me a tour of the crazy house she lived in.