KeyParty by Jayne Kingston Read Free Book Online

number?”
    That stopped him just inside the doorway.
    “I’ll take that as a no,” Alex said when Ben backed up a
step and looked at him.
    Ben went into his office and closed the door on the sound of
Alex laughing.
    If he wasn’t going to get any sleep, he might as well get a
jump on the work he needed to start the next day. But as soon as he opened his
laptop he knew any attempt to work was going to be futile.
    “God damn it,” he muttered, scrubbing his hands over his
face.
    For a fleeting moment between rounds with Rachel he’d
considered doing something to thank Petra for making sure he and Rachel ended
up together that night. Now he wasn’t sure he was ever going to forgive her.
    * * * * *
    “Morning, sunshine.” Petra smiled serenely from her seat at
the kitchen table. “There’s a fresh pot of coffee.”
    “You’re an angel.” Rachel stuck her head in the refrigerator
and took her time looking for the cream, sparing herself from Petra’s scrutiny
for a precious few seconds. “Is Jude up yet?”
    “No.” She could hear Petra folding the newspaper she’d been
reading. “He works tonight, so he’ll probably sleep most of the day.” There was
a moment of silence. “So?”
    Rachel’s shoulders hunched toward her ears. “So what?” she
asked, her back to her friend as she added a spoonful of sugar to her mug. It
was pointless to resist talking about her night with Ben. Petra would get it
out of her eventually.
    “Mornin’, sluts.” Bree shuffled into the room, barefoot in
her party dress with her hair in a messy knot on top of her head, and made a
beeline for the refrigerator.
    Rachel added cream to her coffee and joined Petra at the
little table in the breakfast nook. “No sleeping in today?” she asked Bree.
    “It’s wedding-dress shopping day with my future
sister-in-law.” She came to the table with two bottles of water. “I’m supposed
to meet her in an hour.” She sat, tucked one of the bottles into her crotch and
sighed. “Lord, I’m gonna be walking crooked for a week.”
    Rachel’s eyes went big and Petra nearly did a spit-take with
her coffee.
    “You need one?” She held the second bottle toward Rachel.
“Just asking.” She gave Rachel a wink and a knowing smile. “They don’t call Ben
and Alex the foot-long twins for nothing,” she added, cracking the seal on the
cap and touching it to Rachel’s mug.
    Rachel stifled the wave of jealousy that threatened to rise.
    “Who’s they?” Petra asked.
    Bree finished drinking half the water and breathed out
heavily.
    “Me, mostly.” She grinned. “Maybe you could fix it so she
ends up with Big Red next time,” she said to Petra.
    “And maybe you could be less obvious when fixing the game
next time.” Rachel gave Petra a look. “Isn’t random hooking up the point
of a key party?”
    Petra shrugged innocently and sipped her coffee.
    “Seriously,” Bree continued, to Rachel this time. “You have
to see Alex’s dick. It’s gorgeous.” She volleyed back to Petra. “Am I right?”
    Petra gave her a wide-eyed look. “I don’t know. I’ve never
seen it.”
    Rachel sat back and shook her head. “I haven’t had enough
coffee to be hearing this just yet.” It came out much more impatiently than
she’d intended.
    She caught the quick look her friends exchanged.
    “You all right?” Petra asked.
    “I’m fine.” She tried to smile, but she didn’t feel fine.
“I’m just tired.”
    “Tired means you hardly got any sleep,” Bree said, patting
her hand indulgently. “That’s a good sign, sweetie.”
    “If you say so,” she muttered into her mug, then sighed. “He
works at the new cardiac wellness center in Homewood. I have an interview there
on Tuesday.”
    Petra sat up straight, sensing the reason for Rachel’s
gloom. Bree, who always saw the sunny side of things, pumped a fist into the
air.
    Bree’s expression fell when Rachel just looked at her.
“That’s not a good thing?”
    Rachel occasionally