Rio comes back into the room with whatever is left of the tequila, which isn’t much, handing Stevie another water.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I drunkenly admit. “Everything is so messy. I was just taking a break from work, and now I’m head over heels for Max and I’m having the best sex of my life with his dad.”
“There we go!” Stevie sits up straighter. “That’s what we want to hear. After we saw you two together at dinner, we knew this was going to happen. Give us the details. It’s good?”
“It’s so good.”
“I knew it. I told you!” Indy points at Stevie. “You’ve seen Kai’s hands.”
“The hands are a tell,” I agree.
“Goddammit.” Rio shakes his head. “It’s official. I’m the last one.”
“I don’t know what I’m doing. Who fucks the single dad of the kid they’re nannying for?”
Stevie pops her shoulders nonchalantly. “I fucked a hockey player on the team I was working for.”
Indy points to Stevie. “I fucked her brother.”
“I’m not fucking anyone,” Rio sighs.
Kennedy takes a long drag of her cocktail. “My ex-fiancé is fucking my stepsister.”
As if a record scratched, the whole room freezes in silence, all eyes on her.
“Okay, you win,” Stevie says. “But you should probably expand on that.”
Kennedy holds up the bottle of tequila before taking another swig. “My ex-fiancé ended our engagement because I wouldn’t quit my job after last season. His ego was too fragile for his partner to be traveling with a bunch of male athletes, so he called it off. Then in a turn of events, right before this season started, I found out his new girlfriend is my stepsister. And just last month, I learned via a picture of a ring on Instagram that they’re now engaged.”
What the actual fuck? I’m attempting to school my expression, but I’m too drunk to keep my jaw from hanging slack.
“Oh!” She laughs with a dark edge, not showing any sign of weakness. “I’m not done. Said engagement ring was the one I had picked out, but not the one I was proposed to with. However, he did trade in mine for my stepsister’s, and now I get to spend every family holiday with the two of them for the rest of my life.” She raises her cocktail glass in a cheers.
Kennedy isn’t hurt, but she is pissed. I can see it in the way she tells the story. She’s tiny in stature, but quite frightening when she’s mad.
“Damn.” Indy stands from the ground. “I think we need more alcohol after that.”
Rio clears his throat. “You know, if you need help moving on—”
“Rio,” Stevie scolds with a laugh. “No.”
“I’m just saying, Kennedy, take it from me, in this group you don’t want to be the only single one the way I am. We could help each other out here.”
“Isn’t Isaiah part of this group?” she asks. “He’s single.”
I lift my brow mischievously. “Right. He is.”
“Oh, no. Absolutely not. Don’t look at her like that.” Rio points between Kennedy and me. “If Isaiah, of all people, settles down before me . . . It’s not going to happen. You two. Stop giving each other ideas.”
“Don’t worry, Rio,” Kennedy cuts in. “I wouldn’t even give up my career for my fiancé. The last thing I’m going to do is throw it away over Isaiah fucking Rhodes.”
Stevie yawns again, rolling herself off the couch. The poor girl has been a champ tonight, hanging out with us while sober and exhausted. “This pregnant lady needs to get to bed. That was fun, and Kennedy it was great to meet you. Ind, I’m taking a guest room!”
“Okay!” she shouts from the kitchen. “See you in the morning.” Indy makes her way back into the living room. “Rio, you’re staying, yeah?”
“Yes! And I’m sleeping in Ryan Shay’s bed.”
“No, you’re not.” She turns to Kennedy and me. “I have two more guest rooms. You can each have one.”
My drunk brain does not want to shut up tonight. “I think I want to go back to Kai’s. I don’t have too many nights left, and I want to spend them at his house.”
“Wow, okay.” Indy’s eyes widen. “That was way too fucking cute.”
I’ve never been one to like the word cute, especially when it’s directed at me, but there’s just something about that Clark Kent lookalike that has me feeling like a marshmallow these days.