Under My Skin (Skin Deep #2)

Luke reached for the list and read some off. “Number 1, get someone to buy you a shot. Number 2, dance on the bar…” he looked at me and quirked his eyebrow. “Did she dance on the bar?”

I shook my head in the negative. “No, actually, Chloe did that one. Shocked the shit out of us.”

Luke’s eyes went wide but he didn’t say anything else. He continued reading the list, chuckling at a couple and then reading them aloud when he came to ones he apparently found most interesting.

“Give a lap dance? Get five phone numbers? Jesus, Allie, were you trying to set her up?” Luke asked, his hand raking through his hair in agitatedly.

I gasped and snatched the paper out of his hand, glowering at him. “Seriously? I know you didn’t even ask me that. Chloe and Leah split the phone number dare, and believe it or not, my mother did the lap dance.” I held up my hand. “Please, don’t ask. It was bad enough to see with my own eyes.”

“Hey!” I exclaimed suddenly. “What’s the deal? How are you not passed out somewhere? It was your bachelor party last night, too!”

He shrugged. “Oh, don’t worry. I’ve got a workshop going on in my head right now, but I wanted to come home and sleep in my own bed with my future wife. Couldn’t take anymore snoring.”

I giggled. “Brandon and Jacks?” I asked.

“Nope,” he answered. “Calland. I swear to God, if I didn’t know it was Emma’s brother there on the couch, I would have thought there was a grizzly bear in the living room. We dropped her dad off at home and the rest of us crashed at your place. When I left, Brandon was in your bed and I think Jacks was in the bathtub. Could have been the other way around. And I’m pretty sure Calland was wearing a bra. Didn’t want to examine that one too closely, you know. Self-preservation and plausible deniability and all.”

I nodded. Maybe I shouldn’t mention all the times Emma and I had dressed Calland and his friends up when we were growing up. Ever see some dragged out thirteen/fourteen year olds with hooker make-up and padded bras riding a modified grocery cart into a ditch at the end of a driveway? Well, it’s pretty fuckin’ hilarious, lemme tell ya.

“So what did you guys do last night?” I asked Luke.

His face turned red again and I had my answer. “You went to a strip club!” I crowed. “HA! I thought you said no strip clubs!”

“Like I had a choice!” he hollered at me. “Calland, Brandon, and Jackson planned the whole thing. Do you think I got to have a say in anything? With CALLAND making most of the decisions!? And don’t you dare give me any grief over it, because I KNOW you took Emma to a strip club!”

I blinked. “N-no, I didn’t,” I stammered.

“Busted!” Luke said. “Which strip club do you think we ended up at?” he asked.

Oh. Well, shit.

“How the hell did we not see you?” I asked. I shook my head before he could answer. “Nevermind. We were all pretty wasted by that point. Although, I do pride myself on handling my alcohol better than most, so I just can’t believe I didn’t see any of you.”

“Your mom did. She did the whole zipping motion across her lips and then mimed throwing away the key. She’s a trip,” he said, laughing. “Honestly, though, the guys threw a great party for me, just as, obviously, you girls did for Emma.” He smiled fondly at Emma, still snoring away on the counter.

I cocked my head and couldn’t help but smile. “You really love her.” It was a statement, and it wasn’t like I was just figuring it out. But sometimes it was just so…heart warming to see that I couldn’t help but comment.

He nodded, not taking his eyes off of her. He laughed as she shifted in her sleep and let out a huge belch that would have put a grown man to shame. “How could I not?” he said, grinning.

Luke and I talked for a little longer and then I left, heading home to my guys and whoever else was left crashed out there. I did wake up my mom before I left to see if she wanted a ride, but she decided to drive herself home. She’s a party beast, what can I say?

We left pretty much everyone else passed out where they were, but I made Chloe get up and come home with me. She was still pretty out of it. Guess that could have come from all the shots I kept handing her all night. But I won’t feel bad about it. She’s a kickass chick when she comes out of her shell.

By the time I got home, there was no one left at my house with the exception of my guys. I did see a bra mysteriously lying in the middle of my living room floor, but there was no sign of it’s previous wearer. Although I definitely would be revisiting that issue later with Calland. Especially once I filled Emma in on it.

I went into my bedroom after putting Chloe back to bed and saw that whoever had been crashed out in the bathtub was no longer there because both Brandon and Jackson were in my bed. Jackson was on the right side of the bed, Brandon was on the left, and they’d left room for me right in the middle, whether out of habit or what, I didn’t know, but I was thankful for it. I stripped off and crawled into bed, snuggling down between them and let sleep take me back under.

Chapter 15

“Who’s idea was it to take cameras with us during the parties?” Emma moaned, thumping her head down on the kitchen table.

It was Sunday and we were all over at her mom and dad’s house for breakfast, minus Chloe, who said she had some errands to run, and Jackson, who was going to take Chloe wherever she needed to go. We had just got done eating and the kids were in the living room playing a video game. My parents and even my grandparents had shown up (it wasn’t that uncommon; they’d been to quite a few breakfasts with me over the years) so it was boisterous and crowded, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. Most of my favorite people in one place…that’s what I call perfect! The fact that Leah had taken the cameras in and had all the pictures from the bachelor and bachelorette parties printed out just made it that much better, especially because there was some blackmail GOLD in there!

“Oh, dear, come on! They aren’t that bad!” Jan said, patting her daughter’s shoulder briefly before snatching the pictures out of Emma’s hand.

I grinned when she gasped as she started browsing through them. Her face was turning red and then she lost it, laughing so hard that tears started streaming down her face.

“Oh! Oh, God, Daisy!” she cackled to my mom.

My mom just grinned and shook her head because she’d already gone through them. My grandma shuffled over behind Jan so she could look over her shoulder.

“Daisy Mae!” she exclaimed, her gravelly voice cutting above everyone else. “Lord, child, does George know some naked guy is grinding his ugly stick all over your ass?”

“Mom!” my mother exclaimed at the exact same time I hollered, “Nanny!”

I turned to look at my grandma and, being the smart ass I usually am, said, “Ugly stick, Nanny? No one calls a man’s penis that.”

She shook her head at me in exasperation. “Don’t ya know anything, lily girl? Ugly Stik, you know, as in a brand of fishing pole. Seriously, look at that thing! It’s huge even covered by it’s banana hammock!”

I just groaned and covered my face with my hands, shaking my head as my mom jumped in, berating and then agreeing with my grandma. Geesh.