Her Best Men

CHAPTER 5

ANDREW

Holy fuck. The hot tub party got fuckin’ nuts. Hot babes in bikinis slinging back beers and bottles of wine. It was a dude’s fuckin’ paradise. And Katie looked hot. Hotter than I’d ever seen her. She was relaxing and enjoying her time, though I could tell her friend Whitney was a little on the angry side about her opening up some beers. What was the issue? Katie slung them back all the time in high school with us. Her tolerance was through the roof. And even if Katie did get rowdy, what little country girl in daisy dukes and boots didn’t? Work hard, play hard was my mantra.

And Katie deserved to fucking party it up.

We helped the girls stumble to Katie’s suite. Figured they’d all want to crash together. When I woke up early that morning with a pounding head and a desperate need for water, I knew the girls would wake up in much the same condition.

After popping some medicine and chugging two bottles of water, I made my way to their suite. It was my damn day off, and I was going to make the best of it. Katie was in town with two hot-ass friends, and they were celebrating Katie not marrying some asshole she met in the city.

That was an occasion I wanted to celebrate, too.

I stole some food from the kitchen and made my way to their room. I set out juice and water as well as a full bottle of Tylenol for them to have when they woke up. I started frying up some bacon and sizzling some sausage, boiling some grits and scrambling some cheesy eggs. Katie ate the shit out of cheesy eggs. It was always her go-to breakfast want. Their suite was filled with the sweet sounds and smells of breakfast as I heard them stirring, stretching, and bitching about their heads.

They were pretty drunk the night before. Wyatt had to carry Lizzie to the damn elevator, and Katie was draped around my shoulder. Whitney was volleying her pretty little self between Dylan and Caleb, which made for a lot of giggling fits as we rode up to their room. The night had been fun, but this morning, the consequences reared their ugly heads.

The girls were hungover as fuck and begging for their lives.

“Lord help me, I’m dying,” Lizzie said.

“Shut up. Your voice hurts,” Whitney said.

“There’s a man in our kitchen,” Lizzie said. “The fuck’s that?”

“It’s Andrew,” Katie said.

I turned my head at the sound of her voice as she came shuffling out of her room. She looked like hell. Hair matted to her face and her eyes all red and puffy. Leaning against the doorway like she was still half-drunk. Whitney groaned as she peeled herself out of bed as Lizzie flopped down at the kitchen table, and Katie closed her eyes while she held her head.

“Got some Tylenol on the table. Come sit on down. Breakfast is ready,” I said.

“God bless you for all this,” Lizzie said.

“Yeah. Thanks,” Whitney said.

But all Katie did was stumble to the table and plop down heavily into a chair.

The girls passed around Tylenol and juice as I put food on their plates. I wasn’t a cook like Dylan was, but I learned my way around a kitchen. Living as a single man will force that on anyone, especially if he doesn’t want to eat garbage the rest of his life. Whitney and Lizzie dug in, stuffing their mouths and moaning at the delicious food on their plates.

But Katie sat there, her eyes closed and her head still in her hands.

I washed up the dishes as Lizzie and Whitney talked. They were trying to get Katie to engage, but she kept shutting them up. Man. She must’ve felt worse than she looked, and my heart went out to her.

I wished I could take her pain away from her.

“I think I’m gonna go take a shower,” Lizzie said. “Whitney. Wanna help?”

“With you taking a shower?” Whitney asked.

“Just come on,” Lizzie said. “Get better at reading signals, city girl.”

Lizzie tossed me a wink as she dragged Whitney back into a bedroom, then the door shut with a slam as Katie groaned.

“Anythin’ I can get you?” I asked. “Coffee? More Tylenol? A morphine drip?”

“Death? Death sounds good,” Katie said.

“Not on your life, pretty lady.”