Sun-kissed (The Au Pairs 3)

A FEW WEEKS AFTER THE FASHION SHOW, JACQUI, MARA, AND

Eliza went out to dinner so that Jacqui could celebrate getting paid. Mara remembered those thick, cash-filled envelopes with affection. She'd traded them in for the skimpy direct-deposit payments due a cub reporter. Even though the perks made up for it, part of her did miss receiving those thick tax-free wads of cash every three weeks.

The three girls were sitting in a booth at Lunch and had ordered the restaurant's famous lobster rolls and a pitcher of beer to share. Jacqui did most of the talking, since Eliza was uncharacteristically quiet and wasn't her usual boisterous self and Mara's thoughts were preoccupied with her relationship with Ryan.

They were still having some bad feeling over the other morning, when Mara had woken up and found that they were drifting from the dock. Ryan had forgotten to check on the knots that held them to the pier, and they had come loose in the middle of the night. They'd had to call the someone at the yacht club to give them a tug back to land, and Mara had come in late for work and had been yelled at by her boss.

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A formal politeness had descended on their relationship, with the two of them walking on eggshells around each other. The frosty atmosphere worried her. Being in a relationship was really hard work. It wasn't the honeymoon she'd been expecting. Mara was stressed over the situation. Ryan was the best thing that had ever happened to her, but it bothered her that he couldn't understand why she was so upset.

She'd managed to work her way

back into Sam Davis's good graces by filing a great column on the Writers versus Actors softball championship, where she'd given the celebrities funny nicknames (portly Alec Baldwin was "Cake Batter"). Mara knew a thing or two about the game, and her trenchant observations on how a backyard activity had grown to have corporate sponsors and coverage on ESPN simply due to its participants were funny and well put.

Jacqui was telling them about how the web site guys had chartered a plane to write her name in the sky when Mara noticed a familiar figure stroll into the restaurant. Her neighbor wasn't wearing her signature blue bikini this time, but Tinker was outfitted in a very tight halter top and cutoff Daisy Dukes.

She walked by Mara's table and said hello. "Mind if I join you guys?" she asked with a friendly smile. "I think my sis is running late."

"Sure," Mara said tightly before taking a huge bite from her lobster roll. She wiped off the excess mayo on her lips with a gingham napkin. "Guys, this is Tinker. She's living on the boat next to ours on Sag. Tinker, this is Jacqui and Eliza."

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"Cool," Tinker said. "How do you all know each other?"

"We au-paired together a couple of years ago," Eliza replied.

"Oh, right," Tinker said, turning to Mara. "Ryan told me he was dating his little brothers' and sisters' nanny."

Mara colored. The way Tinker said nanny sounded like Mara had only taken the job to seduce the rich kids' hot older brother.

"How do you know Ryan?" Jacqui asked curiously.

"We're in the same coed fraternity at Dartmouth," Tinker explained, taking a handful of Mara's fries. "It's so fun. Ryan's president."

"Which one?" Eliza wanted to know.

Tinker told her.

"Do you guys still have Naked Night?" asked Eliza, who knew a thing or two about Ivy League Greek culture.

"Naked Night?" Mara asked, almost choking on her beer.

"Yeah, it's like one night of the year when all the members hang out in the nude all evening. It's really trippy, I heard. Lindsay's older brother went to Dartmouth. He told us about it," Eliza explained, scooping up the chunks of lobster salad that had fallen onto her plastic plate.

"Oh God, it's so wild." Tinker laughed, as if thinking about a very naughty secret.

"Really," Mara said icily. "Tell us more."

"Well, first we streak the campus, and then there's a hot tub in the basement of the house and we all get sudsy in the bubbles.

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The pictures are absolutely hysterical." Tinker giggled. "We get so drunk, it's scary. It's a miracle no one's drowned in the Jacuzzi."

"I'm sure," Mara said sarcastically. "So what else do you guys do in this frat?"

"In the winter, there's a big scavenger hunt in the woods. Every item we find is some kind of alcohol. By the end of it, everyone's so drunk some of us write our addresses on our arms. If found, please return to Animal House. I woke up in a pasture once. I had no idea how I got there. Anyway, I'm organizing it with Ryan this year." Tinker rolled her eyes. "Sadly, there's not much to do in New Hampshire, so we basically have to make our own fun. Which means a lot of beer and planning road trips."