Crazy Hot (The Au Pairs 4)

"Oh!" Suzy exclaimed, opening her clutch and dumping the

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contents on the kitchen counter. Out tumbled a BlackBerry, a cell phone, a mess of gum wads, and a broken makeup compact as well as a dirty white envelope.

"Yes, here they are. Okay." Suzy nodded and began to haphazardly stuff everything back into her purse.

Ryder Thompson raised his eyebrows at Mara and then downed the rest of his drink. "Well, we're off. If you see my daughter, tell her that she does still have a curfew and that while she thinks I don't notice when she doesn't sleep here, I certainly do."

'"Kay." Mara giggled. Parents. "Bye, Mr. T., Ms. F. I promise I won't burn the house down!" she called after them as they made their way out the door in a frenzy of smiles and a frizz of red hair.

Mara hummed cheerfully as she chopped up the garlic and tossed it into the sauce. It had been weeks since she and her friends had sat down together, as they'd all been remiss in making their weekly catchup meals. Earlier in the summer they'd been better about hanging out, but lately it felt like they were three different trains running on separate tracks. Of course, Jacqui and Eliza spent a lot of time together, but from what Mara could gather, hanging out gave them little time to chat--those Saucy Aussie boys, or whatever the hell they were called, were always around.

She put some chopped vegetables in another pot to steam and glanced up at the clock. Eight thirty already. Jacqui and Eliza were running late. Typical.

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An hour later, Mara sat at the counter, quietly simmering as much as the pasta sauce. She was about to clear the pots and pans when she heard the front door slam.

"Ouch!" There was a yelp from Jacqui. "Deus, who moved the umbrella stand there?"

"Shhh . . . ," Eliza whispered, laughing.

Hearing her friends joking together while Mara sat alone, waiting, stung. It reminded her too much of their first summer in the Hamptons, when Jacqui and Eliza tore up the party scene while she was left to take care of the Perry kids on her own. Bored and lonely, she'd spent her nights pining for Ryan, who didn't even know she existed back then. It was three years later, but had anything really changed?

Mara tried to tell herself things were different now as she got up and turned the heat on under the sauce to warm it up. First off, Jacqui and Eliza were now her friends--not two strangers who gave her the cold shoulder. And second, her days of pining for Ryan were well over. Sure, she'd felt the odd flash of jealousy on seeing him with Tinker, especially at first, but her weird fixation with making Ryan see what he was missing earlier in the summer had just been about missing her own boyfriend and needing some male attention.

Finally, the kitchen door swung open and Jacqui and Eliza tumbled in, giggling and holding on to each other. They smelled of champagne and cigarettes, and their faces were red and

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flushed. Both girls wore floor-length, exquisitely draped goddess gowns, samples from Eliza's upcoming fall collection, Jacqui's with a cutout in the middle to show off her sleek, tanned stomach. They looked red-carpet glamorous, if a little worse for wear.

"About time," Mara said irritably. Not only were they late, they were drunk? "

What's so funny?"

They told her about some prank the boys had pulled on an insufferable bore at the party. The twins had pretended they were one and the same person and kept popping up at opposite ends of the party, making the poor guy think he was losing it.

Eliza leaned on the counter, still laughing, while Jacqui investigated the pots and pans simmering on the stovetop. "Mmm, chica, this smells great," she said, sticking a ladle into the thick sauce and licking it. "I'm starving."

Mara handed the two of them plates. "I thought you guys would have eaten by now," she said curtly. Neither of them had thought to apologize for their lateness, and she wasn't about to let it slide.

"Nah, you know what those parties are like. Lots of standing around. Cocktails, but no one eating anything," Eliza said, scooping up pasta from the pot onto her plate, not caring that it was getting cold.

"I wouldn't really know." Mara tried to sound wounded as she grabbed silverware from the drawers.

"Aw, Mar, don't be like that," Eliza said soothingly, noticing the resentment in Mara's voice. "We're sorry we're late, but you

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know how it is. Anyway, we asked you to come with," she pointed out, settling down into a bar stool at the counter.

"Well, I can't really get off at, like, six to go to a cocktail party, can I? Not with five kids to watch," Mara added, setting the silverware down in front of them with a clang and looking meaningfully at Jacqui. She felt a bit like the nagging, irritated housewife, complete with dirty apron.

"I'm sorry, Mar, I know I promised I'd be back," Jacqui said guiltily, looking down at her empty plate. She felt bad about leaving Mara with the kids so often, but she couldn't help it that she had a busy shooting schedule to attend to, could she? Fashion waited for no man (or woman), and it certainly wasn't going to wait for her to clean up baby spittle. "How about you sleep in tomorrow and I'll take the kids to gifted camp?" she offered, making her way to the stove to get some pasta now that Eliza had cleared the area.

"All right," Mara relented. She stood up and grabbed a bottle of white wine from the fridge. She could never stay mad at her friends for very long anyway. "So how's the shoot going?"