“I’m glad you could come out tonight.” He leaned back and she rested her head against his shoulder. She was utterly relaxed, enjoying herself with her friends, having a moment with the man she liked; all was well in the world.

“I am too.”

“How long has it been?” He played with her hair, sifting it through his fingers, making her feel like a pampered cat. He smelled good, familiar and warm, and totally sexy. She wanted to lick him. A lot. So she gave in and let herself nuzzle his neck, breathing in the way he was, letting that scent lodge in her senses until she shivered.

“You’re distracting me,” he said, amused.

“Sorry,” she said, totally not. “How long has it been since I dated? Played pool?”

“Dated. Somehow, I have a hard time imagining you playing pool on a date before me.”

She laughed. “Am I that much of a fuddy-duddy?”

“Fuddy-duddy? Wow, I haven’t heard that one since first grade.” He squeezed her to let her know he was teasing. “You’re not a fuddyduddy. I just meant I knew you were married and then were on the road and dancing.”

“I happen to like the word ‘fuddy-duddy,’ thank you very much.” She winked at Adrian. “Three years? Yeah, and then it was a few dates. Dinner, the theater, nothing as fun as pool.” She shrugged.

“How long were you with your ex?”

“I was twenty-three when we met, and we were married by the time I was twenty-four. I divorced him when I was twenty-seven, a few months after Rennie was born. It had been a done deal for about a year before that anyway. I’d kicked him out about two months into my pregnancy and then he did jail time. Blah, blah, blah.”

“He sounds like a total tool,” Adrian said.

“He was. But he gave me Rennie, and for that, I’m glad for him. Anyway, I’m out of the dating habit. I have no idea. Am I doing it right?”

Brody leaned toward her and kissed her nose. “You’re rocking it. And Elise, tell me true, have you ever not done things right in your life? I bet you were good at everything growing up.”

“I did well in school. I was a good dancer. Oh, it’s my turn.” She scrambled over him and out of the booth before he could say more.

“Dude, how long as it been since you’ve had a date?” Adrian leaned back and watched Brody, an amused smile on his face.

“What? I’m here with a beautiful woman. How am I failing again? Oh, please do inform me, since you’re here with your steady girlfriend of five years. Oh wait, you’re here alone, rock-boy. How you gonna school me with a record like that?”

“Talk’s cheap, old man. Have you not noticed how she gets uncomfortable with any mention of how perfect she is? She was snuggled up to you, sending all the right signals, and you made the comment about her being perfect and she scampered off. Not very smooth.”

Brody snorted at his brother, partly because he wanted to but partly because Adrian, damn him, was right, and had seen something Brody himself had seen but hadn’t quite put together the same way Adrian had.

“We all have our wounds, Brody. Now you know what hers are about and you can avoid them, or at least poke at them in private.”

Elise hadn’t had such a wonderful time with other adults in ages. Rennie came first, and she didn’t resent that or wish it away. But it meant she didn’t date much and she didn’t have much time or energy for nights playing pool and laughing with friends.

She liked it.

She liked it as much as she liked the weight of Brody’s arm around her shoulders. She liked the sound of quiet laughter and talk as they all headed back home.

Keeping her voice low, she said, “Ben, Todd and Erin are a bit tipsy. You need to offer them a place to crash when you get home. I’ll go back to my place. I don’t want them to feel like they have to drive right now.”

Brody stopped and embraced her. “Smart woman but so dumb in some ways. Yes, I noticed, and yes, I will offer them, and Adrian, a place to hang out. But you are not going back home. It’s eleven and everyone is asleep at your house. We’re going to play Rock Band on the Wii.”

“I wanted to have hot, noisy, wild sex for hours,” she breathed against his mouth, and he groaned.

“That’s not fair. We can, by the way, have as much sex as you desire. I have a door on my bedroom. They’re all adults and know what a closed door means. If they knock, I’ll kill them.”

“Get a room,” Erin called out softly, and Brody let her go and they continued to walk.

“I can’t play Rock Band and have sex with you. I’m not that much of a multitasker.”

“Like I need to play on the Wii when you’re there willing to f**k me. Video games are what men invented to fill the sex void. Any man who’d choose video games over sex deserves to live in his mother’s basement with his mint-condition, in-box Star Wars figurines and his real doll.”

She burst out laughing.

But when they got back, there wasn’t time for sneaking off, because the video game challenge was tossed out and it would have felt weird telling them all to play while she and Brody went off to have sex. It would have been good, but weird, and these were his siblings, people more like his kids than his brother and sister.

“I can’t believe they’re still here,” he said on her doorstep an hour and a half later.

“They like to be with you. How awesome is that? I hope Rennie still wants to hang with me when she’s this age. You should be proud, Brody. You give them a safe, happy space and they want to be in it. This is a good thing.” She craned her neck to kiss him quickly. “Well, it’s a sucky thing for our plans of wild, noisy sex, but it means you did your job right. That’s something special. You three are something special. I’ll just masturbate and think of you.”