Betting On Her (A Wilde Love Novel Book 2) Page 17
Katya laughed. “Well, that comes with the territory, I’m afraid.” She glanced at me. “Are you done for the day? I thought we could get a drink or something—get to know each other a bit more? I’ve never had a sister.”
Neither had I, although I’d asked for one for Christmas one year. “Oh wow, yes, please,” I replied, practically falling over myself at the thought of alcohol after a long, boring day in the clinic.
Dean laughed at the comment—even Katya let out a quiet giggle.
“I’ll leave you ladies to your drinks, then,” Dean said. “Don’t worry about the clean-up, Kirsten—I’ll get it done. And feel free to take the morning off, since we don’t have many appointments until noon.”
“And what if I am really sick?”
Dean sighed dramatically. “Ahh, with Rose off, then you’ll just have to force the sickness away.”
“Of course. I knew your concern was purely superficial.”
He thumped his chest with his hand. “That breaks my heart.”
I waved a hand dismissively, rolling my eyes at the comment. “Have a good evening, Dean.”
“You too.”
With summer on the edge of breaking, the early evening air was balmy, with only the barest hint of a chill on the edge of the breeze that occasionally blew by.
“Do you know any bars nearby?” Katya asked, happily linking arms with me when I offered mine to her.
“I hope that was a rhetorical question,” I scoffed. “I know them all…and not necessarily because they’re good places to drink.”
I knew most of them by reputation—and the number of injured brawlers they sent my way. One look at Katya confirmed that she got my meaning.
“Take me to one good for drinking but bad for fist fights…if there are any.”
Oh, I definitely liked my new sister. I could tell we were going to get on like a house on fire.
I ended up taking her to Cole’s—a bar with absolutely no mob ties whatsoever.
“I’ll have a double vodka and orange,” I told the bartender as soon as we reached the bar.
Katya laughed. “You weren’t lying when you said you wanted alcohol.” She looked at the bartender. “I’ll have the same.”
We ended up remaining seated at the bar as we talked—to stay close to the alcohol, I joked—but in reality, once we started speaking we lost track of time so much that we forgot to try and wrangle a booth.
“So how’s Matt? All good between you two?” I asked Katya after my third drink, feeling decidedly more relaxed than I was earlier on.
Katya blushed. “Very good. You know, after being in love with each other for so long but thinking there was no way we’d ever actually get to be together, it kind of feels…I don’t know. A bit unreal. Like I can’t believe my luck.”
Oh, that stung. I emptied my glass, thinking about Rafe. “I’m glad it could work out for one of us.”
“Don’t tell me you have a forbidden love for someone you can’t have, too?” She asked, incredulous but somehow not surprised at all. She followed suit and downed her drink. “There must be something in the water. So who is it?”
“Who is what?”
“Who is the guy? Your boss?”
If I had had any of my drink left in my mouth, I’d have spat it out. “Dean? Oh, God no!”
“But he’s so charming! And he definitely has a thing for you.”
“He’s like that with every woman he comes across. It’s his bedside manner. Besides, the guy is twelve years older than me.”
Katya’s eyes widen. “No way is he nearly forty!”
“I know, right? The man’s clearly a vampire. Or a wizard.”
“Maybe he sold his soul to the devil, a la Dorian Gray.”
I snorted in laughter. “I wouldn’t be surprised. Either way, it isn’t him.”
“Then who is it?”
I paused, considering hard whether I should tell Katya. It may well have been that it was only a matter of time before she found out about the fact that Rafe and I both had a thing for each other from Matt, but…I couldn’t bring myself to talk about him. Not yet. Possibly not ever.
I sighed, looking at the time on my phone. Suddenly, I was exhausted once more—thinking about Rafe often did that to me.
“Nobody important,” I finally told her. “Well, not anymore. I really should get going; I feel like I need about fourteen hours of sleep, and I don’t want to spend my precious morning sleeping off a hangover.”
She smiled at me. “Understandable. Do you…want to do this again?”
I perked up immediately. “Absolutely! Next time, let’s do it when we both have a day off and can get utterly smashed.”
“Deal.”
As I walked back home to the apartment I lived in to stay independent from my father and brothers, I smiled to myself.
She might have been late in joining the family, but having a sister was awesome.
More Wilde Love
Wilde Love Novels
Betting On Him
Betting On Her
Betting On Us
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International bestselling author of more than thirty novels, Kelly Collins writes with the intention of keeping the love alive. Always a romantic, she blends real-life events with her vivid imagination to create characters and stories that lovers of contemporary romance, new adult, and romantic suspense will return to again and again.
Kelly lives in Colorado at the base of the Rocky Mountains with her husband of twenty-eight years, their two dogs, and a bird that hates her. She has three amazing children, whom she loves to pieces.
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