Free BeForeplay by Josie Charles Page A

me but they all live together. With
five of them, sometimes it's too much, even for me. You’ll meet
them. They're all coming to the party tonight and you'll see
exactly what I mean." I roll my eyes and grin.
    She gives a light chuckle. "That bad,
huh?"
    I shrug my shoulders. She'll have to see for
herself. I bet the tag team goes after her. That's what I call my
twin cousins. They're fucking nuts. There aren’t many boundaries
they won’t cross.

SIDNEY
    When we pull up in the driveway, I notice
Tasha is home. We take everything of Sam’s, and a few things I
picked up for Tash and Danny, into their house. I give her a big
hug then we start to put stuff in the coolers.
    I love this girl. She's had a hard life
because of the way her family is. They're a bunch of drunken
assholes with men coming and going because of her needy mother.
We're kind of the same in a way. She never became her mother and
isn't a drunk like the rest of them. Just like I never became
either of my parents.
    "Okay girlie! What do you want me to do when
we get all of this stuff put away?"
    "Well, that depends. Do you want to slice and
dice or mix and stir?" I hear the smile in her voice because she
knows which one I’ll pick.
    I stand up and look at her. "Duh, mix and
stir of course," we both laugh.
    “Okay ladies,” Sam interrupts. “I’m going to
go take a nap unless you need my help with something else.”
    Tasha tells him, “No. You go get rested up
for your party, we’ve got everything else covered. Thanks,
Sam.”
    I smile and tell him, “Sweet dreams.” He nods
and heads down the hall.
    I look over at Tash and she has an odd
expression on her face. "Everything okay? You look a little
off."
    "Yeah, just a long work day.” I can tell
she’s lying. Something is on her mind.
    “Spill. What is it?”
    “Okay, I know you want the scoop on Sam so
here it is. He's a manwhore. I love him and he never promises
anything more than a good time to the girls he’s with, but still.
He's a nice guy and a good friend but I don't think you should get
involved with him. Besides, he leaves to go back to England in a
couple of weeks. I love you too much to see you get involved in
something like that right now."
    I stop dumping the ingredients into the bowl
for the crab salad and sigh. "You don't have to worry about that. I
don't think he's interested in me. He seemed to be flirting with me
on our way to the store and then, on our way home, he was
umm…different.” I start adding the stuff to the bowl again. “I
don't know how to explain it, just different. Plus, you know I’m
not looking for a fling. I mean, the man is gorgeous but I’ve been
out of my booty call stage for a while now. Although, if I look at
him long enough I’m sure I could be put right back in it."
    She peeks her head around the fridge door and
gives me the 'come on, really' look. "I'm sure he's just tired.
Look, you're both adults. Just remember what I said about him.
Okay?"
    I nod. "So what all are we making?"
    "I thought we could do some finger foods, the
crab and some pasta salad. Danny said something about a barbeque on
Sunday, so we'll do real food then. Can you make the salsa, dill
dip and your baked sandwich?”
    “Sure, but--”
    “I bought a tube of bread dough for it, I
knew you wouldn't have enough time to make your own.” She knows me
too well. “While you make that, I'll chop and dice everything for
the salsa. I think that will be enough. Also Danny is picking up
the cake I ordered."
    "WHAT?" I look at Tasha and her eyes are
tightly shut with her shoulders scrunching up almost to her ears.
Oh yeah, she realizes she fucked up. "I can't believe you ordered a
cake! Why didn't you just ask me to make one? My cakes are the
bomb! You know you can't buy that kind of love and flavor from a
bakery."
    She opens her eyes and her shoulders drop.
Looking at me sheepishly she says, "I know but I didn't know if you
had the time. I forgot about it until last night so I just