Free Natural Consequences by Elliott Kay Page A

taught her to be observant. She noticed the quick, questioning glance Drew threw at Jason before he answered, though not Jason’s wordless response, whatever it had been. “Here, lately,” Drew said. “Mostly day stuff, helping with inventory and the records. I’m kind of on hold for actual service work ‘til I turn twenty-one next week. Alcohol laws and all that, y’know?”
    “Oh, that’s awesome,” Amber smiled. “ Big birthday plans in the works?”
    “Think I’ve got one person or another takin’ me out to dinner every night that week, but we usually save the birthday party for Halloween. We’ve got another friend who was actually born on the day, so it should be a big thing. Got a big costume ball in the city we’re all going to this year.”
    “ Is Sherri coming?” Jason asked. “Are you two official now?”
    “ Officially over,” Drew shook his head.
    “Aw, what happened?”
    “I guess I was too much of a distraction from her school work. That’s what she said, anyway.”
    “Callin’ it,” announced Wade, who had been on a roll while no one else was looking. “Side pocket.” One stroke of his cue stick later, Wade smiled up at Drew with a triumphant look, then glanced to the others. “Who’s next?”
    Amber looked to Jason and shrugged. “Anyone else likely to show up soon? Should we wait?”
    “Nah, they can wait us out,” Jason decided. “Two on two?”
    “All good,” said Drew as he racked up the balls. “Amber, you wanna break?”
    “I can do that,” she accepted. Amber pick ed a cue stick off the rack on the wall, then moved around to the end of the table. She waited for Drew to clear out. Set up the cue ball. Lined up her shot. Glanced up, once, at movement on the other side of the table. Spiked the ball in shock as her brain registered what she saw.
    The dark-haired stunner on the other side of the table caught the flying cue ball without the slightest break in her composure. Amber’s mind nearly went blank as she just stared. The newcomer smiled gently, rolling the cue ball back across the table to its starting point.
    “Hello,” the woman said. She glanced to the young men around the table. “Gentlemen. Who’s this?”
    “Lorelei, this is Amber,” Jason spoke up. “She’s a classmate of mine.”
    Amber blinked. She couldn’t believe that Jason or the others could speak so comfortably with her. Why weren’t they just as awed? Hell, they were guys, and young ones, too—why weren’t they more awed?
    The woman rounded the table to offer her hand. She looked noticeably older than the rest of them, perhaps around thirty, though with unfairly perfect skin and a figure that women would kill for. Amber slowly took the woman’s hand, shook it, and mumbled out a greeting. She couldn’t tell if Lorelei didn’t realize how taken aback she was or if the older woman was simply too gracious to draw any attention to it. Amber suspected the latter.
    As she shook it off, Lorelei asked, “You said you’re here with Jason?”
    “Yeah-huh,” Amber nodded.
    Lorelei’s cool smile remained. She slipped over to stand next to Drew. He didn’t look her way, but he waited with his hand out and a smug smile as she fished a twenty from her purse.
     
    * * *
     
    “You don’t need to play your cards so close to the chest, you know,” Lorelei told her as they got to the bar. “They’re trustworthy. They like you already.”
    Not for the first time that evening, Amber found herself taken aback. A dozen replies came to mind, none of them honest. She chose the most non-committal: “What do you mean?”
    Lorelei favored her with a quiet, sly grin. “You ask much more than you tell,” she observed. “I can’t blame you. They’re an interesting crowd. Yet I can’t help but think you hide things about yourself. You need not.”
    “Am I that obvious?”
    “No,” Lorelei replied. “Not obvious at all. You’re good.” Her tone was so cool and knowing that it made Amber