Jazz sat up again and heaved the pillow aside. She’d collapsed on her dress, probably wrinkling it all to hell, but who could worry about that at a time like this? “You’re serious. You really think I should do this.”
“I do. Absolutely. You have to give it a try. You’ve wondered all these years. If you don’t go for it, balls to the wall, you’ll always wonder what if. Fifteen years from now when Oblivion’s broken up and you’re married with a pair of adorable babies, you’ll log onto Facebook and start a madcap instant messaging affair with him, thereby homewrecking both of your families. This is much more expeditious. Trust me.”
“I don’t want any adorable babies if they aren’t his.” Jazz frowned and smoothed her hand over her minidress. “I definitely don’t want to be married.”
“Proving my point. Pack some hot clothes, head off to the spa and tonight, attack.”
When Harper started humming the Jaws soundtrack, Jazz laughed. “There’s one little problem. I won’t have transportation for this little sneak attack plan of yours.”
“You can use the catering truck. It’ll be at your service.”
“Won’t you need it?”
“Between the hours of midnight and seven a.m.? Nope. I don’t have a job until eight a.m. tomorrow. So get there late and leave early.” Harper made a purring noise. “And make the most of all the hours in between.”
“Aw, damn, you’ve sold me.” Jazz grinned and jogged over to her closet. “Now help me figure out what to pack.”
Twenty minutes later, she had a head full of sex advice, a packed suitcase, several cases of instruments and her notebook under her arm. Operation Sex-up-Gray achievement unlocked.
On her way out of her bedroom she stopped by her guinea pig Ratt’s cage and stuck her finger through the bars. “Hey there, munchkin. Auntie Harp is going to make sure you and your sister George have plenty to eat and drink while we’re away. So don’t go riding that wheel of yours all night long and getting your cage dirty til I get back. No wild parties, you hear me?” She pressed a kiss to her finger and placed it on Ratt’s furry head. “Be good for mama.”
Hearing herself, she sighed. Yeah, she really did have baby fever if she was actually mothering a damn guinea pig. But along with being cute, he was well-behaved. George, Simon’s kitten, was much more of a miscreant.
She headed down the hall and knocked on Gray’s bedroom door. Hopefully his and Nick’s car hadn’t been early. She’d been so busy squirreling away necessary items for her trip—naughty lingerie, check and condoms, check—that Nick and Gray could’ve split without her knowing. Normally Gray would’ve stopped by to say goodbye, but maybe he was taking Lila’s warning seriously.
More seriously than she was anyway.
On her second knock, he opened the door and gave her a careless grin that didn’t diminish the strain around his eyes. His silver eyebrow ring gleamed, adding a little edge to his casual outfit of jeans, a T-shirt and a vest. While the jeans were snug, the T-shirt seemed a little baggy, but he’d always had energy to burn and a crazy fast metabolism. She gained weight just looking at food and he could eat double cheeseburgers at every meal and not gain an ounce.
“Hey.” He leaned on the doorjamb. “You defying a direct order?”
The amusement in his voice helped ease some of her nerves. She’d been planning for this day for a long time. Now that it was actually here, she couldn’t stop fussing with the hem of her shirt and bouncing around on her Keds. She wasn’t a raving beauty but normally she was fine with her appearance. Sure, her eyes weren’t quite even and her nose was a bit too tiny and she was ridiculously short. She’d gotten used to all of those things. Yet all of a sudden she couldn’t stop analyzing her boobs or how her butt looked in her jeans.
Not that it really mattered. He’d been in her sphere for close to a decade. If he didn’t find the goods up to snuff, there wasn’t much she could do about it. She’d just have to work what her mama gave her and hope for the best.
“You okay, J?”
This zoning out problem she was developing wasn’t going to up her hotness quotient. “Sure. I’m fine. Uh, yeah, about the direct order.” She gave him a bright smile and waved her notebook. “If I keep this in my hand at all times, that makes this within the boundaries of Oblivion biz, right?”
He scraped his hand over the back of his head. “Sure. So, ah, you’re off to the spa soon, right?”
“Yes.” She reached up to toy with the ends of her hair. “I’m thinking of dyeing it again.”