“Hey there, Molly,” Quentin said. “How are you doing tonight?”
“Doing fine, Quentin.” She eyed Darren. “I see we have another one.”
My brother took me by the back of the neck and gave me another shake.
“This is my baby brother, Darren,” he said.
“I’d know that anywhere. All you boys have the Freeman good looks. Why haven’t I met him before?” Molly asked.
“It’s his twenty-first birthday,” Quentin announced, and her eyes lit up.
“Then the first round of shots is on me,” she said. Flashing a grin, she whipped around and headed to the bar.
“See?” Quentin asked, looking over at me. “Aren’t you glad you didn’t finish your celebration with dinner?”
My family was extremely important to me. We were very tight-knit and spent a lot of time together. Growing up with three big brothers was something I really enjoyed about my childhood. I loved all of them, but the tremendous age difference between Quentin and me kept us from being as close as we could be. I was a bit of a surprise baby after my parents thought they were finished having children, which made me almost half the age of my oldest brother. Since I’d started racing for the company, we were getting to know each other better, and it seemed like me stepping into full adulthood would give us a chance to get closer. The least I could do was settle in and have a good time.
Which was exactly what I did.
An hour later, after our other brothers had joined us, Molly came back to the table and handed each of us our third shot. The first two had loosened me up, and after I took back the third, I slid out of the booth.
“Come on,” I said to my brothers.
“What are you doing?” Quentin asked with a laugh.
“There’s music, isn’t there? I’m going to dance like it’s my birthday… because it is.”
Nick shook his head.
“Oh, no. He’s resorted to bad jokes. Maybe we threw him into the deep end too fast.”
I laughed. This wasn’t the first time I’d had alcohol. Growing up around a racetrack with three older brothers meant having a beer or two on occasion wasn’t unusual. I was just having fun and wanted to do it right. They didn’t come along with me, but that didn’t stop me. I headed out onto the dance floor and was doing my best not to make a fool of myself when I twirled around and saw her. Sitting right there at the bar was the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen. She struck me still, and I stared at her for a while before starting toward her.
As much as I would have liked to think I was the kind of guy who could swagger up to her, slip in with a smooth line, and instantly sweep her off her feet, that wasn’t so much the truth. Instead, I felt butterflies in my stomach, and the nerves made my progress toward her slow. She was beautiful and irresistible in a way I had never experienced. Even with the alcohol in my system, it took me a bit to work up the courage to talk to her. Eventually, I had to make the leap. She had noticed me staring at her, and I had to either give it up and get away as fast as I could, or actually talk to her.
“Hi,” I said when I got close enough to her.
It wasn’t exactly charming, but it was what I managed.
“Hi,” she said with a chuckle. “Having fun out there?”
Her slight accent was lovely, but I couldn’t place it. I glanced behind me at the dance floor and laughed.
“Something like that,” I said. “I guess I’m not that much of a dancer.”
“I don’t know,” she said, shifting slightly and running the tip of her tongue across her plush red bottom lip. “It seemed you knew what you were doing.”
There was a softly suggestive note in her voice, which attracted me to her even more.
“Are you here alone?” I asked.
“I’m meeting a couple friends,” she told me, then held out her hand. “Kelly.”
I took hold of her fingers, squeezing them slightly rather than really shaking her hand. She was too feminine, too gorgeous to shake her hand like I did the men around the track.
“Darren,” I told her.
She glanced around me in the direction of the table I left.
“Seems like you have some people waiting for you.”
I looked over and saw all three of my brothers gawking at us. As soon as they realized I saw them, their heads snapped back to the middle of the table, and they became intently focused on the plate of nachos they were eating their way through. I shook my head.
“Those would be my brothers,” I said with a slight sigh. “We’re actually here celebrating my birthday. My brothers decided twenty-one necessitated an introduction to their favorite bar.”
Kelly’s eyes brightened.
“Well, happy birthday.” She looked me up and down. “Twenty-one, hmmm? All grown up.”
For some reason that made heat crawl up the back of my neck and burn across my cheeks. She seemed to notice and smiled, her eyelashes lowering as she slid a little closer to me on the barstool.
“Can I buy you a drink?” I asked.
“It’s your birthday. Why don’t you let me buy you one?” she asked.
She gestured to the bartender and ordered us each a beer. I looked back over at my brothers and saw they were staring at us again.
“Give me just a second,” I told her. “I’ll be right back.”
She nodded, and I headed across the bar to the table.
“Did you find a new friend, little brother?” Quentin asked.
“Maybe you danced too much, Darren. You look a little flushed,” Nick teased.
“Are you coming by for a crash course in how to talk to women?” Vince
