Her fingers had dialed Joe without her brain’s approval. Bad fingers. She tried again with the slow precision of a person who’d had three double strawberry daiquiris. This time she went for the twins’s cell. Sure they enjoyed hating her guts but this was a family emergency, and even dysfunctional families stuck together. The rain sifted down over her like cooling fingers on her hot face as she waited.

“Are you going to hang up on me again?” asked a slightly bemused Joe.

Ohmigod. What was the matter with her fingers? “Sorry,” she said quickly. “Dialed wrong.” She hit OFF and touched her forehead with the phone. “Concentrate, damn it!”

Before she could call her mother next, the cell vibrated in her hand. Knowing what she’d see, she peeked at the caller ID, then winced. “Hey,” she said casually.

Joe no longer sounded sleepy. “What are you doing?”

“Sorry I woke you.”

“You don’t sound like yourself.”

That he knew her so well no longer surprised her. That it made her want to cry did. She wasn’t going to get mushy over just the sound of him, she wasn’t. But why hadn’t she called a cab? The answer was rather revealing she decided shakily. “Look, I dialed wrong.”

“Twice.”

“Huh?”

“You dialed wrong twice. Who were you trying to call this late?”

“I don’t know.” She tipped her face up, closing her eyes as the rain soothed her. “I’m a bit off my center here.”

“Yeah. Join the club.”

The utter weariness in his voice cut right through her happy little fog. “Joe?”

“Good night, Red.”

He was going to hang up. Panic gripped her. Not her typical kind of panic attack, where she couldn’t breathe, but a new kind, a vice on her heart, squeezing out terrifying emotions that she nearly choked on. She imagined him sitting in his bed, all rumpled and sexy with it, maybe without any clothes on, and her body tingled. “I got a phone call tonight. It threw me off. And then I drank Chloe’s stupid pitcher and it turned out to be doubles, and now I can’t—”

“You’ve been drinking? Where are you?”

“Outside of Tooley’s.”

“By yourself? In the rain?”

“Yes, but—”

“Get back inside. I’ll be right there.”

“Joe, wait. I—”

But he’d already clicked off.

“Fine.” She sighed. “I’ll wait.”

For him, she had the feeling, she’d always wait.

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Joe hung up the phone, got out of bed, and staggered into clothes. Ashes lifted her head from her spot at the foot of his mattress and eyed him sleepily.

“Come on,” he said, and she jumped down and ran happily to his feet, ears flapping, tail wagging.