Shawn’s eyes ventured away from Tiana for a minute and seeing what we were doing when the waitress arrived with another round of shots Jeremiah ordered, he brightened and told her to listen to the explanation too.
“There’s no limit on how many drinks each person can be fined with per night,” Tanner started explaining. “However, if you get fined, you have the option to keep the ball rolling by fining someone else in turn. In that way, it’s never a good idea to nominate one person for too many. You never know when it’s going to come back to you. You only know that it will.”
“What do you get fined for?” Tiana asked, voicing my next question.
Tanner grinned at her. “I’m glad you asked. Say you meet someone in English freshman year of college and—”
She reached over and slapped her hand over his mouth. “No. We’re not going there again. Never. Bart, will you please answer the question.”
“Sure, I’ve heard that story,” Bart said, eyes glimmering with humor. When he caught Tiana’s glare, he changed tack. “But I won’t be using your freshman woes as an example tonight. Basically, you can get fined for anything idiotic, embarrassing, ill-advised, or stupid you did in front of or told to any of us about each week.”
I felt myself pale. “But I work with Jeremiah, and I’m dating him. That means he’s going to see most of everything I do or say every week.”
“And we’ll probably be joining you at work soon,” Shawn said, motioning to Bart and back to himself.
“Don’t remind me.” I groaned. “I don’t think you need to include me in this game of yours. I’ll just sit on the sidelines and watch.”
“Sorry angel, that’s against the rules,” Jeremiah said, lacing his fingers through mine and resting them on his knee. “Plus, you’ll be around these two knuckleheads at work all day. Trust me when I tell you for every fine they might be able to give you, you’ll be able to hand out at least two. Each.”
“This is going to be fun,” Bart said, looking positively excited. “We might finally be able to get Jeremiah.”
“Get Jeremiah?” I asked, confused. “He just took a shot a couple of minutes ago for that comment he made.”
“Yeah, but he’s too damn good at pretending that he never makes any mistakes or puts his foot in it.” Tanner said, narrowing his eyes as a mischievous smile raised his lips. “Say, Steph. Has he ever—”
Jeremiah cut him off effortlessly. “No, he has never. And she won’t tell you anyway.”
“I won’t?” I nudged him, arching a brow.
The confidence in his eyes faltered for just a second before it was back. “No, you won’t. I’m sure it’s in a code somewhere. Thou shalt not cause thy boyfriend to be fined.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not in a code anywhere, dude,” Bart argued. “Now if you tried to use what she did while you guys were alone to dish out fines, I’m pretty sure that’s against a code somewhere.”
Just thinking about it made me blush. It would also make me paranoid about letting go around him. “It’s definitely against a code. Somewhere. For sure.”
Bart laughed and debated the ethics with Jeremiah of my being able to use stuff Jer did in private in fines while he couldn’t do the same. When Bart and Tanner started arguing about why it would be fair one way and not the other, I leaned over to whisper in Jeremiah’s ear.
“You know I would never tell them anything anyway, don’t you?”
He nodded, a soft smile touching his lips. “I know, I trust you.”
A song that was breaking the charts came on over the jukebox, and Tiana jumped up immediately, holding her hands out to me. “We have to go dance. I love this song.”
I took her hand with one of mine, the other still being firmly held by Jeremiah. “If you’re going to keep hold of that, you’re going to have to come dance. Unfortunately, it’s attached. I can’t leave it here for you.”
Jeremiah sighed as if he couldn’t imagine a fate worse than dancing but spun me into his arms as soon as he stood up. “I would love to dance with you. It’s been way too long. Plus, this time, I know you’re not going to run away from me after.”
He placed our entwined hands at the small of my back and led me to the dance floor off to one side of the bar as I nodded. “I’m definitely not running away this time.” I gave him a wink after I said it.
Squeezing my hand, he let go of it only long enough to walk backward onto the cramped dance floor and hold both hands out to me, making come-hither motions with his fingers. I’d forgotten how well the man could move and practically jumped into his arms as soon as his hips started swaying.
“Look over there,” he murmured, his lips moving my hair as he spoke. I turned my head in the direction he was looking to see Tiana had paired up dancing with Shawn, who also moved like a pro.
“Where did you guys learn to dance?” I asked, seriously surprised by their moves. Didn’t the bad boy party types never want to dance?
Jer pulled me back to him, keeping a firm grip very low on my back. “High school. The dance teacher was hot.”
I rolled my eyes and giggled, picturing the four men I knew now as high school boys drooling over a woman who would end up teaching them how to woo other women for the rest of time. Because honestly, no one could resist a sexy man who knew how to move his body. It was physically impossible not to react to that.