Easy Kisses (The Boudreaux Series Book 4) by Kristen Proby

chandelier-breaking sex we had?”
    “Now you’re just trying to piss me off. I told him not to touch you.”
    I pinch the bridge of my nose and pray for more patience than I was born with.
    “You set me up on a date, but told the guy he wasn’t allowed to touch me?”
    “Of course. I’m your brother. Ben might have threatened him too.”
    “Great.” I sigh and sit up in my bed. “Well, you’ll be happy to hear that he was a gentleman. He’s a nice guy, but there was no chemistry.”
    “I see.”
    “And Eli? Don’t try to set me up anymore. It’s too weird. What if you set me up with someone I actually want to have sex with, but he’s terrified of getting beat up? That’s not sexy.”
    “I didn’t try to set you up with someone sexy,” he replies.
    “Exactly. But I love you for trying.”
    “I just love you, Char,” he says and tears fill my eyes. Why am I so prone to crying these days? Damn feelings.
    “I love you too.”
    “I know you’re a little lonely, and I know that you work too much.”
    “Takes one to know one,” I murmur.
    “Exactly. And now that I have Kate, I just want you to be as happy as we are.”
    “Someday,” I reply. “Daddy always told me that I’d know him when I saw him.”
    “I don’t believe in that love at first sight bullshit.”
    “Why not? It happened for Mom and Dad and they were together forever, and they were blissfully in love every day.”
    “Blissfully?” Eli chuckles. “They loved each other, but I think there were days that Mom would have happily killed him.”
    I frown and wonder if Eli remembers the same parents that I do. “You’re wrong.”
    “No one has a perfect marriage, Charly. That’s not realistic.”
    “I don’t need perfect,” I reply. “I just need perfect for me.”
    “He’ll come along.”
    “Yes, but you don’t have to deliver him to me.”
    “You’re so ungrateful,” he says with a smile in his voice. “Get some sleep.”
    “You too. Love you.”
    “Love you.”
     

Chapter Eight
    ~Simon~
    “Is this the first night without the baby?” I ask Kelly and Todd as we sit down to dinner in one of our favorite restaurants in London.
    “I wish you’d brought her,” Violet says with a pout. “I haven’t seen her in days.”
    “Well, it’s the first night Todd and I have been away from her together, so this is a treat,” Kelly replies and takes a deep breath. “I missed you all while you were in the States. Todd filled me in, but did the two of you have a good time?”
    “Montana is always beautiful,” I say and set my menu aside.
    “So was a certain—”
    “Well, hello there.”
    All four of our heads whip up to see my ex-wife standing near our table with a smirk on her undeniably beautiful face.
    “Hello, Amy,” Kelly says, always the peacekeeper. “How are you?”
    “I’m wonderful,” Amy says and tosses her blonde hair over her shoulder. “Aren’t you going to say hello to your wife, Simon?”
    “Ex wife,” I reply and offer her a cold smile. “Hello.”
    “It’s so nice to see the old gang together,” Amy says, her eyes turning cold when they land on Violet. “I’ve missed my friends.”
    “We’re not your friends,” Violet says, her hand balled in a fist on the table. There’s no dramatic, sordid history between the two; Violet just hates Amy. Passionately.
    “I see.” Amy turns her attention back to me and sets her hand on my shoulder. Her touch makes my skin crawl. I would shrug her off, but I don’t want to cause a scene, and with Amy, things could escalate to horrific display in a matter of seconds. “How are you, darling?”
    “I’m good.”
    “Simon’s great,” Violet says. “His business is growing by leaps and bounds. Didn’t you see him on the telly recently?”
    Shut up, Violet.
    “No, I must have missed it. I did hear about your book hitting the New York Times.”
    “Six weeks in a row,” Kelly adds, raising her glass in salute.
    “Most of his television