D is for Drunk Read Free Page A

sure wasn’t going to find out. “I’ll practice with them on the table the first time.”
    “Always so suspicious.” He locked the handcuffs and handed her a bobby pin. “This is what’s called a single lock handcuff. You’ll start with that.”
    “This is what’s called a bobby pin, not a lock pick.”
    “Strip off the rubber part, then bend the end to a 45 degree angle,” he said.
    “Do we have pliers or something?”
    “Are you going to have pliers sitting around if you’re ever handcuffed?”
    Was she going to have a bobby pin around either? She resolved to start carrying an emergency bobby pin in her wallet. She stuck the bobby pin in her mouth and stripped off the rubber tip with her teeth. She hoped Aidan hadn’t spit on it or something. She spat the rubber into her hand and scraped it into her garbage can.
    “Ladylike,” Aidan said.
    She ignored him and put the bobby pin back in her mouth. She bent the metal against her teeth, hearing her mother’s voice in her head telling her to be good to her teeth, because they might have to last a hundred years. It looked like a forty-five degree angle, but it wasn’t as if she had a protractor lying around to measure it.
    “You’re going to want to insert that into the keyhole and wriggle it around until you feel it catch against a little lever thing in there, then push in the direction the cuff locked in and it’ll pop right open.” He reeled off all the steps as if it would be easy.
    She slipped the bobby pin into the keyhole and stirred around inside the lock, hoping she’d luck into it. She didn’t. Not as easy as Aidan made it sound.
    “It’s all about the wrists,” he said. “Finesse not force.”
    “Considering your dating life, you probably have a lot of finesse in your wrists.” The end of the bobby pin caught on something.
    “My dating life?” Aidan snorted. “You’re the one who’s dating The Village People.”
    The bobby pin slipped off the lever, and she tried to reset it. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    He held up one finger. “You started with the bartender, right? Felipe Rose from the Village People was a bartender.”
    “Which one was he?”
    “The one with the headdress. So, that’s your first Village person.”
    She decided to ignore him and concentrate on her lock.
    Aidan held up a second finger. “And now you’re dating the cowboy.”
    “For a straight guy, you’re awfully familiar with the Village People.”
    “So you are dating the cowboy?”
    “I didn’t say that.” The bobby pin caught against something again. She pulled up as gently as she could.
    “You didn’t say you weren’t.”
    It felt as if the lever moved. Maybe this would work. “It’s not really a date.”
    “Some kind of event where the two of you are together?”
    The handcuff lock still didn’t open. “None of your business.”
    “That’s a yes. What do you know about him?”
    The bobby pin slipped back off the lever. This would be a lot easier if Aidan shut up. “I know he’s cute. He has a ranch in Wyoming. He’s a rider in this show. And Tex likes him.”
    Aidan blinked a couple of times. Maybe it was from information overload. “Tex likes him?”
    “She was on the beach when we came in.” She almost told him Tex had been invited too, but stopped herself.
    “So, basically, you know what he told you, which was nothing.” Aidan folded his arms.
    “You only know what the women on your dating sites tell you.” She bent the bobby pin back to 45 degrees and stuck it in the lock. What if she were handcuffed with her hands behind her back? How would she get to a bobby pin then?
    “I verify that across multiple sites, plus the Internet is full of information about them. I know plenty.”
    “Doesn’t that make you a cyberstalker?” The lever moved the tiniest bit. She held her breath.
    “It makes me informed. Keeps me from wasting my time on women who are less than ideal.”
    “How’d that last one slip by you, Mr.