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Chapter One
“The first thing you need to do in Vegas is get laid”
Zoe Aulp of water Her sister-in-law, Melanie, pounded her on the back “Cough it up!”
With the way Melanie was hitting her, Zoe would be lucky if all she coughed up ater “Stop,” she gasped before leveling her sister-in-laith a quasi-stern look “That’s your advice: get laid? This conversation is quickly going the way of clichéd ro”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing”
Zoe glanced up at the ceiling, then back at Melanie “It’s not, but—”
“No buts”
“Can I at least get a na even crazier like dinner?”
A sauy would show up to teach you the finer points of betting”
Zoe snorted That was her sister-in-law’s response to everything Okay, sooutrageous Well, outrageous to everyone asn’t Melanie “I’ lost since I have about five thousand layovers And don’t even get me started on earthquakes It’s always earthquake season there You can’t plan a trip around one,” she said, setting her bottle of water in the cup holder “Did I mention I’m seriously scared of earthquakes?”
“The last one you were in was years ago and it barely registeredplay on the radio The perky vocals of a unicorn singing about rainbows and ical carpet rides filled the minivan
“Yay,” SmithAnn shouted from her car seat in the back
Zoe turned and srabbed a shoeless foot and tickled the bottoe of her mother, with curly blond hair and warm brown eyes A sprinkle of freckles danced across her nose as she wrinkled it and squealed with glee
The usual longing for a family like her sister-in-law’s hit Zoe hard and fast She nibbled her bottoh
Slowly, Zoe turned around, adjusting the sunglasses perched on her nose Miles and miles of cloudless, eastern North Carolina skies filled her vision as she looked out of the passenger sideSo blue, so ht now Or at all
She shifted her attention to the road and frowned The Johnsons’ florescent green mailbox seemed a lot closer to the road than it usually was Her eyes rounded It wasn’t closer; the minivan was practically off the curb
“Holy crap,” Zoe shouted, her hands braced against the dash “Mailbox”
Melanie jerked thethe opportunity to scrape a racing stripe down the side of her vehicle Shter
“Anyhat do you think of estion?” Melanie asked, her voice calm despite their near crash
“I think you’re the woman my mother warnedherself off of the ceiling She adjusted her seatbelt, pulling it tighter
“Please I am the woman your mother constantly warned your brother about Proud of it, too”
And that’s why Zoe loved her sister-in-law Melanie was daring, bold and didn’t care what other people thought of her While Zoe tried very hard to be good, to be responsible To be perfectly boring while writing novels that, according to her mother, were “scandalous” because they contained s-e-x scenes Why herit made no sense to Zoe