“Do I need to?” Cisco came out with three glasses and a full bottle. “Anybody joining me this cold evening?”
“Sure. We’ll toast your doom,” Sam said.
“Hey! That’s my girl you’re talking about,” Squint said. “Daisy is not doom. She’s a radioactively hot baby.” He smacked his lips after taking a shot. “I wish I was the prize so she could win me.”
“Take my place.” Cisco shrugged. “Everybody wins.”
“Oh, ye of little faith.” Sam looked pleased. “Don’t you think Suz can steal Daisy’s crown? Daisy was in here, madder than a hornet. She seems to think you’re giving Suz tips—SEAL tips—on how to win.”
“Suz can’t steal Daisy’s crown yet.” Cisco raised his glass to his buddies, took another shot. “But I have faith.”
His friends grinned at him. “You’re being dishonest,” Sam said. “Your eyelid always jumps when you’re deviating from the truth.”
“Otherwise known as lying like a rug.” Squint held out his glass for a refill. “It’s okay. We get it. But just know my girl was awfully PO’d. She’s going to make some noise about your gaming the holy BC system. And I don’t know what happens then.”
“All hell breaks loose. Who cares?” Cisco shrugged. “There were no tips given. Since Suz can’t swim, it’s not like I can give her a SEAL tip, although I appreciate Daisy’s faith in our navy.”
Sam and Squint looked startled. “Can’t swim?” Squint repeated, sounding dumbfounded.
“Not a stroke.” Cisco eyed his glass, appreciating the amber liquid. It was smooth, as smooth as the slick wet suit that looked as if it had been spray-painted on Suz, much to his appreciative gaze. “It’s okay. She’s got the race in the bag. I’ll be saved, and then you can press your case on the unsuspecting Daisy.” He stared down Squint. “If Daisy’s ‘your girl,’ as you call her, why hasn’t she figured that out?”
Squint shrugged. “It seems her gaze is caught on your ugly mug.”
Cisco laughed. “You are a rather homely dog.”
“Thank you.” Squint leaned back in the sofa. “You want me to help you teach Suz how to swim? I really need her to win this race, for the obvious reason.”
“You?” Sam laughed along with Cisco. “Leg Cramp Man? Mr. Last Place?”
Squint looked devastated. “Never happened before.”
“You’ll redeem yourself one day.” A bright, shiny idea illuminated Cisco’s brain. “Have you told Daisy how you feel?”
“No, dude, that’s not smooth.” Squint didn’t look optimistic.
“It’s because he came in last place in the swim last month,” Sam said, filling in the missing pieces Squint didn’t want to admit. “We overheard Daisy telling someone that she would never date a man who came in last place, behind her gang. That man, of course, was our buddy.”
Squint’s face mapped misery like a human Etch A Sketch. “It was a muscle spasm! People get them!”
Cisco looked at the ceiling, wondering how to salvage the dilemma they found themselves in. “We’ll figure it out. All for one, and one for all, the way it’s always been.” He looked at his friend speculatively. “You believe in all this hocus-pocus around here?”
“Ty swears by it. He’s the one who would know,” Squint said. “He’s born and bred BC.”
“You?” Cisco asked Sam.
“Hell, I don’t care.” Sam grinned. “I’m always going to do whatever I want, and no charm’s going to change that.”
“The selfish bachelor.” Cisco nodded. “But not as selfish as you,” he said, looking at Squint. “If you have such a hot thing going for Daisy, why don’t you just tell her? It could change everything for all of us. Take me out of the boiling pot.”
“But frogs belong in boiling pots,” said Squint, clearly unbothered by his best friend’s dilemma. “I can’t tip my hand. I’ll just wait, as I’ve said, until she’s done chasing after what she doesn’t want. Women do that, you know. It’s all part of the dance.” He relaxed into the sofa cushions, a look of contentment on his face. “I do wish you wouldn’t get my girl all stirred up, though. Makes me sad to see her unhappy.”
Cisco scoffed. “Let’s get on with the planning of this escapade. It’s time for teamwork.”
“What escapade?” Sam asked.
“Like last time, when we all swam the race together to achieve a unified goal. Teamwork. That’s what we’re good at.”
His good buddies looked blank as new sheets of paper.
“No plan here,” Sam said. “I’ve even changed my mind about participating in the race. No reason to since Daisy’s going to win. So, just call me No Plan Sam.”
“I’ve got nothing,” Squint agreed.
Suz blew in on a gust of cold air, warming Cisco. She looked fresh and invigorated from their lesson: hair dry and spiky, foxy smile on her face, roses in her cheeks to match the pink scarf around her neck. He was definitely warm for this woman, in all the right places.
“I brought pumpkin chocolate chip muffins,” Suz said, and the men cheered.
“Just the thing to go with whiskey.” Ever the dog, Sam hopped up to help himself first to what Cisco considered his spoils.
“My work, my prize,” Cisco said, snatching the cute basket with the blue-and-white patterned napkin away from Sam. “Sit down and stay a second,” he said to Suz, guiding her to a seat far away from Sam and Squint.
“Yes, do.” Sam gazed at Suz, waiting his turn at the basket, which Cisco now passed around grudgingly. “We’ve been hearing about your lesson this morning.”
Suz glanced with some annoyance at Cisco, which he felt was ill-deserved. “That should be a private topic.”
“Yeah, well,” Squint said, pawing the basket with his big hand. “Daisy came by to throw a hissy about Cisco cheating. She’s filing a complaint, or squawking to someone.”
Suz frowned. “Let her complain. We did nothing wrong.”
Cisco perked at the sound of “we” on Suz’s sweet lips, very much liking the “we’re in this together” medley. “Besides which, I have a plan to completely neutralize our town tattletale.”
“Watch it,” Squint reminded him, “again, that’s my girl we’re talking about.”
“Precisely. And I have a thunderbolt of inspiration about your girl,” Cisco said. “Squint, Mr. Leg Cramp Extraordinaire, is going to take my place on Saturday.”
The room went dead silent as everyone stared at him.
“To what end?” Squint demanded.
“If Daisy needs to win someone, then it should be you. That will undo the curse—”
“Charm!” everyone reminded him.
“And Squint will then be the object of this matchmaker-created charm.”
“How do you know that’s how we got the charm?” Suz asked. “It’s top secret. Only a few people know.”
Cisco looked at Suz. “What’s top secret?”