She felt a hand land on the small of her back and relaxed. She turned and saw Drew there next to her, as she knew he would be.
“Is Mike monopolizing you?” He grinned at Mike and did that hand slap thing guys did instead of hugging. “How’s it going, man?”
Mike’s eyes flashed to Drew’s arm disappearing around her back, and he took a step backward.
“Good, good, just stopped to chat here with your friend Alisha.”
She gritted her teeth, not even caring anymore if it looked like a smile.
“Alexa.”
Mike laughed and lifted his glass of sangria to hers.
“Right, right, Alexa, of course. Nice to talk to you.”
She walked with Drew toward the grills. As soon as they were out of earshot, she said, “I don’t like that guy.”
He stopped walking and turned to her.
“Why, what did he do?”
She made a face.
“Remember that Bill guy from the wedding? Creepy and borderline offensive?”
Now he stopped walking.
“It wasn’t borderline. Mike’s like that guy? Damn it, I’m sorry. I should have come to find you earlier.”
He believed her. Just like that. So often, guys would jump in to defend other men when women said they’d crossed a line. It had happened to her over and over again.
But Drew had immediately believed her. Why did a little thing like that touch her so much? She reached for his hand.
“No, it was okay, I handled it. Just . . . come over if you see him cornering me again?”
He squeezed her hand and smiled.
“Absolutely. Here, let’s go talk to some better people.”
He introduced her to his friend Luke, another doctor at his hospital, and Luke’s husband, Brendan, one of the aforementioned dudes from his basketball league.
“Ahh, you’re the reason for Drew’s mysterious trips up to the Bay Area as of late,” Luke said. “So nice to meet you.”
Did . . . Was Drew blushing? It could just be sunburn, but she hadn’t noticed his cheeks that color pink five minutes ago.
“Nice to meet you, too, Luke, Brendan.”
Brendan gestured at her drink.
“Is that the sangria? How is it?”
She took another sip and realized she was almost halfway through this glass.
“It’s great, but be forewarned, it has more of a kick to it than I expected. If Drew has to carry me out of here in a few hours, it’s because I had more than two glasses of this stuff.”
“Uh-oh,” Drew said. “Should I go get us some food to soak up all of that alcohol? There are burgers, hot dogs, sausages . . .”
“Definitely a hot dog,” Alexa said. “It’s the 4th of July. It’s un-American not to have a hot dog!”
Luke’s eyebrows went up and he opened his mouth. Brendan kicked him and he closed it.
“I saw that,” Alexa said, and all four of them laughed.
“I don’t know you quite well enough for a sausage joke yet, so pretend you didn’t see that.” Luke paused. “I can tell it after you’ve had that third sangria.”
Drew groaned.
“Oh no, I’m scared to leave you with these two now. God only knows what they’re going to do or say.”
Alexa waved Drew away.
“Go on, get me my hot dog, I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces as I eat it and they have to hold their jokes in. Maybe for dessert there will be popsicles?”
After all four of them ate hot dogs—with most of the jokes at Drew’s expense—Alexa excused herself to both refresh her sangria and go to the bathroom. Coming out of the bathroom, she ran into Heather and Emma, along with Lucy and Robin from the night before.
“Hey, Alexa!” Heather said. “Having fun? I was just taking this crew to the kitchen for some of the white sangria, I haven’t put it out yet. Do you want to try it?”
Never one to say no to an offer like that, Alexa followed the other women into the kitchen.
“So Alexa,” Heather said as she poured the sangria, “do you live here in Santa Monica?”
Alexa glanced around the room to see if the others were all looking at her. Not yet, at least. How long ago had Heather and Drew dated? She wondered if the ranks were going to close against her like with Molly’s bridesmaids at the wedding.
“No, just here for the weekend. I live up in Berkeley, actually.”
Lucy’s eyes shot to her face. What had she said?
“Are you from there? What do you do up there?” Lucy took a sip of her own sangria without her eyes leaving Alexa’s face.