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Jenna looked wide-eyed at them. I gave her a look that said I told you so. She gave me one back that said she’d meet Shelby out back and teach her a lesson. For that she earned a smile.
“Hey, Em.” Sawyer met us at the sound booth with his beautiful tagalong.
“Hello to you too, Sawyer,” Jenna didn’t take kindly to being excluded from his greeting or his guest.
Sawyer’s eyes stayed on me while addressing Jenna. “How’s the mother-to-be?”
Jenna scowled at him and Shelby before exiting the booth. “I’m fantastic. Excuse me, I need to go check on our glowstick supply for tonight.” They threw glowsticks out into the crowd between sketches and performances. It was kind of their thing. She waddled off irritated.
“What’s up with, Jenna?” Sawyer asked once she was out of earshot.
“She’s just anxious to find out the gender.”
“I’m so excited for them,” Shelby jumped in.
I gave her a small smile, not exactly sure why she was so excited for someone she didn’t really know, other than it fit her sweet demeanor. “How are you, Shelby?”
Shelby looked around the club walls filled with eighties and nineties movie memorabilia that Brad had been collecting forever. “I’m well. This place is just precious.”
Precious? That wasn’t a word I would use for it, but okay. “It’s a lot of fun.”
“I know I could go for some fun tonight.” She leaned into Sawyer. She needed to quit doing that.
Sawyer gave her an uneasy smile. “Do you want to find us a couple of seats?” His voice seemed to be unusually high.
“Sure thing, darlin’.”
I raised my eyebrows. She was using pet names now? I watched her walk off in her sky-high heels. Wow, could she swing those tiny hips of hers. A trail of hormone crazed college boys stared after her.
“Darlin’, huh?” I asked Sawyer. “You two are becoming cozy little work buddies.” After hours ones now too.
Sawyer undid the top button on his dress shirt while clearing his throat. “That’s just how Southerners talk.”
“Right.”
“She calls everyone that at the clinic.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me. I think it’s precious.” I tried to keep the cattiness out of my voice. Honestly, I thought Shelby was a nice woman. I was only jealous.
He narrowed his gorgeous eyes at me. “We’re friends.”
“Friends are good.” I stepped out of the booth. “I need to go set up and make sure Aspen is FaceTiming in Jenna’s parents.”
“Do you want some help?”
I looked up to find Shelby waving at him in the third row. “I think your friend is anxious for your company.”
Sawyer cringed when he looked over to see Shelby beaming at him. “She can wait if you need my help.”
“I’m good, thanks.” Total lie. I wasn’t good, but this was good. Reminders of my real relationship with him—friend and stepsister. I really needed to rip that Band-Aid off, but in so many ways he was a good healer of emotional scrapes and cuts. On the other hand, he created a big gaping wound of unrequited love.
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely positive.” I plastered on a fake smile before I grabbed my box of decorations with the reveal eggs and walked off. I met Jenna and Brad on the stage. Brad had set up a table for me. We weren’t doing pink and blue—I used Jenna’s and Brad’s favorite colors of purple and black. It took me a few tries to get the right colors. I had to use purple cabbage and blueberries. Good thing I had a minor in chemistry. I’d even made a banner for the table that said, “Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby.” For some reason, when I made the banner I swore I could hear my mom giggling before she said, “Yes, let’s talk about sex, and when are you going to have a baby?”
At this rate, the answer was never unless I decided to skip trying to do it the old-fashioned way. Or perhaps I would get that Golden Retriever I’d always wanted.
Aspen joined the three of us on stage. It was the four amigos again. It had been that way since junior high. During high school it might have been five or seven if the other three were dating someone. We were quick to weed out anyone we didn’t like, no matter how good of a kisser they were, which was Jenna’s only criteria for a long time, to Brad’s dismay. He’d even asked me once to help him out, give him some pointers. Not sure why he’d asked me. I got the least amount of action in that department and kissing Brad would have been like kissing my brother. Not my stepbrother, because I was pretty sure that would be amazing, but a flesh and blood one. He should have asked Aspen; she was adored by many. Too bad she picked a loser in Leland, the father of Chloe. Since their divorce several years ago, she’d kept herself off the market.
