“What is this?” Teagan asked.
“Finger food Friday,” Frank said as if he’d been the mastermind.
Teagan looked at Harley. “You set this up?”
Harley felt emotion burn the back of her eyes. A month ago, Teagan would have assumed Frank was the responsible party, but she was looking at Harley as if she knew. Knew how hard Harley had worked to prove herself. For once, being the responsible party was a good thing.
“The girls helped.”
“I’m . . . wow, I . . .” Teagan walked over and gave Harley a warm hug. “I’m so tired I was going to just order pizza. But you made pizza.”
“With cauliflower crust.”
Teagan smiled like a proud mama. “With cauliflower crust.”
“A vegetable posing as junk food.”
“Thank you.”
Harley shook her head. “Thankyou. For letting me stay, for being patient with me, and for being the kind of sister who forgives me when I screw up.”
“Don’t talk that way about my sister.”
They both laughed, and when they sat down for dinner, Harley felt like she’d found home.
After dinner, they reconvened around the coffee table, sipping sparkling apple juice and playing their third round of Disney Princess Uno, which Lily was winning. Harley was ninety-nine percent sure that the girls were stacking the deck and playing the long con. Teagan didn’t seem to care that her kids were adorable little cheats, so Harley suppressed her need to send the girls to cheater jail. A place Dale had sent her whenever she tried to pull one out of her sleeve—ironic since Dale himself was a notorious cheat. He’d once been banned from Gene Simmons’s weekly poker game for counting cards.
Dale might be a flake, but he was a brilliant flake.
Since coming to Pacific Cove, Harley was realizing that her upbringing had left more scars than she’d like to acknowledge. Marks that were just starting to heal. She had issues about trust and love and all the things Harley was coming to understand being around her sister and nieces. Her new understanding made her want to reassess the possibility of life with Bryan. When he’d brought her to meet his family, the stark difference between their upbringings had been intimidating. Being around her nieces, watching unconditional love at its purest, spoke to a part of Harley that was desperate for a sense of permanence, and made her question what kind of mother she wanted to be.
Harley froze. Since when had she ever thought of her life in terms of motherhood? She’d made a decision years ago that there wasn’t room in her life for marriage or the baby carriage. But watching her sister’s courage as she’d morphed into Teagan 2.0 made Harley wonder if, maybe, she too could choose a new path.
“Uno!” Poppy said, even though she still had more cards than her little hands could hold.
“Uno means one,” Harley explained. “You’ve got to be down to one card to call Uno.”
“We are.” She pointed to Lily, who had a single, solitary card—a miracle since she’d had to draw nine on the last round.
Harley looked at Frank, who said, “It’s a game. It’s about fun.”
“It’s about rules,” Harley said.
Teagan bit back a smile and lifted a brow. “Freaky Friday much? When did you become me?”
“When your kids started swapping cards back and forth like a couple of casino con artists.”
“We wons,” Poppy proclaimed, and Lily held up her hands in avoilàgesture.
“It wasn’t even Lily’s turn.” Harley looked at Frank. “This is your fault.”
Chapter 25
You’re my favorite place to go when my
mind searches for peace.
—Unknown
