“Okay, hang on,” Kai starts, a hand raised as he walks over to me, slinging an arm around my shoulders. “First of all, Mom and Dad thought you’d never move out. Up until you left for the mainland, Mom was still doing your laundry.”
“Miles!” Daisy chastises. “I told you to stop letting her do your laundry years ago!”
“Come on, she likes to. It keeps her busy.” He shrugs absentmindedly. “And she was still making your damn lunches, Kai, so you have no room to talk.”
“She still makes his lunches,” Daisy adds, hitting both of them with a hard stare. “But she’s going to be over the fucking moon when she hears that you two are planning to have a baby.”
“Goodbye lunches and laundry,” Eli chimes in with a joke. “That baby is going to get all the attention.”
“And what about you, man?” Owen says to his cousin. “You going to get yourself a roommate?”
“Probably not. With my hours and how often I’m gone, I don’t see the point. It’s not like I need the money,” Eli says, taking a drink of his beer.
“I can speak from experience that letting a woman move in is always good,” Owen adds, looking at Sloane, her cheeks flushing bright pink at his compliment.
“If I’m getting a roommate, it’s not gonna be a woman,” Eli counters. “I feel like that would make things awkward.”
“Awkward how?” Sage now asks, and leave it to Sage to ask something we all know the answer to. She’s cluelessly adorable.
“Um, that kitchen has seen more action than an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie,” Miles quips, and Daisy swats him on the arm.
“Miles, please. They don’t need to hear the details of anything we’ve done.”
“Not just you, bro,” Kai chimes in, winking at me, and holy shit, I can feel my face heat up. These two brothers are obviously unconcerned with airing dirty laundry in their friends’ group.
“Enough,” Eli shouts, pretending to cover his ears. “I really don’t need the details of your trysts in my kitchen.”
The group laughs as Lacey continues to sign for Jonah. I swear those two should be a couple. I don’t care what the group says. They’re perfect for each other. The way he looks at her, I know that look now because I see it in Kai every day. He’s in love with her.
“For real though, Eli, you should consider dating,” Kai now says. “It’s pretty fucking great when you find the right girl.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. All of you assholes are all coupled up and in love and shit, and Jonah and I are just out here living our best lives.”
From where Jonah is sitting, he’s watching Eli talk, hitting him with a shaka when he catches what Eli says.
“At least we still have each other,” Jonah signs, with Lacey telling the group. “And I’ve got Lacey too. She’s still permanently single.”
“Eww, I’m not permanently single,” Lacey wails, rolling her eyes. “You make me sound like some spinster cat lady—not that there’s anything wrong with that either, but I just…”
Trailing off, Lacey doesn’t finish her thought, just shaking away the teasing comments from her friends with a weak smile.
“Sorry, Lace,” Jonah tells her, pressing a soft kiss to the side of her head. There’s so much love and compassion there. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t just give it a try.
“Jonah and I will be just fine,” Eli says. “We’ll be out there picking up women and doing whatever the fuck we want in our kitchens.”
Jonah lets out a hearty laugh, and while the rest of the group doesn’t seem to notice, probably used to it, it’s a beautiful sound.
“Found your new wingman,” Kai says, motioning between Jonah and Eli. “I’m happy to hand over the reins while I’m making a baby with Quinn.”
“Kai,” I whisper, wrinkling up my nose.
“What, babe? It’s not like they don’t know how babies are made.”
Lacey obviously notices my embarrassment. Changing the subject, she asks, “How’d the podcast go over?”
“Well, great if you ask me,” I joke. “Once I told the world all of his bullshit, I don’t think there was anything left for him to fight with me about. Hence the quick signing and divorce.”
She nods softly, not saying much in response to what I’ve said.
