Dorian
I forgot to tell you how gorgeous you looked in your swimsuit.
Delphine
You looked pretty good yourself.
Dorian
I don’t want to go home. Like ever.
Delphine
Same. But real life continues.
Dorian
Have a good sleep. I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast.
Delphine
See you then.
I set the phone aside and lay down on the bed, smiling into the darkness, thankful for the day and my daughter and the man who had gone out of his way to make it special for both of us.
I could get used to this. And that was a very frightening thought indeed.
19
DORIAN
I’d been to Alex and Gillian’s place several times, but the scale of it still made my jaw drop. If I’d been a more insecure man, I might have worried that Delphine would weigh me against a man like Alex, who had founded a tech company that made him a billionaire. Not that anyone would ever know it. Alex was the opposite of pretentious. A family guy through and through. And between them they had three teenagers and a baby. Not for cowards, that was for sure.
“What a nice evening,” Delphine said, taking my arm as we came up the walk. “I’m glad you could come with us.”
“I’m glad to be asked. A bit surprised, actually. I know these dinners are sacred.”
“They are.”
“But I’m here?” I asked.
“You are here. I’m a little nervous actually. Mostly because Seraphina’s going to be super smug. She loves to be right.”
“In this case, I’m happy for her to be right.”
Annie had taken off the moment we parked. By the time we reached the house, she had been absorbed into a cluster of kids around the pool.
The patio looked like a magazine spread, other than it was filled with people. Gillian was at the long table filling water glasses, Leo riding her hip while sucking on his fist. Alex stood at the grill with Grady, who had four-week-old Soleil strapped to his chest. Esme was stretched out on a lounger nearby, fast asleep. How she could sleep in this chaos was a mystery.
Lila and Seraphina were bringing out side dishes to the table. Vance was opening a bottle of red.
The pool churned with kids—Lila and Vance’s girls, Tyler on a flamingo float, Bella and Annie tossing a ball back and forth. Peter tossing Madison and Margot into the pool. Only Robbie was out of the pool, his nose in a book far enough away to avoid splashes. Nobody could have sorted out whose children were whose, and that was rather the point.
Thankfully, no one made a big deal about Delphine and I coming in together, greeting us as if it were completely normal. Soon enough, we both had glasses of wine in hand. Delphine wandered off to take Leo from his mother, kissing him and cooing, her eyes alight with joy. After kisses, she smelled his head, an expression of bliss on her face. A possible Delphine imposter? No, this was who she truly was. A woman who loved her friends and their children and sweet babies.
Seraphina approached. “Dorian Flynn. You have something to share with me?”
“That you were right?”
