Page 40 of One Night with Number Nineteen

But I leave my phone in my pocket anyway.

“Stop it with the freaking wombats!” Smitty booms, making me jump and glare over at him. Then smother a smile when Bri grins at me and pockets her phone.

“How can you be scared of a wombat with a grass allergy?” she asks innocently.

Smitty just shakes his head and shudders.

“Are you busy, Saw-yur?” Ollie asks.

Right. I need to focus. “What is the tradition?” I ask.

Ollie lifts his hands in the air, his smile wide and his voice almost as loud as Smitty’s was a moment ago, “Cinnamon rolls and movies!”

“Softer, honey,” Lainey corrects. “We’re in a restaurant, remember?”

His face screws up again. “But Smitty was louder.”

Laughter is smothered all around…well, all around except for Bri who cackles like a loon and Kailey who leans in and kisses Smitty’s jaw, and says, “I like you at any volume.”

My heart squeezes.

He just brushes her hair back, murmurs something in her ear that makes her blush.

I look away, past Leo’s still-knowing gaze, and back to Lainey’s, and there my heart goes again.

Because the bittersweet longing I have inside me, the yearning to have what my friends do, even while knowing it’s not in the cards for me, is intense.

And it’s also etched into the lines of Lainey’s face.

“Maybe,” she says, breaking her stare away from mine and grinning at her kiddo. “But he’s also bigger than you.”

Ollie ponders that for a moment.

Then looks over at Smitty.

Finally, he nods.

“Cinnamon rolls and movies,” he says again, this time at much more appropriate restaurant volume.

I grin as Leo ruffles his hair, says, “That sounds like a pretty epic tradition to me.”

“I agree.”

“Mom made the cinnamon roll dough last night,” he explains solemnly.

“And all it needs is for you to put on the cinnamon and sugar,” she says, her eyes coming to mine for a beat. “Ollie’s a professional when it comes to sprinkling on sugar.”

Laughter in my chest. “I bet.”

“I love sugar,” he says, still solemnly.

“That I also bet.”

“So”—he settles his sticky hand on mine again—“will you have our addition with us?”

My phone starts buzzing again.

I can sense Leo watching me, can feel Lainey’s careful stare on me, but more than anything else, it’s that small hand on top of mine that draws my focus.