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“No!” Sadie stared at her, looking half-aghast and half-thrilled. Her sister hoisted baby Leo higher on her hip and he wrapped a chubby hand in her blonde ponytail and tried to stuff it in his mouth. She nuzzled his downy hair. Juliet, Sadie, and the rest of the Callahan siblings all looked so much alike, but Sadie’s gorgeous twins were dark-haired like their daddy. “So what did you do?”
“I just stood there like an idiot. I swear he put me under a spell.”
“So you didn’t try to stop him, but he didn’t follow through?” Her sister sighed dreamily. “Why is that hot? And oh my God—that hair thing. I would have fainted.”
“It was weird!”
“You think everything sexual is weird. You’ve never even taken it up the ass.”
“Sadie Callahan!” Juliet whispered harshly, trying to cover baby Leo’s ears.
“First of all, the boys are nine months old. I don’t think we have to watch our language yet. Second . . . loosen up!” Sadie rolled her eyes. “You need to stop spending all of your time on your career and start trying to have a social life. Nine-month-old twins don’t count as dates.”
Juliet put the last pot she’d rinsed in the drying rack. “Doesn’t helping you make baby food count as a social life?”
“No!” Sadie swatted her arm. “You need to shake up your life. Some people are happier single, but I think you need someone to help you step outside your comfort zone.”
“I can be just as wild as the next girl,” Juliet grumbled.
“Only if the next girl wears a habit and a rosary,” Sadie shot back.
“Jerk.”
“You should have met Mr. Hottypants BDSM Club Owner halfway for that kiss.”
“He’s such an ass!”
“I didn’t say you had to marry him.”
“Rewarding hot jerks by having sex with them is the opposite of a public service. It encourages them all to keep being rude.”
“Yum.”
“You’re hopeless.”
“I’ve always been into cocky jerks. That’s why I ended up with Scott, remember?”
She grimaced, not wanting to be reminded of when those two started dating. When Juliet had introduced Scott, her best friend at university, to her kid sister it had never occurred to her that sparks would fly.
“Oh well. From what you’ve said about him, I’m sure he has other available options,” Sadie pointed out, squatting to get Eli’s toy off the floor for him and putting it back on his high chair table, just to have him drop it overboard again.
“True.” Juliet took the dish towel off her shoulder and hung it up. “I don’t think I could do casual sex though.”
“Wear a goddamned bow tie and make it formal sex, then, woman! Get out there! Find some trouble to get into!” Sadie handed Leo to Juliet and fished around in her purse then withdrew her car keys. “Loosen up, girl. You’re twenty-six and you’re not a nun.”
Eli banged his hands on his highchair and shrieked just to hear his own noise as Sadie straightened her scrubs and grabbed her lunch out of the fridge.
“And after that inspirational speech from me about getting a life, thanks for not having a life so you can continue to provide me with free child care.” Sadie smiled mischievously. “Scotty will be home in a while. Hopefully, they’ll go down easy after their baths. I don’t know what we’d do without you, Jules.” She kissed her cheek and then the boys, and headed for the door.
It would be funny to holler after Sadie that she was going to owe her payback child care someday, but they both knew that Juliet having kids was an over-Juliet’s-dead-body scenario. After helping their mother raise the younger kids in the family, Juliet couldn’t stand the idea of giving up more of her life to taking care of people. Sadie had helped with the younger ones, too, but for some reason she’d never hated it like Juliet had—maybe because there were only five kids younger than her, rather than eight.
She had to admit, though, juggling Sadie’s twins was easier than helping Mom had been. In no time, she had them bathed and in their sleepers, then Scotty came flying through the door, ready to take over. They knew how she felt about babysitting, and were grateful she was willing to watch the boys between their shifts. She loved them, though, so it was no real sacrifice.
Scotty put the boys to bed, then he and Juliet shot the shit about the progress on the Henry’s Coffee Emporium remodel, and watched an ancient episode of M*A*S*H as he ate dinner.
By the time Juliet got home, she’d run out of things to distract herself with. Thoughts of Will kept cropping up—she replayed their entire interaction in her mind and tried to figure him out. She sketched Catacombs plans for a while, basing them on what Will wanted, but it was going to take more research than her typical projects. As she fired up her laptop, she could already feel her face heating at the thought of doing kink research. Doing this at work, where their IT girl might catch wind of it, was far too embarrassing, but then looking it up at home seemed weirder. As if she was hiding something.
Did the government really track what people looked up on the internet?
