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“Was it?” I asked, looking at Natalie. She scrunched her nose at me, and it was so cute, I had to kiss her.
“Exhibit A,” Paige said, pointing to us.
“I’m so happy for you,” Linley said.
“Agreed. Congrats,” Gray said, raising his beer to us. We’d done a little potluck, with Natalie bringing her mom’s baked chicken, Paige and Esme doing a salad and drinks, and Linley and Gray bringing more drinks and dessert.
“To Emerald and Natalie,” Esme said, raising her glass. We all toasted to that.
“In other news,” Linley said, looking at Gray, “We’re going to have a houseguest.”
“Are you getting a dog?” Esme asked excitedly. Stormy was currently sleeping under the picnic table by my feet. If it was colder, I would have put my feet on her like a foot warmer.
“No, just my cousin, Charlie,” Linley said. “Poor thing. Just had a horrendous breakup. Like, absolutely brutal. Her ex cheated and then changed the locks on their apartment. It’s a whole mess.”
Wow, that was awful.
“So she’s coming here to reset and do some work for the bakery. We’re growing and we can’t get away with just having me or Mom do the social media stuff, and she just happens to be an expert, so it kind of works out. Not that I wanted her to get her heart broken, but at least she’ll have something to take her mind off it.”
“You should bring her to hang out with us. We’ll just absorb her into the group,” Paige said.
Linley smiled. “We’ll see. I don’t think she’s up for socializing yet, but I’ll check. She’s moving in next week. Poor Gray has had to give up his carving room.” She patted him in the arm.
“It’s fine, she’s family,” Gray said, putting his arm around Linley’s shoulders. “We sacrifice for family.”
Linley kissed him and whispered that she loved him. He said it back.
“Well, she’s got a free drink at the bar, anytime she wants,” Esme said.
“I’ll let her know,” Linley said.
That got us talking about our worst breakups, including Paige talking about my brother, and then me sharing my breakup car impounding. They never got tired of that story.
Natalie was quiet, and didn’t say much, but that was fine.
“You okay?” I whispered to her as we got out plates and silverware to serve the dessert.
“Yeah. Just thinking,” she said, giving me a tight smile.
“About?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” she said, kissing my cheek.
Linley served the pineapple upside down cake, and we all had second helpings because it was so good.
We went inside when the bugs got too vicious, and I had to bring out some folding chairs so everyone had a place to sit.
No one commented, but I still felt bad that I didn’t have a nicer entertaining space.
I put on some soft music as we chatted into the night about this and that.
Natalie sat next to me on the couch, her arm around me and her head on my shoulder. Her hair kept getting in my face, but I didn’t mind.
It was perfect.
* * *
“You really do have good friends,” Natalie said as we cleaned up afterward.
