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Chapter 8
I didn’t say it was your fault. I said I was blaming you.
Present Day
Ican hardly believe what I’m seeing. Eight weeks ago, my baby sister was pining away for Rowan. Ashlyn never made a secret of how much she wanted the former football player, but he fought his attraction to her as if he were down two touchdowns in the last quarter of the Super Bowl and wasn’t ready to admit defeat. Now, they own a recording studio together he built for her, and he just proposed.
Tears well in my eyes. Stupid hormones. I need to get out of here before I’m blubbering like a lovesick fool. I’m not lovesick. I’m not! Do I miss Cole? Yes, but it’s the sex I miss. Not his blue eyes sparkling down at me or his brown hair I love to make a mess of. Or the way he made me feel special and treated me as more than a workaholic. Way to convince yourself the sex was meaningless, Ellery.
With everyone admiring Ashlyn’s new studio, it’s time for me to make my escape. Before I can retreat a single step, Aspen latches onto my upper arm.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I force myself to roll my eyes. “Back to work. Where else would I be going?”
“I wouldn’t know since you’re obviously keeping a secret from me.”
She sounds hurt, and I contemplate admitting my secret to her. Of all of my sisters, I’m closest to Aspen. We’re only two years apart in age and shared a bedroom while growing up. Maybe I should tell her. It would be nice to have someone to confide in.
“What are we talking about?” Juniper asks as she sidles up to Aspen. Her gaze bounces back and forth between the two of us and her forehead scrunches. “What’s wrong?’
“Nothing’s wrong,” I’m quick to say.
Aspen’s face flashes with pain, and I feel like the biggest bitch in the history of mankind, which is saying a lot since I met Rowan’s ex-wife. The woman wrote the book on bitch.
“I need to get back to the inn,” I lie.
I’ve always been a bit of a workaholic, but I don’t need to be at the inn nearly as much as I’ve claimed these past three months. But I can’t be around my sisters and keep my pregnancy secret. They’d sniff out my problem in no time. I’m convinced Aspen was a bloodhound in a previous life.
“You do?” Aspen cocks a brow. “I happen to know every single one of your guests is here celebrating the grand opening of Ashlyn’s new studio.”
“What’s with the name Bertie’s anyway?” Juniper asks. “Is it some inside joke between the two of them? I hope he doesn’t call her Bertie in bed. Yuck.”
“I think it’s a reference to Bertie Wooster from the P.G. Woodhouse stories,” Lilac answers as she joins us.
Aspen’s jaw falls open. The woman is a bookaholic of the highest order which makes owning the local bookstore the perfect career for her. “You know who P.G. Woodhouse is?”
Lilac frowns. “Naturally. Don’t you remember the play Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense Ashlyn was in when she was in college? We went to see it together.”
Ashlyn went to drama school but instead of pursuing an acting career, she became an audiobook narrator. Thus, the recording studio.
Aspen snaps her fingers. “Of course. I forgot.”
“Anyway, why are you standing here in the corner?” Lilac scans the room. “Shouldn’t we be celebrating Ashlyn’s engagement with her?”
Aspen snorts. “I think Ashlyn and Rowan want to celebrate their engagement alone.” She gestures toward the emergency exit of the building where the two are currently sneaking off.
“I guess she forgives him for being an ass yesterday,” I mumble. Rowan majorly screwed up yesterday. I don’t know if I would have forgiven him as quickly.
“Duh. She’s been in love with him forever. Naturally, she forgives him. It doesn’t hurt he told her he loves her in front of the whole town before presenting her with a complete recording studio and proposing to her.” Juniper sighs. “Some men know how to do romance.”
Aspen smiles as her gaze locks on Lyric as he saunters into the building in his police uniform. “They certainly do.”
While I’ve been busy trying to hide my pregnancy from my family, Aspen and Lyric hashed out their past issues and he proposed. If someone had told me a mere four months ago, Aspen and Ashlyn would be engaged to the men they’ve loved forever, I would have peed myself laughing.
I freeze when I notice who’s behind Lyric. Shit. What is Coledoing here? I plaster myself to the wall and start slipping sideways toward the emergency exit. The place is packed. Maybe he won’t notice me.
Aspen blocks my path. “Nope. You’re not fleeing to hide at the inn until you tell us your secret.”
