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Not my happiest day.
Keegan belts out a squeal, and then she’s shooting down the slide, hitting some air at the end, and then plummets two feet from me into the pool. She emerges, and I make sure I’m right in front of her when she does. Keegan is a good swimmer, but the water scares her. Kenna had a near drowning when the girls were three. You’d think Kenna would be the one with the fear of water, but no. That girl is fearless.
As if proving my point…
“Here I come!” Kenna doesn’t wait for us to move. Her battle cry is our only warning. I latch onto Keegan and move us to the side because Kenna—much like her cool Aunt Layla—loves to make a splash in everything she does. This is why when she hits the air at the bottom of the slide, she does a makeshift flip that ends in a cannonball.
The twins crack me up.
Keegan is all Amelia, and Kenna is all me—with a bit of Oliver in there too.
Kenna explodes up triumphantly, and Keegan is there to high-five her sister.
“Layla, it’s five,” Amelia says, walking along with Stella over to the pool, a towel for me in her hand.
“Awesome. Thanks!” I give the girls kisses. “I’ll see you ladies soon.”
“Why do you have to go?” Keegan pouts.
“Because Layla has a date.” Stella’s eyebrows bounce and I coyly flip her the bird making both her and Amelia laugh.
“It’s not a date. It’s just dinner.”
“What’s the difference? It’s dinner with the man you’re—”
I splash at Stella, shutting her up. “Silence, booger. We have young ears present.” I hop out of the pool, and take the towel Amelia hands me. “Thanks.”
“So tell me what you’re doing again, because I don’t know why it required you to be out of the house all day?” Amelia asks only to hold up her hand. “Not that we’re complaining. We love seeing you.”
I shrug, drying the end of my hair on a corner of the towel. “I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me, and Katy was tight-lipped too.”
“This sounds thoughtful and special, and thoughtful and special translates to a date. But are you dating him or just playing bedroom tag?” Stella questions for at least the fifth time since I told her last week that Callan and I are taking it slow. Incidentally, I also owe both her and Amelia fifty bucks each, because apparently, when I was in my drunken state at Stella’s restaurant, I told them that I would not screw around with Callan and that if I did, I’d owe them each fifty bucks.
Oops.
“It’s both,” I tell them. “We’re together, but right now with everything else that’s going on, we’re having fun. Stop doing thewhat does this all meanthing. It sets us women back centuries.”
Amelia gives me a look as if she’s questioning my basic sanity, which, frankly, is not a new look for her to give me. She folds her arms over her chest, throwing a quirked eyebrow on top of that look. “If you think you’re not in as deep with him as he is with you, you’re high. He’s very much attached to you, and you’re getting attached too.” Amelia’s hand shoots up when I start to argue. “I’m not upset about it. I’m actually thrilled because I like him a lot and I think he’s perfect for you—”
“Will you stop with that already? Yes, he’s perfect. I know he is. That’s not the problem. Right guy, wrong time, okay? It’s a lot all at once.”
Stella lets out a sardonic laugh. “Well, whether it’s the wrong time or not, you’ve found him anyway. I’m with Meils on this one. He’s perfect for you, and I’ll bet another fifty bucks that you and your hot doctor turn out exactly the way Amelia and Oliver did.”
“Great,” I grumble. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“I am, Layla. You just haven’t figured out that it could all work if you’re willing to give it a try.”
“You mean if our situation wasn’t all kinds of fucked up?” I toss at them, hoping that shuts them up, but I should have known better. I’m dealing with Amelia and Stella here.
Amelia levels me with her motherly glare, her gray eyes deep and intense, and suffering no fools. “You can be so absolutely right for someone and yet be stuck in a time that is so impossibly wrong you feel you have no path forward. But that doesn’t mean you don’t. All it means is you have to make adjustments if you want it to work.”
“I know that,” I reply adamantly, wrapping the towel snugly around my chest. “The truth is, I don’t know what I want anymore. I don’t. I like Callan a lot, and I care for him deeply, and I love Katy, but… I’m… I don’t want to get hurt again. I don’t want to sacrifice the things that are important to me. I don’t know if I’m ready for what being with him entails. He’s thirty-one and has a kid and I know he’s at the point where he wants to settle down. I’m twenty-three and a second-year med student. I’m not ready for all that yet, and I don’t think that makes me a villain either.”
Amelia blows out a tired breath, shifting her weight and playing with her red ponytail. “Fine. I get that, and part of me agrees with it. I’m just keeping the promise you made me swear to keep. Deny it all you want, but you’re getting attached to both of them.”
I am. I know I am.
We have six weeks left on this. We’re halfway through, and I’m crazy about them. Both of them.
