AllFreeNovel
Share Us
From my shadowy corner of the hallway, I can see a woman beside Christopher in the kitchen, where they’ve been the past half hour. She smiles as he talks, looking like she’s got cartoon hearts for eyes. I have no idea what she sees in him. When I look at Christopher, my brain doodles little devil horns on that annoyingly, perfectly tousled dark hair, a forked tail pinned on that high, round—
I scrunch my eyes shut, mentally kicking myself. What the hell is wrong with me, looking at his butt, noticing the way it stretches his slacks and flexes when he shifts his weight?
When I open my eyes, even while keeping them decidedlynoton his butt, I remember the sight of his bare chest as he yanked off his shirt in the hallway, broad and solid, fine dark hairs dusting golden skin, arrowing straight down his stomach to—
“There you are.” Bea leans on the wall beside me and gives me a concerned once-over. “You okay?”
“Barf,” I grumble, glaring at Christopher.
She snorts a laugh. “I’m assuming this is about seeing Jamie’s coworker hit on Christopher and not a case of the spins.”
“Affirmative.”
“If you stick around much longer, you’re going to have to get used to it,” she says. “You do realize pretty much everyone besides you, me, and Jules wants in his pants, right?”
“More like we’re the only people who haven’tbeenin his pants,” I mutter into my cocktail glass. Margo’s mixology genius is the only thing getting me through this night.
“Not that we’re going to shame someone for who and how many people they’ve slept with,” Bea says pointedly.
I roll my eyes. “Of course I’m not shaming him forthat. It’s the hearts he’s messed up along the way.”
Bea stares at me, looking curious. “Why would you assume that he’s messed up anyone’s heart?”
“Because that’s what players do, and he is the definition of a player.”
“We gotta go.” Sula stops near us, fishing around the coat hooks, Margo right behind her. “Rowan’s going to wake up soon, screaming for Margo’s boobs.”
“The joys of nursing a toddler,” Margo says.
Sula helps her shrug on her coat and adds, “Who’s cutting teeth.”
Bea and I both reflexively cover our chests.
“Yeah, it’s as fun as it sounds.” Margo hugs Bea hard, then hugs me, too, careful of my arm in its sling. I’m getting so damn tired of this sling act. I want to hug with two arms. Play Sequence with both hands. Clasp Christopher’s jaw, wrench his attention my way, and find some way to wipe that arrogant smirk right off his face.
“Night, kids!” Sula calls, blowing everyone a kiss.
“Oof,” Bea says, watching them go. “Teeth and nursing. That sounds scary.”
I watch the door shut behind Margo and Sula, then turn to see Bea gulping a glass of water. I should do the same, but I’m a little too attached to the numbing buzz of alcohol in my system right now. “The things parents deal with,” I tell her. “Makes you even more sure you never want kids, right?”
Bea coughs into her water. Bringing away her glass, she wipes her chin. “Did I say that? Long ago?”
“Like the last time I saw you.”
“Which was a year and a half ago.”
“Touché.” I sigh into my cocktail glass before I tip it back and drain it. Turning, I face Bea fully and land against the hallway wall with a clumsythud. “So you want kids now? What happened to your grand plans to travel Europe with me and be a famous painter?”
She bites her lip, staring into her empty glass. “They... grew. I still want to travel with you again. I want to refocus on my painting career. But that doesn’t mean I can’t want kids, too.”
Teasing her, I start to hum “Another One Bites the Dust.”
Bea rolls her eyes. “I’m not saying it’s happening right now or even anytime soon,” she says. “I’m just saying...” She glances over her shoulder. As if he’s felt her gaze, Jamie glances up from his conversation with Hamza and Toni in the kitchen. Their gazes lock. He smiles softly. She smiles back, then turns and faces me again. “One day.”
It hits me with the force of a cosmic freight train. Everyone’s lives are changing. Last time I was here, Margo looked like she’d swallowed a watermelon, and now she and Sula have akid. Toni and his boyfriend, Hamza, talk about their future decades down the road, so sure they’ve found “the one.” Bianca’s already been swept away by Nick. Bea and Jamie steal glances and secret smiles and now Bea wantsbabies, and I’m...
Home again. Exactly where I started.
