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I wanted real friends. But I wouldn’t be in town long enough to keep them.
Aggie’s grin spread wide. “You and Cody.”
Sutton’s eyes flared. “Seriously?” She smiled and put her hand on her chest, but relief refused to find me. “Oh, thank God. I mean, after Meg’s death, he got so...” She snapped her fingers like she was trying to think of a word.
“Rigid,” Aggie filled in. “Uptight. Moody. Withdrawn.”
Sutton pointed at her like she had won a game show. “You’re the winner. He was all that before, especially when she got sick, but this was, like, worse.”
Now relief crashed over me. They took the information in stride. They weren’t even surprised. Weren’t they suspicious of my motives? I didn’t have to prove myself to them, and that just wasn’t how my life had worked. “You guys don’t mind? With his past, and since we’re both in town temporarily, we don’t want to bring attention to ourselves.”
“He’s not my brother or my brother-in-law,” Vienne said, “but I know it sucks to have your personal life the center of attention.”
“He is my brother,” Aggie said, “and since you’ve entered the picture, I’ve actually seen him smile and do family stuff with the kids.”
I circled the cool can in my grip. “He’s been working a lot again.” He wasn’t as uptight, but he was back in the office like he had been before the trip.
“Of course he has. It’s his default. He thinks he has to save the world, and he forgets that people would rather have him around than have the family money.”
“Wilder has a similar trait,” Sutton muttered.
“Wilder needs to learn how to spend time with anything other than his cruiser and his sidearm,” Aggie said sympathetically.
“And his boss.” Sutton nodded, her lips pursed. I tried to picture her and Wilder as a couple. I wished I was around to see it, but the idea that they were divorcing when they each seemed like they’d rather not was already sad. It’d be harder if I saw how much they meant to each other.
“Look, I’m the baby of the family,” Aggie said, “so I didn’t get to witness a carefree side to Cody, but I felt like it was always there. And when he opened up to me, of all people, after Meg died, I knew I was right. To know he’s actually allowing some of that out around you gives me hope.”
“Well, don’t hang all your hopes on me.” I might not have had to prove myself to them, but I didn’t want to be an impending disappointment. “It was just a fling, and I honestly don’t know if it’ll be repeated. We don’t want the kids to see something and get the wrong impression.”
Vienne leaned forward, her bracelets tinkling on the tabletop. “What I’m hearing is that the kids are cockblocking you.”
“Not at all. I mean, yes, naturally, but it’s fine. They come first.”
“What I’m hearing is that no one’s coming,” Sutton said with a snicker. She fist-bumped Vienne.
“No.” I chuckled. “Eliot took the kids one of the nights we were there. That’s the only reason we...” I couldnotfinish. I wasn’t used to discussing my sex life, and I did it with Cody’s family—and a neighbor. Should I have kept my mouth shut?
I was doing the same as them. Trusting them at face value. But I’d spent a lot of time around fake people, and I didn’t get that sense from any of them, and I liked that they acted the same with me.
Aggie tapped her chin. “Let me talk to Ansen. We’ve been wanting to take the kids for a trail ride. I’ll let you know what night.”
“You don’t have to.” Was it weird to have a sister’s help arranging a booty call? I wasn’t a prude city girl, but this was just odd.
“I know,” Aggie said. “I owe Cody for a lot. This is the least I can do.”
Vienne snorted. “By helping him have sex?”
“I didn’t grow up around rutting studs to be shy about it.” A wicked gleam flashed through her hazel eyes. “Cody stays out of my business if he’s in hers.”
Sutton was taking a drink and choked on a laugh.
I started laughing too. I liked these women. A faint cloud of sadness passed over my good mood. I’d be leaving them when I went back to LA. Sure, I could stay, figure something out. But Mom was in California, so I had to go. I couldn’t afford to move her, and I wouldn’t abandon her like she’d done to me.
Vienne ran her bracelets as far up her arm as they’d go and then resettled them back at her wrist. “Say, Tova. I wanted to ask about your lessons with Catherine.”
She was hesitant enough that I tensed. Was tonight too good to be true? “You found out I used to do burlesque?”
She shook her head. “Come again?”
