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Her arms spread wide and we had a big hug that sandwiched the peacefully sleeping Elijah between us.
“Poor lil’ guy, hope he feels better.” I smoothed my hand over the baby’s head of soft fine hair.
“He’s fine, just eating too fast, little stinker. For a little fella who didn’t like to eat at first, he’s pretty greedy now,” she giggled.
“I’ll say,” Alec chimed in with an adoring gaze.
She was my best friend, so I didn’t want to feel sick with their gross display of domestic perfectness, but honestly… I totally wanted to barf.
“He’s getting so big; he was such a little nugget before.” Elijah had grown a lot since being born prematurely. “He’s grown like six feet since Wednesday.” I knew Kylie loved talking about the baby, so I almost always mentioned him first; that usually eased her into talking about other things.
“Haha, not that much, but I bet he’s gonna be as tall and handsome as his father one day,” she flashed a fawning glance at Alec and my stomach rolled again.
She wasn’t always so cheesy or in love, in fact, she had crafted this party girl facade for the media and was, for a minute, the most famous person in the world… almost. Then she got married last month and was slowly dropping out of the scene. She’d stopped modeling and focused all her energy on her family and our foundation. I’d watched her grow up right before my eyes. We’d known each other since Jr. High School and while she had become a wife, mother, and business maverick, I was still me, edgily opinionated, quick to laughter, quicker to temper. I’d taken a DNA test and found out I was an eighth Irish, so I started blaming my temper on my Irish roots. In fact, the reason why I was holding the charity event at Bar Dome in the Four Seasons Hotel on St. Patrick’s Day was to honor the patron saint of the Isles of my birth.
“Who knows?” I was already sick of the baby talk. “So, we’ve got this all underway. The fashion show starts in an hour, all green beer is on the house and the corned beef and hash dinner will be served shortly…”
“Wow, you have gone all out Irish for this.” Kylie flashed a big toothy grin, so I knew she was teasing me, but I didn’t care.
“Well you know, since I am Irish, this is sort of my day,” I boasted.
Kylie all out laughed. “Right, that tiny little blip on your DNA test,” she teased.
“Yes, the Irish are my people, my tribe,” I puffed up and boasted. “This is my holiday.”
Alec gave me one of his sexy but sinister glares. “You cannot be an eighth Irish and claim the country and its traditions for yourself.” He seemed to scold. “It’s called cultural appropriation. You must at least visit a country before you can claim it.” He laughed.
Alec and I had a love/hate kinda thing going on. I mostly loved him for Kylie’s sake. He had his moments where I really couldn’t deal with his big dominant personality, though. I was fiery and he set me ablaze on occasion. Since he was now kind of a brother-in-law, we had friendly banter that only seemed like we hated each other.
“No, I can be Irish and not visit the country. Hello… blood is thicker than jet fuel.” I glared at him.
“Come on you two, stand down.” Kylie waved an arm like a white flag while bouncing little Elijah gingerly in his sling.
“Well, Kylie, your husband obviously doesn’t know anything about being Irish. You guys wanna Green Guinness? They’re on the house,” I asked knowing Kylie would say no.
“I’m still breastfeeding. Honey?” She looked over at Alec.
“I’ll get something at the bar. You two probably want some time to catch up,” he said and walked away.
This made me smile. It was a rare treat to have a few minutes with her all to myself. Whenever we were in the office together it was all about work, so I dove right in.
“So how was the honeymoon?”
“It was amazing. Bali is so beautiful, and the people are lovely. I highly recommend it.” Her expression showed that her mind had drifted off to a delusionally euphoric place and my temper simmered. She was my bestie and now she was dreaming of exotic lands and most likely endless sex with her hot billionaire husband.
“Did you ever leave the bedroom?” I gave her an ‘are you kidding me’ smirk.
“We did,” she seemed to be defending herself. “Once or twice,” she whispered and giggled so as not to wake baby Elijah.
“Lucky,” I said.
She sensed a hint of envy. “You’ll find your man, I promise. I wasn’t looking when I found Alec, in fact, I was trying everything in my power to not find him. It’ll happen for you too.” She leaned in and gave me a hearty sideways hug. “Where’s Maddy? I don’t see her.”
