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“We were all front and center that day,” Keats tells her.
“I’m sorry,” Eloise says as she steps back into the room. “I have to run. A friend needs me.”
A look of alarm crosses Stevie’s expression. She’s up and on her way toward Eloise in no time flat. “Is it Penny? Is she all right?”
“She’s good.” Eloise skims a hand over Stevie’s head. “It’s another friend. He needs help with something.”
He.
Again, that fucking jealousy itch is back.
The only way I know how to scratch the goddamn thing is to bury myself inside of her.
She won’t make eye contact with me, so I drop my gaze back to the bowl of beans. Stevie was right. They’re not good.
“It was great seeing all of you,” Eloise says to the room. “Dinner was amazing as usual, Astrid.”
“Thank Keats for that.”
Keats glances over his shoulder at Eloise. “I can’t and won’t take credit for those beans. Those were fucking awful.”
“You owe a hundred to the fund,” a chorus of voices unites to say that, including Eloise’s and mine.
It’s a Morgan family tradition that if anyone swears, they need to donate a hundred dollars to a charity founded by Berk in honor of his late wife and Stevie’s mom.
I finally sense Eloise’s eyes on me so I look up.
I want to ask where the hell she’s going, but I don’t own her time. We’re not committed.
“I’ll help Mom find a new bean recipe,” Stevie announces to everyone in the room before she grabs ahold of Eloise’s hand. “You’ll call me about taking my measurements, right?”
“Tomorrow,” she promises with a kiss to Stevie’s forehead.
They share a hug then, followed by a smile before Astrid, Maren, and Sinclair trail Eloise out of the room.
“She’s going to knit me a special dress for the school dance,” Stevie tells Berk, Keats, Jameson, and me. “She’s a pretty cool kind of aunt, or cousin. She’s my friend. Eloise is my friend.”
I envy the kid for finding one word to describe her connection to Eloise.
I could toss out a million of them, and not one would describe what’s happening between us and, more importantly, what can never happen between my lamb and me.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Eloise
I sitat a table in a coffee shop in midtown facing a man I didn’t know had my number. That’s a total of two men who have gotten their hands on my phone number without me being aware of it.
I make a mental note to ask Gaines why he saved my number in his phone when he heard Astrid sharing it with Stevie. That was over a month ago, well before I saw him at Atlas 22.
“Like I said on the phone, I’m nervous, Els.”
I look at Daxton. He’s dressed similarly to the way Gaines was dressed tonight. Both men chose jeans, and gray T-shirts. But Dax has a blue hoodie on. Dr. Morgan was wearing a navy blue blazer with the thinnest pinstripe running through the fabric.
The man is always dressed to kill.
“I should mention that Pen gave me your number,” he explains without any prompting from me. “I really hope I didn’t interrupt any big plans you had for tonight.”
Before he called, my big plans consisted of avoiding looking at Gaines.
