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“What exactly did you have to do to get him to agree?” Sweetie asked.
“I was wondering the same thing,” Cloe said.
Liberty didn’t believe in beating around the bush. “If you’re asking me if I had sex with him, the answer is no.”
“Are you planning on having sex with him?” Cloe asked.
She didn’t know where the brick of disappointment in her stomach came from. “Absolutely not.”
“But you kissed him twice,” Hallie said.
Liberty sent both Cloe and Sweetie glares. “You told?”
“You should have told us,” Noelle said as she viciously whisked. “That’s just part of the Secret Sisterhood oath we took. No secrets from sisters. Especially juicy secrets.” She stopped whisking and leaned closer to her screen. “So have you kissed him again?”
“Once.” Not that anyone would call what she and Jesse had done at Cooper Springs just a kiss. For the past few nights, when she did finally fall asleep, she dreamed about the feel of Jesse’s hard body rocking against her.
“Did something else come with that kiss?” Hallie asked. “Because that’s a hot-sex flush if ever I saw one.”
Her face grew even warmer and there was a “Nailed it!” from Hallie and a squeal of excitement from Noelle and a gasp of disbelief from Belle—no doubt because Liberty hadn’t told her—and a worried sigh from both Cloe and Sweetie.
“We didn’t have sex!” Liberty yelled so loudly the people sitting around her stopped talking and stared at her. She stared right back. “What? Haven’t you ever heard a grown woman talking about sex before?” They quickly turned away and she looked back at her laptop.
“But you want to have sex with Jesse,” Noelle said.
“Yep, she does,” Hallie joined in.
Thankfully, Belle came to her rescue. “That’s none of our business, Elle and Hal. There are some things sisters should keep to themselves.” Liberty couldn’t help being surprised. Belle had confided everything to her . . . hadn’t she? “Now let’s get back to the issue at hand.” Belle continued. “Do you think Jesse can convince Corbin to let Rome pay off the loan?”
Liberty didn’t even hesitate to answer. Jesse might have ghosted her, but he wasn’t the type of man to renege on his word.
“Yes. The man is extremely persuasive.” Her sisters all sent her knowing looks and she rolled her eyes. “Moving on. Is there any other issues we need to discuss?”
Cloe held up a photograph. “Does anyone want to see your new niece?” Everyone started talking at once as Cloe moved the blurred ultrasound image closer to the camera. It looked like a tiny withered potato. While Cloe talked about how Rome had cried when he’d seen the ultra sound of his daughter, Liberty tried to keep a smile on her face and not give in to the hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach.
It was a losing battle.
It seemed that talking to Jesse the other day at the party had opened up the internal safe Liberty had locked all her secret desires in. Now there was no more pretending that she didn’t want children or a husband who cried over ultrasound images. But very few men would be willing to get into a relationship with a woman who couldn’t have children. Even men like Jesse who acted like they didn’t want kids. He might not want kids, but he wouldn’t want that choice taken from him.
Maybe that’s why he’d ghosted her. Maybe he was completely turned off by the fact she was defective.
The more she thought about him ghosting her all because she couldn’t have the kids he didn’t even want, the madder she got . . . and the more she downed the two margaritas the barmaid had brought her.
By the time she was finished Zooming with her sisters, both of her twofer margaritas were gone and she was madder than a wet hen. Or possibly a tipsy hen. She fired off a quick text to her ghost and pushed send, then jumped up from her chair and yelled, “Who wants to dance!”
A lot of people took her up on the offer—men and women. She discovered why once she was out on the dance floor. It seemed word had gotten out about Pip’s party and now everyone wanted Liberty to plan their events.
“So I’m in a bit of a pickle,” Mayor Deidre Sims said as she whirled Liberty under her arm flab, then continued the jaunty polka they were doing. “Carol Hyde always takes care of the Memorial and Fourth of July activities, but after hip-replacement surgery, she just can’t do it.” The mayor leaned in closer. “And just between you and me, Carol never did have a flair for decorations. Last year, she decorated the Miss Soybean float with orange flowers. Not red, white, and blue for Fourth of July. Not white, pink, or purple for the soybean flowers. Orange. I have never had so many hate emails in all my born days.”
Liberty giggled, which proved how drunk she was. She did not giggle.
“I know you have a flair with decorations,” the mayor continued. “When you were in high school, I knew I could count on you and your sister to make every homecoming and prom look like the set of a teen movie.” Mayor Sims had been the principal of the high school before she had been elected mayor. Which was why Liberty couldn’t tell her no.
That and the warm glow in her belly from the margaritas.
“I’d be honored to be in charge of decorations and fes-tible—fe-sis—activities for the Memorial and Fourth of July celebrations.”
“Great!” The mayor handed her off to Danny Bell, who told her all about his daughter who wanted a fancy wedding on a postman’s budget.
