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14
ARIA
Shelby and I showed up to our rescheduled girls’ night at the same time. I waited while she got out of her car, then greeted her with a warm hug. “Hey, girl.”
“Hey.”
I pulled back, studying her closely. Will planned to tell Paul about us today, and if he did, that meant she’d probably heard about it. But she looked totally casual. Not at all like a woman who’d just found out her best friend was in love with her fiancé’s best friend and hadn’t told her. Maybe that meant he hadn’t gone through with it?
I shook it off, glad I’d get the chance to tell her myself either way. “Can you believe how close to the wedding you are? I can’t even stand it, and I’m not the bride.”
She let out a frazzled squeal. “It feels like it snuck up on me and took a lifetime to get here, all at the same time.”
We walked up the steps of Layla and Lyndi’s chic bungalow together, and I rang the doorbell, offering her an encouraging smile. “I’m so happy for you. This is going to be great.”
The door flew open then, revealing an excited pair of matching grins. Layla beckoned us in with a wave, holding the door open while Lyndi wrapped us in a huge group hug. We laughed and giggled and greeted each other like it had been way too long when in reality it had only been two weeks since I’d hung out with the sisters and a few days since I’d seen Shelby.
Once we were settled on their comfy gray couch, beverages in hand and a chick flick queued up on their flatscreen TV, the significance of this particular girls’ night finally set in. This wasn’t our usual, run-of-the-mill gossip frenzy. Tonight, for the first time in my life, I was going to tell my best friends about my feelings for Will.
Just as soon as I got up the nerve.
“Tell us all about your trip,” Shelby said to Layla and Lyndi.
Layla looked over at her sister. “How many books did you say you read again? Twenty-seven?”
“Seventeen,” Lyndi corrected her with an eye roll.
“Right. So, clearly, she had about seventeen different adventures on the trip, whereas I only had one,” Layla said.
“And how was yours?” Shelby asked.
Layla’s eyes gleamed. “Well, I met a guy.”
“What?” Shelby gasped. “Tell us more. This feels like that scene inGreasewhere Sandy tells the Pink Ladies all about Danny.”
“Summer lovin’, happened so fast,” we all sang, laughing at our hive mind’s reaction to Shelby’s words.
Layla giggled. “It was pretty much just like that. But if he shows up at my school and is a jerk to me, I’m kicking him to the curb. Mama don’t play.”
We all laughed again, but when it faded, I decided to blurt out my news before I chickened out. Taking a deep breath and closing my eyes, I held up my hand. “I’m in love with Will.”
With my eyes squeezed tightly shut, I couldn’t see their reactions. But I also couldn’t hear anything other than deafening silence, so I slowly creaked open one eye like it was the basement door in a horror movie.
All three of my friends gave me open-mouthed, wide-eyed stares. You could have heard a pin drop they were so quiet. Millions of words rattled around in my brain, one phrase in particular being,Late April Fool’s, I’m just kidding.But I bit my tongue and held back.
“I literally can’t breathe right now,” Shelby said in a bland tone.
I frowned. “Wait, literally?”
“No, sorry,” she said quickly. “But wow.”
The rest of us visibly relaxed and I chuckled. “Don’t joke, girlfriend. You have a heart condition.”
“Sorry,” she said again with a laugh.
“Okay, so, back up. Did you just say you were in love with Will? As in,ourWill? Will Paxton? Your brother’s best friend Will?” Layla asked, her words coming out in a rush.
I nodded, swallowing hard. “Yes.”
