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She grinned, standing up. “C’mon. Your hot older girlfriend is getting tired of sitting on the ground.”

“Oh, I see now what this is going to be like…”

She offered me a hand. “If you’re not dropping your job and running back to Bayview right away, you might as well at least let me stay at your place.”

I took her hand, letting her help me up, and I arched my eyebrows at her. “Mooching off your younger girlfriend?”

She beamed. When she didn’t say anything, I put a hand on my hip.

“What? Regretting it when I say it like that?”

“I don’t regret a thing when you’re calling yourself my girlfriend.” She stepped in and caught me in a wild kiss so fast and intense I almost spilled my coffee, putting a hand up and fumbling against her for a second before I softened and let the kiss go on as long as we wanted, Paisley holding me as the wind rustled our hair and the branches all around us.

She pulled away with a twinkle in her eyes, slipping her hand into mine.

“C’mon, Linds. Let’s go home.”

I’d been Lindsay again for two seconds and she was already shortening it?

Ah, what the hell. I kinda liked it.

Epilogue

Paisley

Emberlynn caught me swiping the cheese from the counter, and she swatted my arm as I popped a piece in my mouth.

“Paisley!” She positioned herself between me and the cheese, the scheming rat. “There won’t be any left for dinner if you keep picking at the food.”

“You get my help with cooking, you pay the Paisley Tax.”

“I’m cooking for a party foryourgirlfriend. And doing it out of my own kitchen because you can’t clean up your own. I should be charging you the Emberlynn Tax.”

Soft footsteps padded in through the doorway, and Aria leaned in from where she was helping set up in the living room. “Emberlynn. You can’t argue with Paisley, you always lose.”

Emberlynn gave her a helpless look. “Aria. You’re supposed to back me up.”

Aria smiled softly. “I love you, dear, and that’s why I’m trying to convince you the fight isn’t worth fighting instead.”

I darted in while Emberlynn was looking at Aria and snagged another piece of cheese, running laughing from theroom as Emberlynn stumbled over herself chasing me through the house. I nearly took out Gwen, who had the bad sense to stand in the middle of the optimal path for escaping from Emby, but in the middle of the scramble, I was betrayed by my own sister, who went ahead and put the cheese into the soup. I got back into the kitchen just in time to witness it, and I put my hands on my hips.

“Ar! I was eating that.”

Aria didn’t look away from where she stirred the soup. “Indeed you were.”

“You’re the worst sister I’ve ever had.”

“I’d believe it.”

I at least managed to shoo her out of the kitchen before she caused any further damage, and Emberlynn and I were cooking together a bit longer, chatting about wild gossip that was mostly just me rambling, until the tray of breads went into the oven and the soup was simmering, and I leaned against the stovetop with nothing left to do in the kitchen. Emberlynn gave me a wry smile.

“You’re so antsy,” she said. “Suddenly scared to death of Linds?”

“About time you quit calling her Harper.”

She put her hands up. “Hey, I’m trying. Old habits die hard. You get your hands on her for one second and suddenly she has a different name and a different occupation, and I’m supposed to believe you didn’t just find a different girl to replace her?”

I stuck my tongue out. “Please. You need confirmation, ask her for some of the dirty secrets you know she has on us both.”