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His wife shook her head vigorously. “Hard disagree, babe. Put that thing out in the Carriage House, Mir.”

Miriam pouted, hugging the doll. “But I love her and I’ve named her Lisa.”

Leaning down, Noelle peered at the doll. “I like her. She looks like she might murder us in our sleep.”

Noelle had a tattoo of Lizzie Borden, so this was probably genuine praise.

“Fine!” Miriam said. “I’ll put her in the Carriage House. If she curses the main house in retaliation for you all kicking her out, though, it’s not my fault!” She smiled at Tara. “You’re my favorite ex-girlfriend.”

Tara held up a hand for a high five, which Miriam returned on her way outside with Lisa. Noelle gave Tara a thumbs-up. This was admittedly surreal, after last year. Noelle had been jealous, Tara had been hurt, Miriam had been a hot mess, and none of them could have foreseen this easy camaraderie.

“Are they… always like this? All of them?” Holly asked, but before Tara could answer, she realized Holly was talking to Mrs. Matthews and including Tara in “all of them.” Tara almost objected, but she found she sort of liked being lumped in with this ragtag group of hooligans. It was a hell of a lot more flattering than the other groups she usually got lumped in with. She might not really be part of this tight-knit chosen family, but she wouldn’t mind if she were.

Mrs. Matthews nodded. “Oh, they’re often much worse. I suspect you’ll see it as the wedding events ramp up. This crew never misses a chance for trouble.”

Levi rubbed his hands together. “We do love a dangerous, reckless idea.”

From her seat at the breakfast table next to Tara, Hannah grumbled, “He always acts like the Shenanigans mastermind, but we all know it’s me.”

Tara snorted. “Cole does the same thing to me.” She turned to Hannah and dropped her voice. The whole group had stuffed themselves into one of the circular tables in the dining room, but they were so loud they couldn’t hear anything. “How are you feeling?”

Hannah shuddered. Tara noticed that she was wearing a lot more foundation than usual, but it wasn’t quite hiding the fact that her beautiful olive complexion was noticeably green around the gills. “Pukey? Tired? I always have to pee, and I hate everyone? Also my boobs hurt so much.”

“Yeah, it’s ridiculous that no one has noticed. They’re much bigger than usual. Spectacular—”

Hannah nodded. “Thank you, aren’t they?”

“But really, obviously bigger.” Tara dropped her voice even lower, knowing there were interfering family ears all around them. “When are y’all thinking about telling everyone?”

“Can we not tell them?” Hannah asked ruefully. “Is that an option? Can we just mysteriously have a baby one day?”

Tara raised an eyebrow at her.

“I know, I know, in some ways it would be easier if everyone knew,” Hannah explained, picking at the tablecloth, “but I don’t have the energy right now to deal with everyone’s opinions, which they’re all going to have. Especially our moms. I don’t usually mind working with my mother-in-law but even the best woman in the world may get weird about her grandbaby.”

Putting a hand over Hannah’s to stop her fidgeting, Tara said seriously, “I think it’s going to be amazing.” Then, to distract her friend, she asked, “Do you think he’s trying to talk my girlfriend into something nefarious?” She inclined her head toward where Levi was talking to Holly.

Holly was nodding thoughtfully as he gesticulated wildly. Tara thought the two of them might get along a little too well. She suspected Levi would approve of a fake dating scheme.

Eventually, the guests wandered off to do whatever activities Hannah had scheduled, the room quieted, and Miriam insisted on hearing the entire story of Barb, her dolls, her vintage menu (this was of more interest to Levi, who was updating the Carrigan’s menu), and her lesbian activism.

“It sounds kind of epic,” Noelle observed.

“It was a very different experience than the next day at Cricket’s, I’ll say that,” Holly agreed.

As one, Cole and Miriam turned to Tara.

“YOU TOOK HER TO CRICKET’S?” they both yelled.

Tara winced.

“Who’s Cricket?” Hannah and Levi asked in unison, looking like they wished they had a bucket of popcorn.

“Were you trying to get her to break up with you?” Miriam asked, sounding horrified.

“Let me guess,” Cole said, pinning her with an uncharacteristic glare from his ocean-blue eyes. “It seemed like the only option at the time.”

That was the thing. She could think of a million lies she could have told her family now, but it had seemed like the only option. It always did.