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“No,” she said seriously. “I always thought that, after Daniella, I would be done with marriage. I mean, I meant it when I said, ‘til death do us part’.”

She chuckled a little ruefully.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.

Reid’s gaze lifted to mine and she smiled, wide and genuine. “Don’t be,” she said with a chortle. “It happened and it’s done with, now all I have to do is keep going. And making sure you stay in America is going to help me do just that.”

I offered a small smile.

“Thank you,” I said, probably for the first time. “For going this far to help me.”

“Are you kidding?” She chuckled. “This? Getting married? We’re practically work wives already, this just made it official.”

We laughed together and some of the tension in my lower back drained away.

I lifted my glass to hers. “To work wives.” I giggled.

She gently tapped her glass against mine with a radiant smile. “To defeating the system.”

Chapter 10

Rumors and Rosé

REID

“HowisitthatHayden is always the last to get here?” Taylor sighed, glancing at the time on her phone with a grumble.

I chuckled, taking a sip of my virgin mojito. “She’s spending all her time with Frankie,” I said, recalling the last time Hayden had stumbled into the restaurant, her eyes still half dazed and a lazy smile on her face. “She’ll probably be here in ten minutes.”

“Couples are so nauseating.” Alex sighed, her gaze sliding to where Cameron and Elliot sat close together. “Did you hear that, you two?”

Cameron’s head lifted slowly, as if she didn’t want to look away from Elliot’s face just then.

“Hm?”

“Ugh,” Alex grunted.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Like we weren’t all complicit in egging them all on. I remember both of you having very strong opinions about Cameron’s feelings for Elliot, and telling Hayden to stop being an idiot.”

“Hey, so did you.” Taylor frowned.

“Yeah, but I’m not salty about being single.”

“Hey ladies!”

Hayden breezed toward the table, hand in hand with Frankie, whose cheeks were as pink as the dress she wore.

“It’s about damn time,” Taylor huffed, but she smiled anyway, the acid in her voice entirely teasing.

“We got distracted,” Hayden said with a wink as she sat down. Frankie sat down next to her and hid her face in her hands.

“Ew,” Alex said in a monotone.

“Oh, bite it,” Hayden teased before turning to Cameron and Elliot. “So, how’d it go?”

We all turned curious eyes to the couple, who positively beamed under the attention.

In a single movement, they both held up their left hands to show off matching diamond-studded silver bands.