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“Oh no, darling, that’s not necessary. It’s very kind of you to offer, but you’re our guest.”

“I wouldn’t mind at all. Actually, I would rather enjoy it. I have some experience, and my party trick is that I can follow any recipe to a T.”

“That’syour party trick?” I ask her with a knowing smirk.

“Well, that, and I can do a perfect manicure in less than three minutes.” She angles her head towards her shoulder, fluttering her lashes at me with a smug smile on her face.

I dip my chin, leaning toward her to whisper into the shell of her ear. “I bet I could make you—” Her hand shoots out, fingernails digging into my jean-covered thigh before I can finish my sentence. I laugh, pulling back. “What? I was justgoing to say, I bet I could make you laugh in less than three minutes.”

Her grip on my leg loosens and she manages to pull her face together. I boop her cute, little button nose with the tip of my finger, and she playfully rolls her eyes.

My mum examines our exchange, lips parted, a faint smile ghosting her lips. My saving grace right now is that nobody is paying us any mind besides Mum, everyone else has resumed their conversations and continued to eat their meals. My mum’s all-knowing eyes are the only ones still fixed on us.

“Give me a purpose to kick my jet lag and get up in the morning,” Taylor says, shifting her attention back to my mum.

“Well, Olivia and I will take any help we can get. Thank you, Taylor. That’s very generous of you.” Her eyes dance back and forth between the two of us once more, but she doesn’t say anything else.

“Hey, would you want to come toThe Saloonwith me tonight?” my sister asks, practically jumping out of her seat. “They have a live band playing. It can get a little rowdy, but it’s still really fun.”

“You don’t have to twist my arm. You had me at ‘rowdy’,” Taylor says, holding her glass of water up to Liv in cheers.

“That’ll definitely help you get up early tomorrow for sightseeing,” I murmur.

“Mind your business, Browning.”

“Ooohh, tell ‘em, Taylor!” Ryder throws a fist up in the air, and I jab my elbow into his ribs, but he remains seated, slapping his thigh with a shit-eating grin on his face. He’s not the only one. I look around the table and everyone seems to behighly amused, including the beautiful light force sitting next to me. I’ve been avoiding these meals and get-togethers—this town in general, really to avoid having to talk about what happened but maybe I’m being given a grace period here.

“Do you want to get ready together?” Liv asks.

“Sure.” My sister sets her napkin down and scoots back from the table. “Oh, like right now? Okay.” She takes one last drink from her glass and turns to my mum, her hands clasped together in front of her. “Thank you for dinner, Isla. It was delicious.”

“Thank you. Have fun tonight, girls.” My mum waves to them.

Taylor squeezes herself behind my chair again, but this time, she drops her hand to my shoulder and leans down, whispering in my ear, “Enjoy your night,love.”

I don’t bother fighting the full-fledged grin that takes over my face. I crane my neck in time to see her tight ass sway out of the room.

Guests move about,some retreat to their rooms, others to the sitting room and I clear as many dishes from the table as I can. My dad pats his full belly with a labored breath when I reach for his plate. “As always, that was delicious, Isla.”

She smiles from across the table and I turn for the kitchen.

“Knox, wait a minute.” I pause, turning to face him. “You should go, too.”

“Go where?”

“To Liam’s bar.”

“What about the desk?” I blink at him a few times.

He waves a hand in front of him like he could care less. “Everyone who was supposed to check in today has.”

I eye him suspiciously but his face gives nothing away. The night shift job reeked of bullshit when he first brought it up, and now I’m thinking it was what I was smelling: utter shite.

“Patrick doesn’t work the night shift, does he?”

“Nah,” he says with his lips turned down. He shakes his head. “He has the morning cab service. That’s why you haven’t seen him around.”

“Did they even have a baby?”