Page 4

Chapter 3

If you have a best friend as weird as you, you have everything.

“You have the best job,” Mari said to Berlin.

She, Berlin, Camila and Magnolia were all at Magnolia’s tonight since Lucas and Ezra were having a Friday night boys’ night—aka they were playing basketball at Bradford’s with the rest of the Redemption Harbor Security crew and probably gorging themselves on pizza afterward.

“So says the badass pilot.” Berlin’s eyebrow arched as she picked up her glass of wine.

“Yeah, so says me. I don’t get to hack stuff all day.”

“Allegedly.” Berlin shot Camila a sideways glance.

The detective just grinned. “Yes, allegedly . And please don’t say anything else about that. I need plausible deniability.”

“Especially after your promotion.” Magnolia stepped back out onto the patio, a small charcuterie board in hand. They’d already devoured an embarrassing amount of snacks but thankfully her bestie was prepared for them. “And Adalyn is on the way. She said she got caught up with something.”

“Let’s eat all the cheese balls before she gets here,” Berlin said, moving for the tray.

“Hold up, I’ve got a croquembouche tower of pastries,” Magnolia said, laughing. “And another plate of dasik.” She looked pointedly at Mari because they were her favorite.

“Forget cheese, I’m going to devour the dasik plate and the entire croquembouche tower.” Magnolia had gotten the dasik recipe from Mari’s mom and she would be forever grateful because her bestie made the sesame tea cookies all the time for her. And Mari wasn’t sure how her best friend made the croquembouche, but she always ate way too much of them. Then wanted more.

“I’ll pay you a thousand dollars if you eat that whole tower,” Berlin said.

“You’re going to be out money.” Magnolia’s tone was dry as she disappeared back into her house. First she brought out the small tray of dasik, then came out with the croquembouche.

Mari jumped up to follow her and hold open the door as she came back out. “You shouldn’t be carrying all this stuff,” she said, taking the tray from her—and resisting the urge to shove her face into it. “I’m sorry, I should have offered to get all this.” She inwardly chastised herself. Normally Magnolia took over and liked being the hostess, but Mari should have been helping more.

“Yeah, sorry,” Camila added, Berlin nodding along. “We’re shit friends.”

“Oh no, I’m already getting the overprotectiveness from Ezra, you guys can’t start too. You’ve all got to be on my side.”

“Too late. I’ve loved you longer than he has, so I can be overprotective too.” They’d become friends in kindergarten over their love of Pokémon trading cards and been through all of the ups and downs of life. Magnolia was the one person she’d always been able to count on to never judge her, to just be there. So sure, she was going to be a little over the top now that her bestie was pregnant for the second time. She’d been there for the first time too and adored her nephew.

“How do I argue with that?”

“You don’t.” She plucked one of the delicate custard-filled cream puffs from the tower.

“When are we going to start talking baby showers?” Berlin asked as Mari swatted her hand away. “Oh my god, you’re an animal.” She grabbed one of the pastries with her other hand and shoved it in her mouth. Then she grabbed three of the delicate tea cookies.

“It’s too soon for baby showers,” Magnolia said, shaking her head.

“Yeah, okay, but we’re going to go back to it. Also, I want to hear about Mari’s work. Did you land that new client?” Berlin turned to her now.

“Yeah, what happened with that?” Camila held out her fork as a weapon to protect herself as she took one of the pastries.

“Oh, I lost that client. But I did manage to make the best of it.”

“Why do you look like you murdered someone?” Berlin asked.

Camila held up a hand. “Don’t answer that if you did.”

“Oh my god, I didn’t commit any crimes. I lost the client I’d told y’all about on our text thread, but I did swipe a land deal from the assface who stole my potential client.” She glanced at Magnolia who already knew.

Her friend shook her head.

“What? He deserved it.” And Mari didn’t feel guilty.

“I still don’t know why he makes you so mad. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll hate him until the day I die for you, but…he doesn’t seem awful. And he’s Bear’s brother. I just can’t help but wonder what the deal is between you two.” She said the last part in a sort of sing-song, all-knowing voice.

“It’s not because of sexual tension or whatever you seem to think it is.”

Magnolia made a hmmming sound that annoyed the hell out of her.

“So what’s the deal between you and assface, aka Colin Lockhart?” Berlin asked as she and Camila listened raptly .

Mari ignored them, still focused on correcting Magnolia’s error in judgment. “It’s because he told Grayson Sutton I had an STI when I was seventeen!” she blurted. She’d never told Magnolia about it because her friend had been dealing with way too much back then in the form of an unexpected pregnancy.

“Wait, what ?” Magnolia sat up in her seat. “You’re sure?”

“Oh, I’m sure. I heard him say the words.”

“When? Where? Details!”

“And where does he live?” Berlin asked. “Because I’ll burn him to the ground. Metaphorically,” she added, grinning at Camila.

“Like I said, I was seventeen.” And she’d had a monster crush on him at the time, so his words had hurt even more. “He was home on leave visiting with Evan. Some of their other friends were home from college that summer. You remember Grayson?”

“Ah…oh yeah. Tall, blond, played lacrosse? A little younger than them? He was in freshman year of college I think?”

“Yep. He was asking about me, wanting to know if I was single, and Colin told him I had an STI and to stay away from me if he valued his junk. He didn’t actually use that word, but whatever.” Anytime Mari thought about overhearing that conversation she got angry and hurt all over again. Didn’t matter that it had been years ago. What kind of a person made up such vicious lies about someone? It could have destroyed her reputation in high school.

“Oh wow, why didn’t you ever say anything?” Magnolia asked.

“Because you were pregnant with Lucas and already dealing with so much. At the time it just hurt too much to talk about anyway. I almost told you a couple years later, but by then I was figuring out my life and had dropped out of college.” She’d dropped out to go into flight school and life had taken over. “Then it just didn’t matter. ”

“It seems like it kinda does still matter.” Berlin swiped another pastry.

Mari sat back in her seat and nodded. “Yeah, I have a problem with grudges. I know I really should let it go.” It was hard to though. His opinion of her had meant a lot back then.

“I don’t know, I’d probably hold a grudge too,” Camila said. “I’m still pissed at my cousin for stealing my boyfriend in fifth grade.”

“This is why I love you guys.”

Adalyn walked out the back door onto the patio, her sister Fleur behind her, and the conversation shifted, much to Mari’s relief.

She didn’t want to talk about Colin, she just wanted to enjoy the evening with her friends—and hopefully convince Magnolia that it was definitely time to start planning her baby shower. The first time around they’d been so young and Magnolia hadn’t gotten to do a lot of fun baby-related things.

Mari wanted to make sure that this time Magnolia got the full experience of friends and family celebrating her and her little one.