Page 78 of If You Claim Me

We leave Connor standing at the bottom of the steps. One hand is tucked in his pocket, the fingers of the other rubbing the place my lips were.

Lexi gives me a knowing look.

“How areyoufeeling?” I ask Flip.

“Probably just as bad as Tristan,” Rix pipes up.

“Dallas was in rough shape when he got home,” Hemi agrees.

“Ash wasn’t too bad,” Shilpa says.

“What happened last night?” Callie asks.

“The team took Connor out after the game,” I explain.

“Oh.” She nods knowingly. “He stayed up too late.”

“Exactly,” Lexi says.

“I get grumpy when I do that.”

“Me, too.”

The rest of the girls and Flip chime in with their hearty agreement.

Fee and Tally are already at the restaurant when we arrive, as are Connor’s sisters. My friends greet them with enthusiastic hugs.

“We invited a couple extra guests to join us for dinner,” Lexi says. “They should be here soon.”

“Who else is coming?” I can’t see Lexi having extended the invitation to my work colleagues, especially not Dorothea.

I find out a second after I ask the question when a pair of arms wrap around me from behind. “Dred!”

“Everly?”

I spin around, my smile widening as I take her in. She’s wearing a slightly too big dress, and Cordelia, the woman who runs the group home, is standing behind her. “Cordelia!”

“I’m just dropping Everly off for dinner.”

“What? No! You have to join us!” I turn to Lexi. “There’s room, isn’t there?”

“Of course.”

“It’s settled, you’ll stay for dinner, unless you’re needed elsewhere,” I amend.

“We have to pick Victor up from his piano lesson in two hours. He says hi, by the way,” Everly explains.

“Excellent. You can bring him takeout.” I introduce Everly and Cordelia to everyone and we get settled at the table, with Everly ending up beside Fee and Tally, since they’re the closest inage. She fits right in, and it makes my heart so happy that Lexi managed to invite her.

Isabelle is quick to warm up and Portia eventually relaxes, too, laughing and smiling as we talk about the wedding preparations and my first experience with steak tartare.

“Why would someone want to eat raw steak?” Everly asks.

“That is a great question,” Flip commiserates.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at it the same way again,” Portia says.

“I used to feed it to Duchess, our family dog,” Isabelle admits. “But we had to get rid of her because Dad said he was allergic.”