Page 33 of July (New Orleans #7)

Jill laughed and said, “Well, look at it this way: Juni will tire herself out here, pass out in the car, and go right to bed when we get home. If we leave now, though, she’ll just ask us to color with her, watch at least one movie, read her a story or something, and she’ll want to stay up late because it’s the weekend. ”

“Let’s go out back and see if we can convince her somehow to run laps in the backyard. We can tell her it’s for a PE credit or something.”

Jill laughed harder, took Willa’s hand, and they walked outside, where Willa was instantly overwhelmed by the number of women standing around the grill, sitting on the patio furniture, and lying back on blankets in the grass of a beautiful courtyard garden.

“Wow,” Willa let out softly.

“They’re going to get married back here. Isn’t it amazing?” Jill said.

“It’s gorgeous.”

“Jill, introduce us to your friend,” a woman with red hair and pretty light-blue eyes said.

“Asher, this is my girl friend, Willa. Willa, this is Asher. She’s a wedding planner and owns her own company now. Her girlfriend should be somewhere around here.”

Asher laughed and shook Willa’s hand.

“Girlfriend?”

“Yeah. It’s new. Be nice,” Jill said. “Where’s Linden?”

“Grilling with Kyle.” Asher nodded toward the grill.

“That’s Linden,” Jill added to Willa as she pointed to a woman with shorter blonde hair than the one next to her. “And that’s Kyle, Mel’s fiancée.”

“Okay,” Willa said, hoping she could remember all of this.

“Kyle is a French translator. Linden is a wedding planner, too, but she works for another company.”

“She doesn’t work with you?” Willa asked Asher.

“Not yet,” Asher replied, smiling in Linden’s direction. “She’s doing really well where she is. I think she’ll join me in a few months or maybe a year, but it works for us right now. My business is new, so it’s more stable this way.”

“Oh,” Willa said. “Cool.”

“And what do you do?”

“I’m a teacher,” Willa replied. “Juni’s teacher, actually.” She nodded at the little girl who was sitting on a blanket and talking to someone.”

“Your little sister, right?” Asher asked Jill.

“Yeah.”

“Jill, you’re here,” Linden said, approaching. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Jill replied with a laugh. “This is Willa, my girlfriend. Oh, don’t say anything to Juni about this. She doesn’t know.”

“Nice to meet you,” Linden said.

On it went. Willa was introduced to Sophie and Bryce next.

Sophie worked at some large corporation.

Bryce lived in Tennessee and was a blogger and also kind of a new screenwriter who was working on a movie.

Willa had already met Rory and Logan, so she joined them on the blanket where Juni was talking to them about how Melinda had let her fill the feeder with sugar water for the hummingbirds.

Then, Willa was introduced to Monica and Bridgette.

The two were engaged, and Willa had spoken with them at length about their greeting card business because she’d never met anyone who made greeting cards.

Lastly, Jill sat down next to Enid, and Willa sat on Jill’s other side.

Willa remembered Enid’s name because when she and Jill had talked recently about their past relationships, Enid’s name had come up, and Jill had explained that it hadn’t been a relationship.

They had gone on two real dates and had only kissed, but it had been recently.

Willa tried to push the idea of this woman sitting next to Jill, kissing her girlfriend.

She thought it would be hard because they clearly got along really well, but then she saw how Enid was with her own girlfriend, Caroline, who was sketching Enid while they ate dinner at the large outdoor table.

“Jill?” Juni asked, walking over to the table with her plate.

“Yeah?”

“Can I eat on the blanket?”

“Sure. Just don’t make a mess, okay? Do you need help carrying anything?”

“I’ve got it,” Willa volunteered, rising when she noticed that Juni had no drink and had her fork under her armpit since she was holding her plate with both hands.

She winked at Jill before grabbing a bottle of water for Juni and taking her over to the blanket she’d chosen to sit on.

“Are you sure you don’t want to eat with us?”

“Yeah, I want to watch the birds,” Juni replied.

“Do you want me to join you so you’re not alone?” she asked.

“No, I’m okay. But thank you.”

“Okay. Just yell if you need anything.”

Willa left Juni and returned to the table, where she sat down next to Jill.

With Juni facing the back of the yard now, she felt like maybe she could get away with wrapping an arm around Jill’s chair.

Jill’s hand moved to Willa’s thigh in return, and as they all sat around the table, talking and laughing, Willa found that she liked Jill’s group of friends.

“This is gross!”

Willa pulled her arm back when she heard Juni yell and watched her turn to face them.

“Juni!” Jill glared at her. “What’s gross?”

“The chicken.”

Willa turned to Jill and burst out laughing. Then, Jill remembered and started laughing as well.