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NINE

LENNOX

“Okay, I have thirty minutes. Tell me everything,” Millie says as she rushes into my apartment, the baby monitor in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other.

“I like how you roll,” Sara says from beside me at the kitchen island, pointing to Millie’s road soda.

Millie grins and tilts the monitor back and forth. “Gav’s putting Vivi to bed, and then we’re having sexy times. This is just my lubricant.” There are hearts in her eyes as she gushes about what a turn-on it is when Gavin is in dad mode.

“I hate you all,” Ava whines, covering her face.

I push a glass of white wine toward her and give her a reassuring smile.

“Thanks,” she murmurs.

Hannah is in the corner, seated on a barstool against the wall, her knee up as she taps the screen of her phone. “Fucking Jasper Quinn.” She slams the phone down. “I need wine.”

“I’m so happy my boys are all being good tonight.” Sara grins as she rounds the counter with a glass held out to Hannah.

“Please, you’ve got all those rookies starting this season. Your life is gonna suck.”

When Hannah sticks her tongue out at Sara, she merely shrugs and rolls her eyes. “Then I’ll tell my big, bad fiancé to glare at them, and he’ll do my job for me.”

“That’s cheating.” Hannah takes a big gulp of wine. As she sets her glass down, her eyes brighten. “Actually, do you think you could get your big, scary fiancé to talk to my rookie? He would totally shit his pants and fall in line.”

I laugh. “Are we all talking about the same fiancé? The one known as Saint? Good Boy Brooks?”

Millie bites her lip to hide her laugh.

“Hey,” Sara hisses. “Only I get to call him good boy now.”

Ava chokes on a mouthful of wine and slaps a hand to her lips.

“Rein it in, girls. Rein. It. In.” I settle on my stool and sigh. “Let’s talk about me, because that’s what I like to do.”

Hannah’s laugh is so loud it echoes around the space. The sound makes me feel at least a little lighter. She’s tiny, but everything about her is loud. In different ways than I am, though. Where I’m bright, she’s aggressive and outspoken. Even her laugh has a bark to it. I kind of adore her.

“Jill didn’t show?—”

Sara slaps a hand down on the counter. “That witch.” She turns to Millie. “Seriously, she isn’t fit to be a Langfield girl. We need to get rid of her.”

Millie purses her lips. “I don’t love her either, but my days of meddling in other people’s relationships are over.”

Hannah eyes her, her cheeks going pink. “You ever meddle in your brother’s love life?”

“Stop trying to get her to set you up with Daniel.” Sara nudges her in the arm. “She’s talking about how she tried to torpedo her father’s relationship with his wife.”

Millie sticks her tongue out. “Feel free to take Daniel for a ride any day,” she muses. “But I’d make sure he wraps it up, because that boy is gross.”

“ Millie ,” Ava chides, her eyes wide with shock.

With a smirk, Millie lifts a shoulder. “My brother is a manwhore. My father slept with my other brother’s girlfriend. I seduced my dad’s best friend. We have no scruples.”

Hannah throws her head back and full-on belly laughs again.

Scanning the room, I grin. I love these girls.

“So you were saying,” Ava prods, holding her glass in my direction.

“Right. Me.” I shimmy my shoulders at Sara, and she sticks out her tongue at me now. “As I was saying, Jill didn’t show. At first, I freaked out, because holy hell, I need this job. But Aiden swore they weren’t firing me. That Jill just couldn’t make it. So he and I visited all the venues I’d lined up. It was totally fine.”

I keep the very real unfine moments to myself. The moments where Aiden looked at me. Or how when his fingers brushed against mine as we both reached for the door of the last restaurant, literal sparks shot up my arm. Or how I spent the day practically rewriting the past, pretending that I was scoping out wedding venues with Aiden as my groom and not as my client.

It’s unhealthy. I realize that. But I’m already delusional, so why not? I’ve been ignoring the ticking time bomb strapped to my chest for months, so I might as well enjoy the fantasy until the bomb goes off. Until the day Aiden marries Jill. Until the moment my father drags me, kicking and screaming, out of my apartment.

“Not to change the subject,” Ava starts.

The room instantly goes silent, and every eye is trained on her. This girl never asks for attention, so if she’s got something to say, we’ll all listen.

“Josie’s birthday is in two weeks, and I was hoping you could help me plan a party,” she says, tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear.

Heart clenching, I straighten and grin. “Of course.”

Josie is like the sixth member of our girl gang. Seventh, I guess, if we count Vivi. She’s fighting leukemia and has been a resident at the children’s hospital for months. She’s also in the foster system. After she was admitted, her foster parents abandoned her, and when the Langfields caught wind of the situation, they stepped up to pay for her treatment and her hospital stay.

Ava, the head of charitable relations at Langfield Corp, fell in love with Josie while she was at the hospital for a team visit, and the two formed quite the bond.

Our girl group stops in to visit her on Sundays after we have brunch, but Ava is there far more often.

With a hum, I tap a finger against my lips. “What does one like to do for their ninth birthday?”

All eyes turn to Millie.

With a playful roll of her eyes, she giggles. “I might be the youngest, but I’m a long way from being nine. How am I supposed to know?”

“Because you’re the only mom in the group,” Hannah replies with a smirk.

Millie’s cheeks turn rosy. “Oh. Right. Well, is she a fan of Lake?”

“Who isn’t a fan of Lake?” Sara asks, her voice a little too loud. The girl is obsessed with Lake Paige.

I wave a hand at Millie. “She sure wasn’t for a while.”

Millie lets out a light huff. Lake married her father last year, and she’s now like a hundred million years pregnant. Or maybe that’s just how it feels to me. Pretty sure she’s due this month.

“Lake and I are good now. Better than good. And with her so close to giving birth to my baby brother, she and I have spent a lot of time together recently.”

Ava reaches across the counter and squeezes Millie’s hand, her eyes going misty. “I love that the two of you have worked through your issues. Family is so important.”

At the emotion on her face, my throat gets tight. Why do I suddenly feel like sweet, quiet Ava and I have a lot more in common than I ever imagined?

Ava is a pastel angel, floating through life with a gentle smile for everyone she comes into contact with. Even her work is for the benefit of others. And she spends her free time supporting her friends and visiting a little girl in the hospital.

But who shows up for her?

I vow in that moment to be a little easier on her. And to make this the best party ever.

“Do you think Lake would be willing to make a video for Josie?” I ask Millie before turning my attention to Ava. “And can we take her out of the hospital at all?” I’m thinking a picnic under a light pink tent, a low table surrounded by vibrant multicolor pillows. Colorful hanging lanterns, deep magentas and teals. Maybe chocolate fondue and fruit, along with a variety of cakes. And pizza. Because who doesn’t love pizza?

“I can talk to Maria,” Ava says. Maria is our line of communication to Josie.

“Okay, let me know. I’m going cake tasting with Aiden tomorrow, so I can scope out birthday cakes too. What’s her favorite flavor?”

“So long as it’s pink, she doesn’t care,” Ava says with a grin.

“Cake tasting with Aiden?” Sara’s grin is evil behind her wineglass.

My stomach twists. “And Jill. Obviously. It’s their wedding.”

Sara nods, but that stupid smile remains. “Obviously.”

“I hate you,” I whisper-hiss.

The girls all devolve into giggles, and soon I’m joining them. Because I don’t hate them at all. And despite the anvil sitting on my heart right now, they’re the good that keeps me smiling.