“Um, yeah.” I nodded. “I guess you could say that.”
She pushed back her dark curls. “Are you going to be his new wife?”
I froze. I could almost hear my heart skipping a beat. My mouth opened, but nothing came out of it as she blinked at me, waiting expectantly.
“Aw, come on, Hailey girl.” August’s voice disrupted my stunned silence. Both he and Reid had entered the room. August sat down beside Emersyn and put his arm around her shoulders, while Reid leaned against the back of the couch behind Lark. “That’s not a very nice question to ask our guest.”
Hailey frowned at him. “But, why?”
They were all poorly hiding their grins as I fell into total embarrassment. “Skye isn’t Fox’s girlfriend,” Reid tried to explain.
“Yes, she is,” Hailey retorted, putting her hands on her hips. “She told me she’s his friend.Andshe’s a girl.”
Lark stifled what sounded like a snort of laughter. Emersyn buried her face in August’s shoulder.
“That doesn’t mean they’ll get married,” August scoffed.
Hailey’s face fell. “Why not? I like her.”
“Hails.” Reid said her name with a soft, patient smile. “You don’t even know her.”
Hailey’s face snapped toward me. “Do you like princesses?” she asked, seriously.
It felt like I was being tested or something. How did this tiny human have this much boldness in her body?
“Uh,” I stammered. “Yeah, I do.”
She grinned. “And do you like plays?”
“As in the theater?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “I’m an actress.”
She said it with so much certainty that I didn’t doubt her. It coaxed a small smile from me. “I love the theater,” I said honestly. “Broadway is one of my favorites.”
Her whole face lit up. “Really?? You’ve seen shows on Broadway??”
I laughed—truly laughed—at the expression of awe on her face. I nodded.
I’m not sure when it happened, but suddenly, Hailey had sucked me into a conversation about her favorite musicals and songs. The rest of the group eventually joined in, and before I knew it, we were having an easy, comfortable conversation that didn’t involve what danger was going on in my life, or what Fox and I might or might not be.
Hailey was a natural conversationalist, even at such a young age. Despite her blunt forwardness at the beginning, I was drawn in by her fun-loving openness.
Somewhere in the middle of it all, I realized something that both embarrassed and humbled me.
I didn’t have friends.
Not real ones. Not like this.
I had colleagues. Sources. Contacts in ten different states who owed me favors. But not people I could sit with and sip wine beside, whose grief I understood in some bone-deep, unspoken way. Not people who welcomed me without hesitation.
I hadn’t expected to feel safe in a room like this again, to feel like I fit in easily with people who didn’t owe me a thing.
But for a brief, flickering second, I did.
26
Fox
