“Thanks for asking me to hang out,” Pepper said after Elizabeth refused for the third time to let her pay her share. “I needed a…it.” She almost said “a friend,” but caught herself. Better to avoid rushing to whack a label on their relationship and scare Elizabeth off by looking overeager and—
“Honey, we all need friends.” Elizabeth squeezed her shoulder. “I can tell from this past hour that you’ll fit right in around here.”
“Oh, I’m not staying,” Pepper said automatically. The happy “made a new friend” feeling leached from the moment.
“I see.” Elizabeth’s expression didn’t match her words. “What’ll you do?”
“I’m working on figuring that out.” She swallowed the sharp pain in her throat. “Top of the list is to find Redbeard’s missing treasure and buy a penthouse back in Manhattan.”
“What’s a pirate’s favorite letter?” Kate tugged on her skirt.
“ARRRRRRRRRR!” Will crowed.
“She didn’t get a chance to guess, stupid,” Kate said.
“Your face is stupid.”
“Your butt is stupid.”
They dissolved into helpless giggles.
Elizabeth shook her head. “You call me if you need anything, anything at all. Now I’m going to take these two home before I have an all-out mutiny.”
“I want to go to bed and dream about Henry,” Will shouted.
“Shoot carrots at him!” Kate said. “Nightmare Action Plan!”
“This was fun,” Elizabeth said, standing. “Let’s hang out again.”
“I’d like to.” And the thing was, Pepper meant it.
And without warning, the day felt brighter.
