"Very complicated," I said. "But I'm fine. Just fighting this jet lag. I guess it hits a lot harder at thirty-five."
The lookalike sisters offered their own jet lag stories. Beside me, Ruth rolled her eyes out loud. When I glanced at her, she said, "I'm just being petty. Ignore me. Everyone else does."
"You can be petty with me all you want if you remind me of your younger sister's name."
She ran a glance over me, her brows pinched like she'd only now discovered I was a human woman and not a woody stalk of asparagus in a sundress as she'd originally believed. "Claudia," she said. "You're diving into this thing without a plus-one, then? Are we the only ones?"
I folded my arms over my abdomen to muffle the grumbles coming from my belly. "Jamie's my date," I said, tipping my chin toward her.
"But we're big fans of threesomes so you can vibe with us this weekend," Jamie said.
"She doesn't mean?—"
Jamie cut me off with, "Yes, she does."
Ruth glanced between us, her tight expression flickering through at least four different emotions while Jamie fluttered her lashes with her most feline grin. "Okay, I don't know whatI just stepped in here but let me say you're both beautiful and much less full of yourselves than I expected. Very unfortunately, I do prefer the male apparatus. Believe me, there's no one less impressed with that fact than me. And not for lack of exploration, right? I went to college on a rugby scholarship. My best friends are all over the rainbow. Nothing but love and respect from me."
"It really is unfortunate," Jamie said with a groan. "I wish I didn't enjoy dicks so much. They always come attached to the most insufferable creatures."
"Every fucking time," Ruth murmured. "It's really becoming a problem. I don't like men. I can't trust most of them. Barely respect them. Until they get their house in order, I'll be abstaining."
I wanted to agree with the sentiment but recent history wouldn't allow it. Not when I could still feel his hands trailing over my body, his growls kissed into my skin. I must've made some kind of noise because I blinked and found both of them gaping at me. "What?" I asked as heat filled my cheeks.
Jamie leaned in close. Ruth did the same. "It sounds like you left a few details out of your report," Jamie said. "We'll be getting to the bottom of that later."
"Yeah, I need to hear this," Ruth said. "You're a sweetheart but you have no poker face to speak of. You'd fold like a lawn chair in a deposition."
I glared at them though the corner of my mouth betrayed me with a twitch. "It's not fair that you're joining forces to bully me."
"Baby, I'm on a no-drinks, no-dick diet this weekend," Jamie said. "All I have keeping me going is my tenderhearted brand of bullying."
"My brand doesn't prioritize tenderness or hearts," Ruth said. "Sorry. I'm just trying to avoid my sisters because I mightactually murder them if they make one more comment about how sad it is that I don't have a date."
Jamie reached across the table and patted her hand. "Something tells me you have plenty of heart," Jamie said. "Just in your own way."
Laughing, Ruth said, "That's not what everyone else says."
"We don't give a fuck about everyone else," I said.
Again, Ruth and Jamie shared a glance—and then burst out laughing. I smiled and for the first time all week, it didn't feel like I was dragging a boulder uphill.
"Okay, wait a minute. No, wait,"Jamie said from the far end of my bed, her head resting on a collection of lacy throw pillows. The house at Twin Tulip farms was nothing if not ornate. "I don't believe this."
"Neither do I," Ruth said from beside me, an afghan wrapped around her shoulders. For a July night, there was a surprising chill in the air. "There's gotta be more to it."
"Which part?" I asked, sifting through the container of ginger cookies I'd baked specifically for late-night nibbles this weekend. I always kept my own baked goods around in case my gut started acting up. It was why I'd started baking in the first place, back when my body seemed to reject everything I ate. That, and it annoyed the hell out of my ex when I made a mess in the kitchen.
"You basically put a saddle on that boy and rode him until the break of dawn," Jamie said.
"That paints a picture," Ruth murmured.
"And you share all these painful secrets you've both been carrying around for years," Jamie went on. "And then it's over. You high-five at the airport?—"
"There were no high-fives," I said, passing the cookies to Ruth.
"—and leave all those good bed feels behind like it was your basic summer camp bangathon."
"What the hell kind of summer camp did you go to?" Ruth asked her.
