“Wait.” I hold up a hand. “You made them?”
“Yep.” She nods.
“Would you want to make them for my restaurant? Or share the recipe?”
Cassie grins. “Oh girl, we will talk. Over here, we have nachos, cheeseburger rolls, and veggies accompanied by a variety of different dips. And finally, on this end, I have a couple of different green salads with both oil-based and creamy dressings to choose from.”
“Holy shit, this is alotof food,” Charlie says as she walks in the room, the last to arrive. “And I amhere for it.”
“Save room for dessert,” Cassie says with a wink. “I have ice cream sundaes on tap, and since we’re celebrating, the calories don’t count.”
“I want to marry Cassie,” Charlie announces, making us all laugh.
With heaping plates and refilled drinks, we make our way into a grand living room that features floor-to-ceiling windows, showcasing a stunning view of the sun setting behind the mountains.
“Holy shit, it’s pretty here,” I say as I take a seat and dig into my cheese and huckleberry-jalapeño jam, which is now my favorite thing in the universe.
Right behind sex with Brooks.
“My billionaire chose well when he found this house,” Billie agrees. “Okay, so now that you know that Brooks bought that big house, talk to me.”
“What big house?” Skyla asks. “You have to recap for those of us who didn’t grow up here and are new to this whole situation.”
“Are Brooks and I thesituation?” I ask the room, and everyone nods in confirmation, making me snort. “Good to know.”
“We know that you dated and then you …didn’t.” Dani winces at that. “But I didn’t know the house story.”
“What’s the damn house story?” Darby demands.
“Okay, so there’s this house in town,” I begin. “It sits on a corner lot. It’s pretty big, with a red roof and black shutters.”
“Yep, I know that place,” Charlie says, and the others murmur agreement.
“Well, when we were kids, Brooks and I used to daydream about owning it and having a family there. We made a lot of plans back then, to be honest.” I shrug and pop a grape into my mouth. “Anyway, Brooks told me that it came up for sale a few years ago, and he bought it because he couldn’t stand the thought of someone else buying our dream house.”
“Damn, the grumpy mechanic is a big ole softie,” Harper says, and Ava steals a cracker off her plate. “There’s an entire kitchen full of food, you know.”
“Don’t be stingy,” Ava says, crunching on the cracker, and then turns to me. “Are you guys going to move in there?”
“Well, it’s empty right now because it needs to be gutted and pretty much completely redone,” I reply. “So we’re going to do that together. Make it exactly what we want in our forever home. He even has plans for my own little library in there.”
“Everyone has a library but me,” Charlie says with a pout. “That’s so dumb.”
“Noteveryone,” Dani reminds her. “I don’t. There’s no room in our house, with all the kids’ stuff everywhere.”
“We’ll help with the house,” Ava says with a shrug, as if it’s no big deal at all. But it’s a huge deal to me. “My brothers and I can come help tear stuff out, and they’re handy with construction stuff. Comes from being raised on a ranch.”
“I’m sure you won’t have any trouble getting lots of extra hands,” Harper adds. “I, however, will not be helping unless you want it to fall apart.”
I smirk and take a drink of my margarita.
Damn good.
“I don’t think we’ll turn down any help. Thank you.”
“All of the Blackwells are now happily spoken for,” Darby says, tilting her head to the side, looking at all of us. “It’s so crazy. I grew up with all of them, and now they’re all married and having kids.”
“We’re old.Thisis what we’re talking about?” Charlie wrinkles her nose. “We should be talking about sex and … stuff.”
