I burst out laughing, nearly spilling my tea.
“You’re all insane.”
“You love it,” Clementine sing-songs.
I shake my head and lean back against the couch, phone balanced on my bent knee.
“Okay, yes, there was a wedding. No, it wasn’t planned. Well, I mean it was supposed to be fake?—”
“Fake?” Clem snaps.
I ignore her and continue, “Yes, I wore a dress, but not a wedding dress. And yes, Atlas looked unfairly hot in a suit, as usual.”
Lucy groans. “Ugh. I knew it. He’s so hot and dangerous.”
“He’s not dangerous,” I reply softly. “At least, not to me.”
That quiets them for half a second.
Then, Michaela breaks the silence. “Wait, wait. You’re catching feelings, aren’t you?”
“No,” I lie.
Lucy gasps. “You’re in love with him!”
Clementine asks, “Oh, you definitely had the so-in-love kinda S-E-X, am I right?”
Andrea adds, “Was it good?”
Lee-Lee chuckles. “Okay, but how good? Like, shake-the-boat good or?—”
Lucky for me, none of them are letting me answer.
I throw my arm over my eyes and groan again.
“This is a violation of human rights.”
“No, this is a Sexquisition,” Clementine quips, gasping when her toddlers start screaming the word only, they can’t quite get it right, so it sounds like they’re yelling sex-squishy.
Which, in all fairness, is a pretty good description of sex. The good kind is always squishy, messy, and dirty as fuck.
“You two hush,” she says, giggling before turning back to the call, “And you answer the damn question.”
I smile despite myself.
Because even though I’m thousands of miles from home, in a country I wasn’t expecting to be in, married to a man I barely know but already love, I don’t feel alone.
Not with them on the line.
Not with this ridiculous, relentless love they give me.
“I’ll tell you,” I say, “but you all have to promise not to freak out.”
All their voices in unison, “NO PROMISES.”
Chapter Thirty-Cecilia
The cousin chaos only escalates.
