The ladies all nodded, looking like a bunch of bobbleheads. Just watching the motion almost had my head start hurting again.
Having the spotlight on me was odd, so I tried to deny what they were saying was true, even though Jett had said basically what they were. “He’s just being nice after what happened.”
Alley scoffed. “Girl, stop being such a numpty.”
Everyone looked confused, but nobody had time to question Alley before a small head popped up between us.
“Did you just say a bad word?” Embry asked, staring straight at Alley.
“No.” Alley shooed her away. “Go sneak up on the guys, and you’re bound to make a load of money.”
I could practically see dollar signs flashing in her eyes as they lit up with that possibility, and she took off.
“Can your daughter pay off your mortgage yet?” Summer jokingly asked Jurnee, causing everyone to laugh, except me. I somehow managed to hold it in so I didn’t jar my head again.
“She must be getting close,” Jurnee replied with a proud smile on her face.
Dusty looked around the group. “I’m sure gonna miss all this.” Then she pointed at Alley. “What the heck is a numpty?”
Alley glanced at me with a sheepish grin. “I was saying, stop being an idiot. Numpty just sounds nicer.”
I mocked-gasped, knowing she was kidding—well, sort of. After all, it was Alley we were talking about. She liked to call it as it is, and honestly, she was probably right. But I still had to harass her. “You called me an idiot?”
She rolled her eyes. “I meant it with the utmost love when I said it.”
Trying not to laugh or shake my head at the woman was almost impossible, but I restrained, and just mirrored her eye roll.
“Where in the world did that word come from?” Lake asked our crazy friend.
Alley laughed. “An author friend of mine from the UK, Michelle Dups, dropped that one day when we were talking, and it stuck in my head.”
Brinley snapped her fingers. “Oh, I have some of her books in the shop for sale.” She fanned her face dramatically. “Those are some hot bikers on the covers.”
A throat cleared from across the room, and we all turned to see Rowan’s eyes on his wife as he mouthed the words,behave.
“He’s just jealous of all the man candy I get to look at every day.” Brinley giggled. “I’ve got J.E. Parker’s hunky firemen, Michelle’s hot bikers, and we can’t forget Alley’s badass military guys.”
“And they’re good educational tools too,” River added.
As we all burst into laughter, Dusty looked at us, confused.
I wasn’t at the sleepover when they gave River some books, telling her she could learn a lot about sex from them, but I’d heard about it. River relayed the story to Dusty, who then hooted with laughter too.
When Bree, River’s teenage daughter walked up, we all sobered. The girl was on the quiet side, but the more time she spent around us, the more she opened up. However, Idon’t think any of us were expecting her to call us out on our conversation.
“You all know you’re really loud, don’t you?” She shook her head as if we were clueless. “Besides, why do you need all those books when you have all that right in front of you?”
All the ladies stared dumbfounded at the teenager.
She rolled her eyes, then pointed to all the guys. “Fireman, military, and Landon rides a motorcycle. Maybe Alley should write about cute lawyers and sexy doctors since you all have those around too,” she stated before walking off toward her brother Lennon, who was playing a game with some of the kids.
“Did your daughter really just say all that?” Gemma asked River.
“Umm, yup. But I think I need to erase that from my memory,” River answered.
“Please,” Gemma said. “Your girl is right on the money. Just look at them. It’s like a smorgasbord of hotties. And Huntley’s mom is dating the doctor now, so that just got added to the mix.”
We stood staring at the guys for a second before Dusty jumped in and said, “It reminds me of that song, ‘It’s Raining Men” by… shit, I don’t know who sings it.”
