As I stood, a new sound drifted through the house.
Laughter.
Not the quiet, controlled kind.The loud, full-bellied kind that echoed off walls and carried with it the unmistakable promise of chaos.
I froze.
Because unless Mom had invited a small parade of women over before leaving for work, and I was pretty sure she hadn’t, that meant only one thing.
The ol’ ladies had arrived.
Unannounced.
I shuffled toward the doorway and peeked down the hallway.
The living room was full.
And by full, I meanttaken over.
Alice stood near the coffee table, waving her arms dramatically as she talked, one hand clutching a coffee mug that looked suspiciously like it had come from the cups that traveled with Mom from job to job.Karmen sat on the edge of the chair opposite the couch, laughing so hard she had one hand pressed to her chest.Clove was perched on the arm of the couch, grinning like she was enjoying every second of the spectacle, while Carnie paced back and forth with a plate of something balanced precariously in her hands.And Nikki was there too, laughing her ass off from her spot on the floor.
And in the middle of it all—
Cole.
Asleep.
Flat on his back on the couch, one arm flung over his eyes, completely oblivious to the noise happening all around him.
I clapped a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing.
“How is he still sleeping?”Clove stage-whispered.
“He’s a biker,” Alice said, like that explained everything.“They can sleep through explosions.Ask me how I know.”
Karmen snorted.“You tried that once.”
“Allegedly,” Alice replied.
Carnie leaned closer to Cole and raised her voice.“So I told him, if you think for one second I’m—”
Cole shifted, groaned, and rolled onto his side.
The room went silent.
I watched, fascinated, as every woman froze in place.
Slowly, Cole lowered his arm and blinked.
He took in Alice standing over him.Carnie mid-rant.Clove trying, and failing, to suppress a laugh.Karmen smiling like she’d just won something.Nikki silently wheezing.
“Jesus,” he muttered.“Did I die?”
“Nope,” Alice said cheerfully.“But you did sleep through the apocalypse.”
He pushed himself upright and scrubbed a hand down his face.“What time is it?”
“Almost eleven,” Karmen said.
