Family.
“They all seem so sure of themselves,” she murmured to Alisha. “Confident.”
“Lucky. They’ve all got good men.”
Lauren quirked an eyebrow. “Not to get all feminist in your face, but I don’t think you have to be part of a couple to feel confident.”
“Amen. What I meant was, I did the home evaluation for Taylor after Luke got back from Afghanistan. And one of the things I saw right away is those Fletcher men stand behind their women. Her daddy will help that child be whatever she wants or needs to be. He’s the same with Kate, and she didn’t always make that easy for him. He sees her. He gets her. That’s powerful, when a man can do that for a woman.”
Yearning flooded Lauren’s chest. Her father had been the owner of a small-town shoe store, a soft-spoken, quietly affectionate man who never made much noise in life or around the house.
But when he died, the silence he left behind was devastating.
The emptiness had echoed inside her for years. The bank robbery—the shattering of security, the loss of privacy, that sense of being helpless, powerless—had only increased her personal void.
But when Jack looked at her, he didn’t see someone who was empty.
You’ve got something inside you, he’d murmured.A spark. A heart.
She drew a shaky breath.
Alisha leaned forward and tucked a cocktail napkin in her hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
Lauren blotted her eyes. Managed a smile. “No. Thanks. It’s just...”
Alisha nodded. “I know. It’s the whole wedding thing gets us stirred up. Almost makes me want to take the risk on an actual relationship instead of flirting online with my Soul Mate in a Box. Assuming, of course, I could find an actual, real live man who isn’t a player.”
“Or a musician,” Lauren said, thinking of the couch crashers.
“Or lives with his mama.”
Meg, overhearing, grinned. “Maybe you’re too picky. You’ve just eliminated both my brothers from your list of possibles.”
“Easy to be smug when you’re engaged to Sam Grady. Anyway, your brothers are off the market,” Alisha said.
“And Luke doesn’t live with his mother,” Kate, the lawyer, said with precision. “He rents a cottage out back.”
“Matt paid rent, too,” Allison said loyally.
“So, where will you live after the wedding?” Lauren asked politely.
“We’re looking for a house nearby,” Kate said. “We want Taylor to stay in the same school. And the commute to my office isn’t bad. Forty-five minutes or so.”
Sometime during the conversation, Tess had slipped away. She returned now, a smile on her face and a small, beribboned box in her hands.
“I know you said no shower presents,” she said to Kate, handing her the box. “But I wanted to give you this before the wedding.”
“But you’ve already given us so much. The dishes...”
Tess waved a dismissive hand. “For the house. This is for you.”
Kate’s face opened like a flower. “Oh, Tess.”
“Just a little something.”
They all watched as she tugged at the pale yellow ribbon, working it off the corners of the box.
“What is it?” Alisha asked.
