“Aaaw, thank you!”
With our wine glasses full, we all settled in the living room and the chatter began. I soaked in the noise until Hannah set down her glass and turned to me.
“Alright, Emily. Are we going to talk about the incredibly hot dad I heard on your phone the other day, or are we going to keep pretending that didn’t happen?”
Six pairs of eyes swung toward me.
“Oh my god.” My face went hot. “Can we not?”
“We absolutely can and will,” Hannah said. “One minute, I’m giving you life saving automotive advice —”
“Bitching about Dex is what you were doing, actually!”
She glossed right over that. “—then I heard the sexiest male voice ever, ask if you needed help. And then you hung up on me!”
“That’s because of what you said!”
“I don’t think I said anything too bad?”
“YOU WERE ON SPEAKER!”
The room exploded.
“Wait, what did she say?” Poppy demanded.
“Did you hang up on her?” Cassidy was laughing.
Mia was grinning. “Oh, this is good.”
“It’s not good! It’s mortifying!” I grabbed my wine and took a long drink. “Hannah literally asked if it was Mr. Kirkland from number 32 or the incredibly hot dad from 36, and he was standing right there. I panicked and ended the call.”
Samara looked delighted. “So, it was the hot dad.”
“His name is Cam, and he was just helping me with my tire because I couldn’t get the lug nuts off.”
“Mmhmm.” Hannah’s grin was wicked. “And did he getyourlug nuts off?”
“Oh my god, Hannah.”
“I’m just asking!”
“It doesn’t even make sense. What even are my lug nuts?” I held up a hand when Hannah opened her mouth to reply, saying hastily, “Never mind! But yes, he helped me change my tire. That’s it. That’s the whole story.”
“Is it, though?”
I frowned at Mia. “Yes. What else could it be?”
“Well, I rang you three times yesterday afternoon before you finally answered, to let you know about next week’s family barbecue, and then you were distracted all through the call.”
I sighed and set down my wine glass. Fine. If they wanted the whole story, I’d give them the whole story. “Oh, um, right. I was helping Cam assemble a trampoline.”
Mia watched me closely. “Oooh what now? He asked you to help him? Thisisan interesting development.”
“No, he didn’t ask. I could see he was struggling, so I offered.”
“You offered to help,” Hannah repeated slowly.
“Yes. He helped me with my tire! I owed him.”
