“Back up,” Bella tells him, smacking his arm with a dish towel. “That’s for everyone.”
“I am everyone,” he says, giving her that sideways look that makes her roll her eyes and blush at the same time.
Jesus. They’ve been married for over a year and are still acting like they just got together. With a baby asleep down the hall.
Bella points the towel at him. “And if you touch that again, I will stab you with a pretzel.”
“Worth it,” he mutters, but he backs up anyway.
Ansley comes in behind me with two bakery boxes and sets them down in the only empty spot left on the counter. I flip open the lid and take a look. Cupcakes, brownies, cheesecake bites, and a whole lot of Sugar Rush chaos. She’s Bri’s best friend and the owner of the best damn bakery in town.
“I brought options,” she says, unapologetically.
“Bless you, woman,” I mutter.
Blade is already reaching when Bri smacks his hand without even looking at him. “Do you ever wait?”
“No,” he says, grabbing a brownie and shoving half of it into his mouth like someone’s gonna steal it.
Then he looks at Bri, eyes narrowing. “You eat yet baby?”
She shakes her head. “I’m fine,” she says.
He’s already grabbing another brownie and holding it out to her. “Take the fucking brownie, and I don’t want to hear any shit about not wanting to gain too much pregnancy weight. You’re perfect and beautiful and you can eat a fucking brownie.”
She rolls her eyes but takes it then moans after she takes a bite. He settles back, arm sliding around her shoulders, hand resting on her belly like it belongs there. Because it does.
Switch drops onto the floor and drags the Monopoly box out from under the coffee table. “All right. This is a real game tonight. No kiddie stuff.”
Bella groans. “Last time you tried to bankrupt me over Baltic Avenue.”
“Because you deserved it.”
Blade snorts. “You cried when Rev took your railroad.”
“That was strategic disappointment.”
I grab a beer and drop onto the couch. “This is gonna take all damn night.”
“Good,” Switch says. “I got some beef to settle with you people.”
We start setting up. Bella passes out the money, Bri sorts the houses, Ansley reads the rule sheet like we haven’t played this game a hundred times already. “No house stacking,” she says. “And we are not ignoring rent just because you’re friends.”
Blade looks at her. “You are not invited to Vegas.”
Everyone’s here. Blade and Bri on one end of the couch, him half-wrapped around her like he’s daring the world to try something, Switch on the floor leaning over the board like he’s planning a hostile takeover, Bella bouncing between the kitchen, the game, and the baby monitor, and Ansley claiming the armchair like it’s hers by divine right. Only, there’s someone missing. I clock it the second I sit down, but I don’t say shit right away. Finally, I stop pretending I don’t care. “Where’s the Princess at?”
Bella stills, hand mid-reach for the dice, then looks at Bri like she’s deciding who has to answer. “She’s out,” Bella says, finally.
Blade glances up. “Out where? I thought she was working.”
Bri exhales. “On a date.”
That lands heavy. An ugly twist in my chest I pretend isn’t there. “A date,” I repeat.
“Yeah,” Bella says. “Some guy from her open house the other day.”
Switch’s head snaps up. “Hold up. Brooke went on a date and nobody told us?”
