I furrow my brow. Tenley’s never struck me as anything less than amazing at multitasking and balancing motherhood with her busy career as a midwife, so it’s surprising to hear her admit to having to rely on her husband for anything.
“Milk it while you can,” Tenley’s mom says. “Then again, you could probably sit on a throne all day and that man would gladly finish all of the chores in time to lay a bed of roses at your feet.”
“And thank God, because I couldn’t even keep a teenager alive without him, much less a newborn,” Tenley mumbles.
“But I thought …” I clamp my mouth shut once I realize I’m about to blurt my thoughts out loud.
Tenley raises a brow at me as she adjusts the baby in her arms. “Thought I’d know what I was doing with one of these things since I’ve been delivering them for the past decade?” She pauses to laugh. “I actually used to think I wasn’t meant to have kids at all, but I guess I just needed the right guy to come along and show me I wasn’t meant to do it alone.”
I sigh wistfully, because I’m starting to think I understand what she means.
“Don’t let her fool you,” Loren chimes in. “She wasn’t open to all this baby-making business until JD started coming up with reasons to take off his shirt around her.”
Tenley shrugs. “There’s a reason why our lawn is always so well kept, you know. And it’s not because I care about the grass staying short.”
The group cackles at her confession, and I stifle a smile when the image of Landry washing his Jeep flashes through my mind.
Loren opens my gift next, and everyone compliments the white linen gown I sewed for her. “You, um, might want to be careful with it. It’s a bit see-through,” I say quietly, and she bounces her eyebrows suggestively.
“Thank you, Daisy. It’s beautiful. I can’t wait to wear it and pretend I’m the protagonist in my favorite Regency romance novel,” she announces, waving the gown dramatically and making the skirt twirl.
“I would have thought you’d grown out of playing pretend by now,” Lilley begins. “But I suppose you aren’t playing alone anymore.”
Loren smirks. “I can’t help that my fiancé makes the perfect male lead. He’s just so smushy.”
“Smushy?” Jada asks.
“Blake is the perfect combination of sexy and mushy,” Loren replies contentedly.
Tenley hums. “It’s a Bourgeois thing.”
“Aaron is smushy, too. But he does the sexy part so quietly that no one suspects it. It makes it even better,” Jada says with a wink.
“I suppose Emmett is all marshmallow and fluff,” Lilley says thoughtfully, pausing to stand before she adds, “until the lights go out.” Then she saunters out the kitchen as if she just dropped the mic on us.
I laugh along with the others, grateful not to have the spotlight turned on me. I’ve got plenty of commentary to offer regarding my husband’s sex appeal, but I’m not supposed to be thinking it, much less talking about it. That doesn’t stop me from longing to dish about him to my sisters and friends, though.
Those of us without a baby to nurse join Lilley in cleaning up after that. Then a few more of the guests say good night, including Loren’s mom, and we’re left with the other half of the wedding party: Loren, Tenley, Lilley, and Jada, Blake’s good friend and legal secretary. I settle on the couch with one of the sleeping twins in my lap while Jada takes the other. Lilley hands each of us a glass of wine before she goes back into the kitchen and returns with a large teapot.
“All right, for our next bachelorette activity, we’re playing a game calledSpill the Tea,” Lilley announces, looking pleased with herself as she presents the teapot filled with slips of paper. “Girls, you’ll take turns picking a random question related to your love life in which you must answer truthfully. Lo-Lo, our blushing bride, you’re first!”
Loren grins as she reaches into the pot, obviously loving this, as corny as it seems. And I kind of love her all the more for it.
“A proper lady never kisses and tells … but there are no proper ladies present tonight, so tell us about your first kiss,” she reads aloud. She bites her lip and bats her eyelashes before she answers. “There was this party when I was thirteen. I was hiding out in the pool house because I was tired of being a wallflower when the most popular boy in my class stumbled in looking upset because his younger brother had swooped in on his date. And since my own brother was busy making out with my best friend at the moment,” Loren’s eyes dart over to Tenley, who scoffs, “I suggested we get our first kisses out of the way, too. The boy agreed, and we kissed.” She pauses to grin before she continues. “And it was so good that we kissed again. But we were young and stupid, and we spent the next eighteen years or so pretending we were rivals when we were secretly pining for one another.” She shrugs shyly, holding the rest of us captive with her story. “But one night he let his guard down, and I let him kiss me again … and then he knocked me up with freaking twins, and we lived happily ever after. The end,” she finishes on a sarcastic tone, making everyone laugh hysterically.
“That man is such a sap,” Jada says, sighing and reaching into the basket for the next paper. “Okay, let’s see. A lady’s secret garden must be kept safe from both the birds and the bees alike. Who gave youthe talk, and how did it go?” She blows a raspberry. “I’d already found out more than I should have from some of my classmates, but my mom sat me down when I was about twelve and told me the rest. It was painfully awkward, especially because she used a lot of those corny euphemisms liketending the gardenandgetting deflowered, but at least she was honest about it.”
“It’s all fun and games until you’re the one giving the talk though,” Lilley says, casting a quick glance at her sister. I realize she’s probably worried the mother-daughter aspect of Jada’s answer might be triggering for Lo, so she swipes another question from the teapot. “It is a debutante’s duty to appear charming and graceful at all times, especially when she’s being called upon by an eligible bachelor. Provide us with a cautionary tale about your most embarrassing dating moment.”
Lilley tells us a short story about getting gassy on her first official date with Emmett, which apparently reminds Tenley of JD on their first date. After another round of giggles and a topping off of our wine glasses, Lilley passes the teapot to me.
I shift Charley’s weight in my arms before I dip my free hand into the pot for my own question, hoping I get something I can answer. But I gulp when I open the slip of paper. “Sometimes the mood strikes when we least expect it, whether we’re in the garden at the ball, on the stairs within listening distance of the servants, or on the chaise lounge of the library during a house party. What is the most scandalous place you’ve ever made love?” My voice cracks by the end, and I can feel myself starting to sweat.
Truthfully, I’m not embarrassed to admit I’m a virgin. In fact, I’m proud of myself for keeping my vow and managing to stay chaste this long. My family taught me to see my sexuality as a privilege, one most gratifying when saved for marriage. I was also raised to deem any man who couldn’t see my celibacy as a gift or respect my choice to wait as unworthy of me in the first place. And I wholeheartedly believe all that.
The fact that I still haven’t found a man who loves me and agrees with that philosophy by the time I’m old enough to be invited to this kind of party with a bunch of other married and experienced women is the part I’m having trouble swallowing.
“I … I, uh …C,” I spit out awkwardly.
