“Have you heard from Cain?”
“Just that he and Boone made it back to the city safely a few minutes ago.”
I nod, trying to look uninterested and failing miserably.
“You look surprisingly good for someone who drank their weight in tequila last night,” she teases.
“Sleeping in until ten helped.”
She nods knowingly. “Yeah, that’ll do it. I can’t remember the last time I was able to sleep in that late.”
“I’ll watch Piper for you next weekend if you’d like?”
She smiles. “You’ll be back next weekend?”
“Yeah… Brookhaven is really growing on me.”
This has become my weekend routine, and maybe it doesn’t hurt that being here means my dad doesn’t have easy access to me to request weekend work and that I don’t have to feel like I’m Boone’s pretend wife when I’m out here.
Nights out partying in the city? Hard pass. Awkward dates with guys I’ll never text back? Nope. Spending my weekends at my brother and sister-in-law’s house, hanging out with my niece, or chipping away at projects on my new home has become my new, happy place.
Eden returns to the room, grabs a mimosa, and drops into the chair across from us. She’s a few years younger than we are, but I learned quickly that she’s more observant and slower to speak than Rhiannon. More like me.
She prefers quiet and solitude, which is probably why she spends so much of her time working alongside her older brother, restoring furniture for their family’s thrift store when she isn’t in school.
“So… Dex was nice,” I say. “How did you two meet?” I figure we can ease into the mess that is my life after hearing about hers first.
Eden’s face lights up. “Oh yeah, he’s great. Architecture major. Super smart. He’s quieter than what I’m used to—kind of a stay-in-and-play-video games guy—but we vibe. We met at school.”
“They’ve been dating for almost two years now, right?” Rhiannon adds.
Eden nods. “Yes, but it’s nothing serious.”
“Well shared interests definitely make a difference.”
“Did Rosie tell you that we’re working on her den together?” Eden asks her sister.
“She didn’t,” Rhiannon says, glancing at me. “How’s the house coming along?”
“It’s coming… I need to spend some more time redesigning the kitchen. It’s a bit out of date.”
She nods. “And did Boone sleep okay last night?”
I bite my lip, feeling my cheeks heat just thinking about what we did. “Um, I think so. He didn’t really say before he left.”
Rhiannon’s brows shoot up as she sets her glass down. “The guest bed you have is terrible. There’s no way that he slept fine.”
I take a deep breath. Here goes nothing. “You’re right. He, um… might’ve slept in my bed last night. The one that Cain just helped me install.”
Rhiannon snaps her fingers like she just won a bet. “I fucking knew it.”
“Nothing happened,” I say quickly, then mutter, “well, nothing happenedinthe bed.”
Eden’s eyes widen as she leans forward. “Something happenedoutof the bed?”
I take a long, stalling sip of my tea, then nod. “Yes.”
“What happened?” Rhiannon asks, her voice equal parts amused and curious.
