“No, you really shouldn’t tell me that,” Leo admits with a scowl.
“It was nothing. We barely even spoke. I think he needed to escape. I mean…” I say looking over to him and Alicia.
“Yeah, yikes,” Audrey says.
“Condom broke,” I inform her.
“Always use a back-up method. Always,” Audrey advises.
I look at Leo and cringe. We hadn’t. What would have happened if the condom broke? I can’t even imagine.
“When are you coming home?” Elan asks.
Home. This isn’t really home to me without Dad. Shell Beach is.
“Not sure. We have the will reading tomorrow, then I suppose there’ll be things to deal with. It might be a while,” I admit.
Leo looks at me. “We’ll make it work. Just… don’t turn your phone off again, okay?”
“I didn’t turn it off. It ran out of juice and I didn’t charge it,” I explain.
“Let’s not do that either,” he says.
“I promise.”
“Good.” Leo kisses my forehead. “It sucked not talking to you.”
“Gag,” Isla teases with a smirk.
“Speaking of gagging…” I lead in, “how’s Carlos?”
Audrey snorts. “That could take on many meanings.”
Elan chuckles. “I believe it was meant to.”
I just shrug.
Isla’s eyes light up. “He’s good. Great, really. Things are…” she lets out a blissful sigh.
I look at Audrey. “See? I told you my work was done.”
“And so, you did.” She just stares at me, her expression changing from laughter to serious. “Oh, the hell with it,” she says, then pulls me into a hug. “Don’t you ever do that to me again. I’ve been so damn worried about you I didn’t even have the heart to go shopping and there was a sale.”
I hug her back. “Wow. That’s serious. But…”
“I know,” she cuts in. “You needed time. We gave it to you. That’s over now,” she informs me, leaning back out of the hug. “You ignore me again, I’m going to hop a flight and—well, I was going to say kick your ass, but even though you’re smaller than I am, I think you could take me.”
I snicker. “You’d never fight me. You might break a nail.”
“Hush. Don’t jinx it.” We step back from one another. “But in all seriousness, we love you Jillie. You’re our best friend and knowing you were going through this alone, well, it didn’t sit right with any of us.”
Eddie walks up, leans in. “A horse walks into a bar. The bartender asks, ‘Why the long face?’” He keeps on walking.
We all grin.
“He’s a hoot,” Isla cheers.
“Wait until he gets around to the dirty ones,” I tell her.
