“Okay, ladies, this is a big day. I brought my girlfriend with me. This is Ivy Emerson. Ivy, baby, this is Vee, Ale, Mack, and Lo. They are the ones who came up with the summer playbook that brought Dean and Mack together.”
“Oh, yeah, the summer bucket list. I heard about that. How creative.” I smiled at the girls, trying to be brave. It was intimidating. They were so beautiful and knew Callum well. There were four of them, all sitting around the table with huge smiles and inside jokes. The banter and teasing was so easy it was almost intimidating. Mack had purple hair at the ends, Lo had dark curls and sat next to her. Ale and Vee were on the other side, bickering about some TV show.
Was the weird feeling jealousy? I didn’t think so. Callum never left room for jealousy to creep in, plus, he made it clear he was in this with me. I couldn’t pinpoint the blip of unease deep in my gut, so I ignored it.
“So glad you’re here, Ivy. We love Callum but love seeing him happy with you even more.” Ale, a girl with dark black hair and an easy smile, said. “I’m the group master today, so I created the topics. Just join in as you please. This is low stress.”
“Not true. Last week we argued about the best dog type,” Mack said. “And prior to that, we got into it about the best sitcom.”
“We can’t scare Ivy away!”
“You couldn’t scare me away,” I blurted out. “I work with the football team every day. They are…” I shut my eyes. “They are the worst.”
Lo’s eyes sparkled. “Ooo, dish on that, please. Give us the tea.”
Callum rested his hand on my thigh and squeezed, almost like a comforting,I got you.He knew having a group of gal palswas intimidating to me. “Ivy will not be sharing any information from the team. That is confidential.”
“Do not speak for me, Callum. I will tell if I want.”
“I love her.” Mack leaned onto her elbows, smiling at me with wide eyes. “Ivy, tell us an embarrassing story about Callum from his youth.”
“No,” Callum said. He shook his head. “She will not.”
“She will.” I poked his side, making him yelp. It was a ridiculous sound. “When we were teenagers?—”
“Ivy, baby, the thing about these girls is yes, they are awesome, but they will hold whatever it is you’re going to say over my head forever.” Callum’s lips quirked. “They look sweet, but they aren’t.”
“Shut up, O’Toole. Tell us the deets!” Mack shouted.
“Now I feel so much pressure!” I covered my face with hands, laughing as I got more comfortable. “Gah, okay. Once, he locked himself out of his car?—”
“It was one time!”
“And he called his parents. He was freaking out a little. Kinda pacing around the car like a wild animal. Pretty sure you growled.”
“I did not growl.” He rolled his eyes and moved his hand from my thigh to around my shoulders. “I don’t like this.”
“Ilovethis.” Lo hit the table with a fist. “Okay, so he’s a feral animal walking around his car…”
“Yeah, and his coach is pissed at him for being late, but his practice gear was in there, so he tried to break a window to get in. He couldn’t wait for another solution.”
“And how helpful were you during this Ivy?”
“Don’t turn this on me. I asked you if you checked ALL the pockets in your bag. And you said, verbatim.I’m not a dumbass, Ivy.” I paused, shrugged, and laughed. “Turns out, he was. Hetried throwing a brick, a rock, and then kicking one of the windows, but it didn’t work.”
Callum covered his face with his hands. “It was a low moment.”
“They were in his bag the entire time,” I said, finishing the story. “Which I found, because I knew him, and he’d never check every single pocket.”
“This is amazing.” Ale smiled and marked something off on a paper. “I had on here, one embarrassing story about Callum on here. Thanks for providing, Ivy.”
“Anytime.” I grinned, loving how they teased him with such care.
The girls smiled at me while Callum nudged my leg with his, and the blip of worry eased. It might’ve been strange to some girlfriends if their man attended a girls’ night, but it wasn’t with Callum. These girls were fun. “I feel like it’s only fair if you share one about me to even it out.”
“You don’t have any embarrassing stories.” Callum scoffed.
“Uh, yes I do. Like the time my dress ripped at homecoming? I had to leave!”
