“Oh, Piper’s just telling us about how she wants giant Highlander babies someday,” Cam teases.
“Oh? I’m all for it. I could use more mom friends,” Carly says. I’d never thought about that before.
“Do you have other mom friends?” I ask because I’m honestly curious.
She shrugs as she sinks down onto a chair. “Not really. I mean, a few of my colleagues have kids, but they are all a lot older than Ava. And I’m sort of friends with a few of her friends’ moms, only they are all married, and I’m sort of like the odd woman out when we get together.”
“I vote for Roxy to have a baby,” I say.
Roxy punches my leg. “No way. I’m not responsible enough for that.”
We all turn to Cam, who holds up her hands defensively. “Oh, no. No way. We’re expanding the business. I don’t have time for that.”
Everyone sighs. “Guess you’re the resident momma for a while,” Roxy says as she gets up and walks over to the pool, sitting down and dipping her toes into the cool water.
I look at her and then past her down toward the beach, where little waves are bringing the tide in. It’s a beautiful night with just a sliver of moonlight. The stars are epic, and I just met my extended family.
I grin up at the night sky.
“You should invite your grandmother, aunt, and cousins over here,” Carly says.
“You think?” I ask. I don’t know why I didn’t think about that earlier.
“Yeah. I think everyone is having a chill day tomorrow. We’d love to meet them,” Piper says.
There’s a round of “yeses” from my friends. I pull out my phone and text my aunt. I grin more. I have an aunt!
My mom has a younger brother, but Uncle Teddy isn’t really around a lot. He’s a travel photographer, and he’s always on assignment somewhere. It truly has been just the three of us for most of my life.
“Can I ask a serious question?” Roxy says as she twists from where she sits on the edge of the pool.
“Sure,” I reply.
“Do they know where your dad is?” she says as she looks back at me.
I shake my head. “Nope. They haven’t heard from him at all since he left twenty-eight years ago.”
“Wow,” Roxy says.
“Yeah, something like that,” I state as I grab a margarita and lean back on my chair.
“That was super cool of Hutch to take you,” Piper says, changing the subject.
I nod. Should I say something about our kiss? I contemplate that for a second, but then when I look around, I find all my friends staring at me.
“What’s going on there?” Piper asks the obvious question. Fuck it.
I sigh and sit up and turn to them. “So…I sort of, maybe, kissed Hutch,” I blurt out and then bite my lower lip as I take in their expressions.
Roxy raises a single eyebrow. Carly raises both of hers. And everyone else just nods.
“Why are none of you acting surprised by this revelation?” I ask.
“Because we”—Roxy points to everyone with a circular motion of her finger—“have all been expecting this for months now. Hell, I’m shocked it took you this long.”
My eyes widen. What the hell? Why am I the last one to know that I like Hutch?
Roxy laughs. “You should see your face right now. Don’t look so surprised. You two are like a classic slow burn. The body language is off the charts. Actually, I think you might be insta-crushes who have trust issues and never acted on the crush and then friend-zoned each other until all that pent-up sexual frustration came boiling to the surface,” she says.
