“He is comfy.”
“Oh, dear one.” Sariah shakes her head. “You’ll come to see we expect details.”
Ayla lifts a finger. “But not too many. It is my brother, after all.”
I scrunch my brow.
“You look like you just sucked on a lemon,” Annika adds.
“I don’t want to think of my brother that way.”
“Yeah,” she replies, but it’s wistful. There’s something there I don’t know.
“Well, I don’t have a brother,” Sariah puts in. “That I know of, anyway. So spill.” Her eyes light up.
I shrug. “This morning was a huge miscommunication. That’s all. We’re fine.”
“And?” Sariah prompts.
“And we had sex.” The words are a garbled whisper.
Ayla throws her head back and laughs so loud Sophia startles with a cry and Franklin barks. “Lorien, we already knew that part. That afterglow you’re sporting isn’t from your massage.”
“Jealous?” Sariah asks Ayla.
“A little. I miss Christian in that way.”
“Yeah. Same.”
Annika pushes her belly into the huddle. “Don’t be. Look at what happens. I don’t dare sneeze these days.”
“I’m on birth control.” It’s a whispered confession.
“You’ll know when you’re ready,” Ayla offers with more mellowness than I’ve ever seen from her. She stares down at Sophia in her arms and rubs a finger over her forehead.
“Or you won’t,” Annika deadpans. “And you puke until you’re okay with it.”
“Or both,” Sariah adds.
“We’re not talking about kids. We’re…” I don’t know what we are, actually. We’re doing things so backward, I don’t know which way is up.
“But you told him you loved him.” Sariah grins.
“You did?” Ayla asks.
“Liam?” Annika’s voice reveals the confusion that surrounds my relationship.
“Yes and yes.” I nod.
“And he said?” Ayla prompts, leaning in.
“He loves me too.”
The shouts that go up in the room include Franklin’s barks. Annika looks confused. Ayla and Sariah look amused or thrilled or something else that resembles being over-the-moon.
“I knew it,” Ayla says to herself.
“Told you,” Sariah says.
