Harlow lifts a hand and waves at someone.
Within seconds, Sloan and Margot are at the table too.
“What’s up?” Sloan asks, sliding onto a stool.
She’s wearing a gorgeous long-sleeved black wrap dress that hits her just above the knee, showing off her toned, trim runner's body. I’m reminded for the four-thousandth time that if she weren’t such a sweetheart, and I hadn’t known her all my life, I’d probably hate her just for how effortlessly gorgeous she is.
But she is a sweetheart. Everyone likes Sloan. She’s impossible not to like.
And there was no way she wasn’t going to be gorgeous.
Her mom, Hailey, is a bombshell blonde. She’s in charge of, well, the entire town. She was the mayor for a long time, and even though TJ Bennett now gets written in even when hedoesn’t officially run, Hailey is his Chief of Staff and is more or less in charge.
Sloan’s dad, Ty, was an Olympic silver medal triathlete back in the day, and even though all of the Bennett boys are good-looking, he’s magazine-cover good-looking. Even now, in his early fifties. Maybe evenmore sonow.
Sloan got not only her good looks from her parents but also an unfairly fast metabolism and lots of charm and charisma.
“Ginny was just about to tell me how she’s falling in love with Everett. I didn’t think you’d want to miss it,” Harlow says.
I open my mouth to protest, then catch Margot’s eye.
She’s giving me a knowing grin.
Fine. These women are my friends. And it would feel good to talk about this. I’ve been denying my feelings to myself and Everett, and it’s definitely not helping them go away. Maybe talking it out will help. Because I have good reasons for avoiding this relationship, and I’m sure these three women who know me very well and are incredibly intelligent will validate me.
“Love might be a little bit of an exaggeration,” I say. “But I really like him. I definitely have some feelings. And it’s really complicated. I’m trying to remember all the reasons that I shouldn’t pursue this. But he’s making it really difficult.”
Margot leans onto the table and props her chin on her hand.
Sloan lifts her glass to her lips and sips daintily from the straw. “Tell me everything,” she says.
“It’s really simple,” I say. “Everett is my boss. Or he’s going to be anyway. I can’t get involved with another coworker. Especially a superior.”
“But you want to,” Sloan says.
I sigh. “Yeah.”
“When will he be your boss?”
“In less than an hour.” I sigh. “Which is a technicality. I’ve already been working for them. With them. I talked to JackBennett about working with Everett and Graham’s company just before Christmas.”
I notice how Sloan perks up a little. “What does their company have to do with Jack?” she asks.
“Jack is taking on more and more of the responsibility with the farm,” I say.
She nods. “I heard that. Mom said Delaney said it’s been really good for him. He’s working a lot, but it seems to have given him some purpose outside of worrying about the girls.”
Sloan’s dad, Ty, and Jack’s dad, Tucker, are brothers. I guess that makes Sloan and Jack cousins. Kind of. Though not really. Jack is actually Delaney’s nephew. Delaney and Tucker adopted Jack and his brothers after their parents died.
“Do you ever talk to Jack?” I ask her. “Are you guys close at all?”
She shakes her head. “No, not really. I’ve run into him a couple of times since he’s moved back, but none of us younger kids were close to those boys. They were so much older than all of us.”
“How much older is Jack?” I try to figure it out. But Jack and his brothers, Henry, Charlie, and David, are a lot older than all of us and I’ve never really thought about it.
“Jack’s ten years older than us,” Sloan says. “And he’s the youngest.”
Sloan, Margot, and I are the same age—twenty-six—and Harlow, Graham, and Sasha are all twenty-four.
