“Your husband seems to be doing just fine,” Daisy said. “This group has a way of making everyone feel welcome.”
“Aw.” Poppy pulled her in for a quick, one-armed hug. Daisy hunched her shoulders, but she smiled. The woman acted like she never knew what to do with being touched, but she never seemed to mind beyond her own awkwardness. Of course, that was absent when it was Alder grabbing her hand or pulling her in for an embrace. “You’re one of us. That’s why it’s easy.”
“I’m glad to be one of you again,” Daisy said softly.
Poppy turned back to me. Damn. She hadn’t forgotten about her interrogation. “Are you really telling me that you and Van haven’t, you know…”
“Poppy! No. You know it’s not like that.”
Daisy shook her head, and I gave her a quizzical look. She blinked her owlish eyes. “Sorry. It’s just that you two remind me of…me. You’re, like, super aware of each other and worried about what the other thinks of you.”
Did I like that insight? The answer wasn’t critical right now. “He’s becoming a friend. He’s thoughtful and easygoing. A total opposite from his brother. And he doesn’t try anything creepy in bed.”
Four pairs of eyes blinked at me.
“What?” I touched my cheeks. Was something on my face?
“You two sleep together?” Lily whispered.
Oh. That. Warmth infused my cheeks. “Not like that. We share a bed. It’s only a two-bedroom home, and we both need a place to work.”
“So you don’t share an office, but you share a mattress?” Poppy’s brows were at her hairline. “You hussy.”
“Stop it,” I whispered with a hiss. “It’s not like that.”
Poppy shrugged. “Maybe it should be.”
Violet coughed out a laugh.
I shot her a glare. “Unlike you, I’m not pregnant with his baby. Why would he want me?”
“I’m not going to pretend the why doesn’t matter,” Poppy said. “But he does want you. We established that.”
Frustrated, I had to finish this conversation. I didn’t come to get reminded that I was living with an attractive man who kept his distance while we lived in the same house and slept in the same bed. “Say he’s interested? He doesn’t want to be, and that’s not good enough for me. Elijah was going to marry me, and I wasn’t enough for him.”
Violet wrinkled her nose as if saying my ex’s name was enough to cause a stench to rise up. “That situation had nothing to do with you. That was all your loser ex.”
“Exactly.” I swallowed down the burn in my throat. “I picked that loser. What does that say about me? Van doesn’t have a choice but to be related to him, but I was going to walk down the aisle with the guy.”
I had been so happy, I would’ve sprinted to that altar.
Lily patted my back. “I know it feels that way, but it’s not you. And when you meet the right guy, he’ll show you that we’re right.”
Envy ripped through me so strong and fast, my world spun. I wanted what she had. I wanted what all my sisters had. A man who was dedicated to them, to their family. A guy who acted like they were the most valuable and desirable thing in the world. A partner who was my own.
I was thirty-four. I thought I’d be in their shoes by now. When I met Elijah, I thought my chances were slipping by, like sand in an hourglass, only there would be no flipping over to start again. I was destined to be the fun aunt. The aunt who took her nieces and nephews on walks and chattered about the shale we passed. The one who explained how the Badlands ended up with the multicolored striations.
That was fine, but it wasn’t all I wanted, and I was tired of settling.
I might not be getting a real husband, and in a little over two months, it would be like I was never married at all.
Van
* * *
“And then we went sailing over the side.” Eliot laughed and made a crashing motion with his hands. I was standing with him and Alder as we lined up for a game of kickball, something I hadn’t played in years. “We were airborne. I thought for sure that even if we weren’t dead, I was going to be when Cali told her the story.”
Alder laughed. “I think Laila would gut me herself if I ever took her on a sledding trip like that. Then she’d want to do it again.”
