April shushed her. “Don’t make a thing about it.”
“You made out with Jack because of it,” Simone accused, jerking her thumb behind her. “And frankly, I’m about ready to go do the same. Can Ethan Greene come to my kitchen, too? Because I stopped at his restaurant in Vail last year and his scallops were so tender, they were practically loved by Elvis.”
“I love good scallops,” Kitty said.
April enjoyed a good scallop, too, however—
“You may not make out with Jack.” April figured she should just get that out there right up-front because she wouldn’t care for that and she was nearly certain that Yelena wouldn’t, either. She pointed to Kitty for good measure. “You either.”
Simone nodded sagely. “You’re in deeper than I thought.”
“Oh girl,” Kitty said. “Yes, you are.”
“I’m notinanything. It was just a kiss. He’s here temporarily and is going to leave. This whole thing is very shallow—a kiddie pool. No one is in deep.” And now her voice was pitching higher, showing her for the liar she was because, while the rest of what she said was true, that wasnotjust a kiss. That wasthekiss. The toe-curling, heel-kick kind of kiss. “We’ll never know if it would have been more, because we had kissus interruptus.”
“I am sorry for that.” Kitty held up her palm. “Next time I won’t say a word until you finish.”
That made it official—April would never make out in her backyard again.
“We just don’t want you to get hurt, gumdrop,” Kitty said, soft like a purr. “And Jack’s at a level five ocean when we were trying to go level one with Beast in the shallow end. Ease you back in. But then you just went and jumped off a cliff right into the water. I’m not opposed to that. Just as long as you know where you’re floating.”
“Jack isn’t level five,” April said. “Jack’s so easy to be with, he’s totally a kiddie pool.” This Kitty logic was, however, oddly making sense to April. Which meant she probably needed to go get an MRI or something. “I also didn’t jump. It happened without me even trying.”
“You weren’t trying, but I have a hunch…” Kitty said low under her breath.
“Jack is practically training wheels,” April assured them, going with her own metaphor. “There’s no risk of my heart getting involved. He’s here to help me find my calm, and I can say that before the interruption, I was extremely calm. So calm. The calmest mom I’ve ever been.”
Simone was studying April with genuine concern.
Kitty, however, grinned. “I think what she’s saying is that she’s feeling pretty groovy right about now.”
“Well, Iwas.” The groovy feeling dissolved with all the talk of cliff diving and kiddie pools.
“Then we’ll leave and let you get back to your zenification,” Kitty said with a wink. “Keep relaxing.”
April had studied a good deal of Sanskrit and—“Zenification is not a word.”
“The act of becoming Zen? It’s a word,” Kitty said.
April shook her head. It really wasn’t.
“It doesn’t matter, though, because what I mean is that I only want you to be happy,” Kitty said with a huff. “I would also love it if you stocked the fruit punch juice boxes a little more regularly for my rum punch.” With that, Kitty turned on her heel and flounced out.
Simone did not.
April bit her lips. Because Simone looked like she had something to say, and April probably would not like it.
Simone continued to study her, then the tile. Like she was taking an inventory of her thoughts. Finally, she said, “If he hurts you, I will send penis confetti cannons to his office every single day for the rest of his life. Not the nice ones, either. The glitter kind that gets ineverything.”
April knew Simone would follow through with that threat. But Jack would not hurt her. Her heart was locked up tighter than Fort Knox.
“While I appreciate the sentiment,” April said carefully, “we will not be entangling ourselves like that. Training wheels, Simone. He’s just training wheels.”
Simone pinched her lips to the side. “Can I make a suggestion?”
“Aren’t you going to anyway?”
She lifted her hands to April’s shoulders. “Tell him what you need. Be specific. He seems like a guy who will appreciate that.”
