“Hon,” Molly sat forward, elbows on her knees. She set her margarita on the table. “When a man asks about hand soap, he probably wants your number.”
“Here we go again,” Rachel said dramatically.
“Just stop, Molly!” April laughed. “Next you’ll be telling her to go skydiving with Kent.”
“Is he still doing that?” Molly asked.
“All the freaking time.” April let out a long breath. “It’s just a midlife-crisis thing. He’ll get over it soon enough.”
Rachel shivered. Jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft was not her idea of a “midlife-phase” anything.
No one needed to jump out of any moving transportation, as far as she was concerned. Not with the kids laughing in the background, fresh margaritas in the pitcher, and good friends to spend time with.
Rachel felt an expansion in her chest. She closed her eyes, soaking it all in.
“You know what?” Kaiya said finally. “I think Evelyn did get her way.”
If there was one thing that could ruin the goodness soak, it was the mention of Evelyn.
Rachel peeled one eye open.
“I’m not quite sure how you got from A to B on this one,” Sadie said, popping a bit of cookie into her mouth. “But I want to hear it because it doesn’t involve skydiving, produce, or car seat fittings.”
“Okay, hear me out. When you have a person who consistently acts in a certain way—always—and then all of a sudden they seem out of character, there’s something up. In this case, if we drill down Evelyn’s main plan, it wasn’t to keep Rachel and Travis apart, was it? It was to ensure that Travis and Gavin were happy, right?”
This made sense. Rachel nodded.
“I’m following you so far,” Sadie said.
“Despite everything that happened, that end result has happened. So Evelyn did get what she wanted, just not in the way that we expected.”
Huh. Rachel stared at Kaiya. She was totally right. And that was whacked.
“What did you do before you sold skin cream?” Sadie asked.
“I was head of pharmaceutical sales for a large medical supply company.” Kaiya licked at the margarita salt along the rim of her cup. “My ex always said I was a drug dealer. But that’s not really accurate, because I didn’t have access to the medications myself. I think he just thought it was funny. He was an ass, though, so his sense of humor was iffy.”
The things you learned about a girl over margaritas and sugar cookies.
“Hello, ladies.” Travis strode out the door, stopping to kiss Rachel on her temple. “Can I crash your party?”
“You can always crash my parties.” Rachel glanced up at him.
“Isn’t that good to know?” He nodded to the margaritas. “Are those for anyone?”
“No,” Molly said. “They’re only for people we like. Therefore, you are welcome to one.”
“Rach.” Gavin stepped out onto the patio. “Thought I’d pick up the boys a little early so this lug could take you to dinner. I didn’t realize they had friends over.”
“For example,” Molly said to Travis. “They aren’t for your brother.”
Travis shook his head. “He’ll grow on you, Ms. Molly.”
“Not likely.” She shook her head, brown curls bouncing against her shoulders.
“Mom,” Brady screeched. “Kellan spilled slime all over the trampoline.”
“It’s in my hair,” Ollie squealed. He didn’t sound too torn up about that fact.
