“OK,” I reply with a smile.
“You are the best!” she says as she walks over and hugs me. I wrap my arms around her and hold her against me. She smells of honeysuckle shampoo and her floral perfume.
“We need to find you a girlfriend,” Carly whispers against my shoulder. My chest tightens because the only woman I want is the one in my arms, and I can’t have her.
CHAPTER THREE
Carly
The last four weeks have flown by in a whirl of chaos. Bray’s taken Ava to nearly every museum, two movies, four new restaurants, an art class, the botanical garden, the zoo, and even a random exhibit on fireflies. Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to help four students pass their summer writing class.
It’s Thursday, and I’m meeting Ava and Bray on the rooftop deck for happy hour before Bray heads off to work. I swear that man is a lifesaver, and I wish I made more money so I could give him a huge gift in a few weeks.
I drop my bag in the apartment and walk up to the top of our building. Most of the tenants are already here, including our retired crowd, Al, Margie, and Cornelia. Our building’s maintenance man, Troy, and his wife, Jessa, are sitting at their usual spot at a table by the bar. A few others surround the bar area.
I’m not entirely sure how Al, who owns the building, started these Thursday happy hours. They were clearly a thing before I ever moved here.
Hutch and Bray are at their bar spots with Ava sitting in Bray’s lap. They are playing tic-tac-toe, which is a Thursday tradition.
“Hi, Mom,” Ava says without looking my way. Bray gives me a wave, and I smile at him. Every time I see him with Ava like this, it makes me a little sad. Ava’s missing out on having a real father. While I love that the men in my life are so good to her, it’s not quite the same as having a dad who is there all the time.
My mind drifts back to when I fell pregnant with Ava. It wasn’t planned, and Chad freaked out the night I showed him those two little pink lines. I can still remember the look of shock and disappointment on his face. It nearly broke me. It really was the beginning of the end for us. I just didn’t see it at the time, or maybe I didn’t want to see it.
I blink back tears at the gush of memories flooding my brain, and Bray gives me a funny look. I shake my head a little, trying to tell him that I’m fine as I walk over and kiss the top of Ava’s head, breathing in the smell of her shampoo. I don’t know what I’d do without her.
“Everything good?” Bray asks, his eyes searching mine.
I nod. “Yeah. Fine.”
He raises an eyebrow.
“Just a long day,” I white lie because it’s not completely false.
He rubs my arm. “Sorry. Al, get Carly her fave,” he says with a smile. I note he’s having water.
“When do you have to leave?” I ask as a few more neighbors come milling onto the deck.
He looks down at his watch. “In about five minutes,” he says. “One more game, Peanut,” he adds to Ava, who groans and draws a new tic-tac-toe board.
Cam throws open the door to the stairwell and walks through it, holding out her hand to reveal the largest diamond ring I’ve ever seen in person.
“Guess who’s getting married, beotches!” Cam squeals as her boyfriend, slash that, fiancé, Fletcher, picks her up from behind and twirls her in a circle before dipping her low and dramatically plants a kiss on her lips as she giggles.
“Ewwww!” Ava says loudly, covering her eyes. I can’t help but wonder if not seeing me kiss a man for so long has permanently warped her little brain into thinking kissing is gross or wrong or something.
“OMG!” Roxy yelps.
Piper and Jocelyn run over to where Fletcher is still gripping Cam. Piper claps her hands as she looks at the ring.
“Bitch, how did you get one of those before me?” Roxy asks as she walks over.
Gray, Roxy’s boyfriend, groans and runs a hand down his face.
Fletcher smirks, and Gray glares at him. Roxy and Gray started dating nearly a year ago when Roxy opened a bookstore in the commercial space of our building and moved into the efficiency apartment in the back of it. Gray wasn’t happy about the noise below, and we all thought they would be enemies for life, but one thing led to another and now they are together.
Then a few months later, Piper came to help her aunt, Cornelia, after a surgery, and started dating Cornelia and Margie’s neighbor, Kasen. And just as the holidays were approaching, Cam bought the cafe across the street where she’s been working right as Fletcher’s family went to open a competing business a block down the street. The two had to work together on a baking competition show, and somehow, they ended their time together as a couple.
And then there’s Hutch and Jocelyn. Jocelyn works part-time at Roxy’s store. She and Hutch had been flirting for months, and it took all of us going on a group vacation for those two to finally admit their feelings.
