I swirl the wine around my glass, smiling at Ash. “This is such a good look for you. Honestly.”
“Yeah, well, it took me long enough, right? Wouldn’t trade it for anything, although I miss sleep.” Ash chuckles, running a hand over his short beard. “Still worth it. How areyoudoing? That’s the bigger question.”
See, I can bluff my way through talks with most people, but Ash is not one of them. We’ve known each other too long and too well for bullshit.
He wants to know the latest on Drake and the upcoming trial. Life beyond the glow of Eddie.
Nervous energy spirals low in my core. It happens every time I think about my ex-husband.
“It’s been quiet,” I admit. “Almost too quiet. I don’t know whether to be grateful things seem to be calming down or worried it’s all going to blow up in my face.”
“Do you hear from Drake at all?”
I sip my wine and roll my eyes. “Yeah. The bastard called on my birthday. Told me he was sorry he couldn’t take me on the cruise he planned for my fortieth.”
Ash snorts and shakes his head in dismay. “That’s good of him.”
“Right? What a gem.”
He tips his chin toward the nursery, where the muffled sounds of the rest of the dinner party drift back into the room. “Things are good with Eddie, though.”
It’s not a question, and for my friend, the answer is obvious, although I doubt he’s using my increased boob circumference as a barometer for my happiness meter.
Still, heat floods my cheeks, which I pray is hidden in the dimlighting. “He’s amazing. Life with him is so easy, in a way it never was with Drake. Eddie brings out this whole new side of me.”
No, I don’t delve into the specifics of that side, but Ash remembers me when.
Sunshine mixed with a little hurricane.
And lately, the moniker fits.
A wide smile cuts across Ash’s face. “Pretty obvious Eddie is crazy about you, too.”
I lean over and smack his arm, fixing him with a stern glare. “Don’t say that too loud. I don’t want to scare him off.”
“Scare who off?” Eddie asks, slipping into the seat next to me, his gaze volleying between Ash and me. “Shit, are you two talking crap about me?”
“Obviously,” Ash and I say in stereo.
Damn, it feels good to laugh this much.
Leaning over, I place a soft kiss on his cheek. “All good things. Promise.”
I spy Theo standing by the carriage house door, staring out toward the courtyard garden.
“I bet I know what you want,” I say in a sing song voice, shrugging into my jacket. “Want to explore with me?”
The kid is halfway out the door into the fading evening light before I snatch his coat from the hook.
The temperature drops fast this time of year. Winter in Sparkwood has a way of sneaking up on you. One minute it’s crisp and charming, the next the wind bites straight through your clothes.
But the courtyard always feels magical. Ash and Eddie created a space straight out of a storybook, from the potting shed draped in a blanket of fairy lights, to the vines climbing the trellises as they reach for the stars, to the collection of stonefigures dotting the garden, like sentries on hand to provide directions.
If I look hard enough, I’ll probably see a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat scurrying past.
Theo gazes up at me, mischief alive in his face. “Want to play tag?”
The last thing I want to do after that meal is run around in the cold, but there is absolutely no universe in which I’m saying no to this child.
