"Next time you call an emergency meeting of the Sisterhood," Seraphina grumbles, sliding into the red leather booth beside me at our favorite hole-in-the-wall diner, "can you do it after work? I had to lie to the devil and tell him I had to see the doctor for female problems to get out of there."
"You should have just told him that you had a dick appointment," Nova says, fanning herself with a laminated menu. "I bet he would have had you bent over the nearest surface in two seconds, working out all that sexual frustration."
"I am not sleeping with my boss," Seraphina growls. "Not even if he were the last man on earth."
"I slept with Royce."
All three of my friends turn to gape at me.
"Holy shit," Ava whispers, grinning like she just won the lottery. "I knew you were into him!"
"I think he was in her," Nova retorts, earning loud laughter and high-fives from Ava and Seraphina. I just scowl at all three of them. Maybe I should have called my mom instead. At least she's not a wild woman. Usually.
"Okay, okay." Nova waves her hands in the air to silence the table. "I need details. When you say slept with, do you mean you actually slept or do youmean…?"
"I mean, we had sex all over my house last night," I hiss, lowering my voice so no one else hears me. "And then he spent the night."
"Holy shit," Ava breathes.
"He talked to my dad this morning."
Nova's eyes widen.
"Hemayormaynothavetoldhimthathelovesme," I say all at once.
"What?"
"He mayonnaise shlonged you?" Seraphina furrows her brows. "What does that even mean?"
"Mayonnaise shlonged? What the fuck?" Nova cracks up. "That is not what she said."
"It's what I heard."
"I said that he may or may not have said that he loves me," I growl. My dad didn't even freak out about it. He just asked if Royce was taking care of me, told me that he was proud of me, and then changed the subject.
"Oh." Seraphina squeaks. "Oh!Holy crap."
"Of course he does," Ava says as if that's a foregone conclusion. "The more pressing question is what you said because we know you, Emelia."
"What does that mean?" I protest.
All three of them share a look.
"It means," Seraphina says gently, "that the thought of falling for an athlete gives you hives. You've spent your whole life surrounded by them. You made a career out of saving the careers of some of the most incorrigible of them. But you never, ever let yourself get too close because you're absolutely convinced that good ones like your dad are the exception andnot the rule."
"That's because they are," I mutter.
"That's not true," Ava protests. "Royce is one of the good ones." Her cheeks turn pink in a way that has me curious as hell about what happened at their dinner. She's been suspiciously silent on the subject of her stepbrother lately. Like…suspiciouslysilent. "Dawson is one of the good ones. Even if Seraphina and Nova don't want to admit it, so are Huxley and Stone."
"Speak for yourself," Nova mutters.
Seraphina adds a savage nod, though I'm not sure if she's agreeing with Nova or Ava.
"The point is," Ava says, glaring at our friends, "not all athletes are assholes who like to stick it in every willing hole. I know you clean up after a lot of the ones who are, but you can't paint all of them with the same brush, Em. That's not fair, especially not to Royce."
"He's never linked with anyone," Seraphina murmurs. "Not even a hint of gossip."
"I know," I groan, burying my face in my hands. "I just…"
