“Just that I have the best family in the world,” she looks up at him with a glazed look and a goofy smile.
“Oh, little elf.” He chuckles. “You’re two cocktails and two glasses of wine in, it’s showing.” She smacks his chest lightly and they kiss sweetly before Jake slaps Harry on the shoulder. “Come on dude, best follow orders.”
Harry’s eyes flit between me and Nel, a panic in his eyes that I don’t quite understand. “Uh, yeah,” he mumbles and in a move I’m certainly not expecting, he takes my face between both his hands and kisses me, not a quick peck or even a lingering press of his lips to mine, but a firm kiss, lips parted and tongue swiping along the seam of mine. I melt into him because I always melt in Harry’s kisses. He pulls away before it gets too inappropriate for company—although shocked faces pointed in our direction from the door suggest it was less than PG—and I blink up at him.
“I love you, Angel,” he whispers, looking so intently into my eyes I feel like everything that isn’t us just falls away.
“I love you, too,” I breathe.
He nods once, pecks my lips, and leaves with Jake. I’m left gormless and shell-shocked when I turn to see Nel looking at me with amusement.
“That was…promising.” She beams.
“Uh, yeah,” I say, still all breathy and shaky. Physically shaking myself out of it, I turn to her with a smile that’s only half faked to cover the nerves brewing in my belly. “Did you, uh, did you bring it?”
Nel makes a show of patting herself down in her fancy outfit that hugs her curves in a way that makes it obvious she isn’t hiding anything. “You know, I must have left it in my other dress.”
I glare at her with the sass that impertinence deserves. “Jake is really rubbing off on you.”
“Well, not right now but maybe when we get back to the hotel—”
“Okay.” I start walking toward the garage door, but she grabs my hand laughing.
“Sorry, sorry, okay, I’ll be serious.” I try to hide my smile behind an unimpressed glare, but it doesn’t work. The truth is, Nel and I became a lot closer this year as she spends more time with us, and I have the sister-in-law relationship I’ve always wanted. One like my mum and Auntie Hen. “It’s back at the hotel. I didn’t want to walk in with it because I figured Harry would be there to greet us. I was going to ask if you want me to wrap it?”
“No!” I say a little too sharply. “I mean, no,” I continue with a false calm. “I need to see it before I give it to him.”
She narrows her gaze. “You need to check my work?”
I slump in defeat, knowing she’s being purposefully obtuse. “Nel,” I whine.
She tilts her head and gives me a sympathetic smile, taking my hand. “Lisa, I told you when we were doing the shoot, you have nothing to worry about. I know you’re feeling a little self-conscious but you really don’t need to.”
Before I can respond to that, the door flies open, and Rhiannon flusters in. “My god, what are you two doing inhere? I’ve been out there waiting for someone fun to talk to for ages.” She looks at us and frowns. “What’s going on?”
Nel looks at me expectantly and I sigh. “I did a boudoir photoshoot with Nel a couple months ago.”
Rhi looks excited and shocked as she comes to stand with us. “Oh my god! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I’m terrified,” I whisper shout.
“Of what?” My cousin looks genuinely confused.
“I’m basically naked in the photos, Rhi,” I tell her in a low and serious voice.
She takes my hands in hers, stealing the one Nel was still holding. “I know, Lis,” she says, brows high and voice soft and patronising. “I do understand the concept of a boudoir shoot. My question is, why is that scaring you?”
I look to Nel for help, but she just gives me an encouraging nod. I hate the unexpected tears that swamp my eyes, but I try to keep my voice steady when I say, “I’ve been feeling a little insecure lately.”
Rhiannon looks at me like I’ve grown a red nose and antlers. “Why?”
I roll my eyes because I feel like she’s deliberately being dumb. “I have a belly overhang.”
“Who the fuck doesn’t?” She huffs. “Honestly keeping a perfect figure into your thirties with two kids was kind of creepy. A little belly is actually more attractive, if you ask me.”
“My boobs don’t sit anywhere near here,” I say pointing to each of my boobs where they’re safely nestled in the loving embrace of my grandma bra that harnesses enough strength to keep the girls high and dry. “At the end of the day, they’re let loose and hang somewhere around here.” I hold my hands palm up at the bottom of my ribs.
“Babe,” Rhiannon says with little to no patience. “You’ve hadthreekids. So, you don’t have the tits of a twenty-year-old anymore, who gives a fuck? They’re still pretty epic.” To punctuate her point she gives my boobs a little squeeze in a honker-honker gesture.
