Page 66 of Talk Wicked to Me

“When they’re little, you want to spend every second with them,” Starr said.

“Most of the time,” Leah said. “But sometimes you need a second to breathe and think your own thoughts.”

“God, do we ever,” Starr said.

“It’s true. I helped raise my younger sister, Serena, but, Leah, you had more on your plate than any of us,” Chloe said. “I don’t know how you did it.”

As they took their seats, Leah said, “I didn’t really have a choice.”

“What do you mean?” Emerson asked.

“My father died when I was eighteen, and my brother River was only thirteen, so I became his guardian.”

Emerson’s throat thickened. “I lost my parents when I was sixteen. I know how much it hurts to lose someone you love and how it changes your whole life. I can’t imagine having to raise a sibling after that. That must have been so hard.”

“Concentrating on River helped, but that was only the start.” Leah blinked away tears. “Junie and Rosie are River’s daughters. He was barely a teenager when they were born, so I raised them, too. I moved here to get him away from a bad crowd, and even though this is where I lost him, I have to believe that as horrible as that was, the universe brought us here so we’d find the Wickeds. They were there for us after River died, even when I tried to push them away, and they’ve become our family.”

“You can’t push the Wickeds away,” Reese said. “Trust me. I tried to send Blaine packing several times, but he was like a boomerang. He kept coming back. Now I’m ridiculously in love with my boomerang bulldozer, and I don’t want to imagine my life, or Colette’s, without him in it.”

“You’ll never have to,” Marly said. “Blaine is crazy in love with you.”

Reese grinned from ear to ear.

“I’ve known the Wickeds my whole life,” Steph said. “When they set their sights on someone, or in Reese and Leah’s case, on a family, there’s no turning back.”

“We’re everyone’s found family.” Madigan looked around the table. “And I got all these amazing sisters out of it.”

Chloe rose to her feet. “I think we need to toast to the Wickeds to get this party…I mean book club…started.” She picked up two bottles of champagne. “In honor of the sexy barn scene in Hot for Love, where Nick and Trixie made very good use of their champagne.”

“Yeah, baby,” Evie cheered. “Best scene ever.”

“Dante and I acted out that scene,” Marly said. “That barn we snuck into will never be the same.”

Everyone laughed as the champagne bottles made their way around the table.

“I’ll just have water, thanks,” Emerson said, passing the bottle to Leah.

“No, you won’t,” Madigan said in a singsong voice, carrying another bottle over to her.

Emerson put her hand over the wineglass. “I’m nursing. I really can’t have alcohol.”

“That’s why Baz brought this when he helped the guys set up tonight.” Madigan showed her the bottle of sparkling apple-cranberry juice. “He knew you’d be a good girl and didn’t want you to feel left out.”

As they finished pouring drinks and toasted to the Wickeds, Emerson fell a little harder for the man who never failed to take care of her.

THEY GOT TO know each other over dinner, sharing baby and couples pictures and talking about their lives, and the girls told Emerson about how the group had come together. Now they were an hour into the book chat and having a great time.

“Did anyone else drag their man into the kitchen after reading the first sex scene?” Madigan asked.

“I did,” Reese, Chloe, and Marly said in unison.

Everyone was so laid-back and easy to talk to, Emerson felt comfortable enough to consider admitting she’d imagined doing everything sexy in the book with Baz. But since he hadn’t tried anything beyond kissing, she held her tongue.

“If I had a guy, I totally would,” Starr said.

“Me too,” Steph said. “I’m keeping a list of all the dirty things I want to do when the perfect man drops from the sky onto my patio.”

They all laughed.