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Avril just rolls her eyes. I’m not sure if Poppy knows what went down last night or whether she’s just generally trolling her sister. It could go either way.

“Shall we go?” Poppy says. “If you lovebirds are finished with the eyelash thing.”

Avril groans and it sends sparks to my bollocks. “Stop it, Poppy.”

Poppy takes her coat from the coat stand and slides it on one arm and then the other.

I watch as Avril scans the room. Maybe it’s me, but something feels different about her today. “I need to get…” Avril grabs her bag, and a ChapStick from her desk, before grabbing her coat as we all head out.

“Is Aurora coming?” Avril asks Poppy, as the two of them head out before me.

“She’s feeling shitty. So she decided not to.”

“Poor thing,” Avril says.

“No, I think she’s actually enjoying feeling shitty. At least that’s what she says. She waited so long to be pregnant that she even likes the bad bits.”

I don’t say anything, but Deacon’s told me that Aurora’s said the exact same thing to him. It’s one of the many things that I like about Aurora. She manages to put a positive spin on most things.

“This is us,” I say, indicating the car at the curb.

“We’re driving?” Poppy says. “We usually walk.”

“It’s freezing,” Avril says.

“Up to you. Happy to do either,” I say. I glance at Avril’s and Poppy’s footwear. Both of them are wearing heels, but both of them are New Yorkers.

Avril moves toward the car. “I’m going in the car.”

I open the car door and Avril slides in. My driver is out of his seat before I can chase after Poppy and open her door. I take the front passenger seat.

It’s more comfortable in the front. Nothing to do with the fact that I don’t trust myself from not absentmindedly touching Avril when I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t because she’s not mine to touch.

We reach Worth Huntington’s brownstone in less than twenty minutes. We could have walked it faster. The traffic was brutal. But no one’s feet hurt and no one is cold.

I spent the journey engrossed in my phone, listening to Avril and Poppy chatter away about work and their brother and about thirty other things that I know nothing about. They have an easy dynamic about them, which is soothing and warm. Considering what happened to them when they were young, Worth did a really good job of keeping them together as a family. I’m looking forward to getting to know him a little more.

Then I wonder what the hell I’m even thinking about getting to know Worth. I mean, I probably won’t ever meet him again after tonight. I might not ever see Avril again after Sunday when she goes home.

The thought lands like a lead weight in my stomach. She’s so quickly and so easily become a fixture in my life. Someone who dominates my thoughts, someone I look forward to talking to and sharing things with. How did that happen?

We pull up by the brownstone and all get out. I let the sisters go ahead of me and nerves start to twist and pull in my stomach. Why am I nervous? It’s not like I’m being introduced to my girlfriend’s parents or anything.

Except that it feels like I am somehow.

A woman I don’t recognize opens the door and she, Poppy, Avril and and her all hug.

“This is Ben,” Avril says, without further explanation.

“Hi, Ben, I’m Sophia, Worth’s wife.”

“Delighted to meet you,” I say, and give her a kiss on the cheek.

We go inside, but before we get our coats off, the doorbell rings again and Sophia goes to answer the door. Avril and Poppy kick their shoes off like it’s their home, and I make a mental note to ask whether or not they lived in this house. I glance around. Maybe they grew up here?

I follow them through to the back of the house into the open-plan kitchen and dining room, where it’s like a party is going on. There seem to be people everywhere. Some sitting at the breakfast bar, some at the dining table, some standing in the kitchen.

“Come on,” Avril says, cocking her head toward the crowd. “I’ll introduce you.”