Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
"You're my competition, you wench. Apparently, you're prettier."
Angelica looked up from the bag of mulch she was pointedly not picking up. "Did he really say prettier?"
"He said you were very pretty and that I knew things, and his dad needed both of us."
The shriek of laughter that came out of Chloe startled every bird in the yard, and one eleven-week-old infant.
Olivia's face crumpled from peaceful to outraged in the span of half a second. Chloe was laughing too hard to be useful and made a helpless gesture toward Olivia’s blanket that was laid out under the shade of the big oak.
I was already moving.
"Oh no." I pointed at Angelica as she got up, too. "You do not get to go comfort that child. You're the competition. You pick up the mulch and get to work. That’s your punishment for being too pretty and good at Mario Kart."
I crouched down and gathered Olivia up, tucking her against my chest. She immediately found it in her heart to stop screaming, which I took as a personal victory. "There you go. There you go, sweet girl. Your mama has no manners and your aunt is currently under discipline. You're stuck with me."
Chloe had both hands pressed over her mouth, shoulders still shaking. Angelica, who had given up all pretense of being offended, continued to sit on top of the bag of mulch she was supposed to be carrying and was losing the battle not to laugh.
"A four-year-old," Chloe finally managed. "You're threatened by a four-year-old."
"I am not threatened. I am registering my feelings appropriately. Just like I learned in counselling. They haven’t told me how to kill the competition, but I figured having her come over and dig her own grave was a start."
Chloe laughed louder, and I pressed a kiss to the top of Olivia's head. She had the irreplicable smell of a baby who has recently been bathed and is totally content with her life. "Your aunt is very emotionally mature, did you know that?"
Olivia blinked up at me with those grave brown eyes. I knew she was taking my side.
I settled cross-legged on the grass with Olivia against my shoulder, and after a moment she snuggled closer and sighed. I did as well. Then I looked up across the yard.
"Mulch," I said to Angelica. "You're on notice."
April in Tennessee was one of my favorite months.
Honestly, it was one of the top twelve because I love it here all the time.
A day like today was one of the reasons.
The garden was going to take more work than most people realized.
The beds would need turning, early perennials going in, all the things that would need to happen for a blaze of color come May and June.
Chloe had taken over the far bed with the focused energy she brought to everything, trowel moving at a pace that suggested she was either deeply at peace or processing something she hadn't brought up yet. My guess was peace.
Angelica had graduated from mulch discipline to actual gardening once I put Olivia into the playpen for a nap.
"I am getting my nails done tomorrow," Angelica announced, sitting back on her heels and looking at her hands. "Whatever I end up paying, it won’t be enough.”
"You volunteered."
"You guilted me."
"And it worked." I crowed.
“I’m such a sucker.” Angelica went inside to make lemonade, and Chloe moved closer to me.
"So," Chloe said, without looking up from her trowel. "Three days since the store incident."
"Three days," I confirmed.
"It made the rounds." She glanced up. "Zarek heard about it from Jase."
“How in the hell did Jase hear about it?”
Chloe gave me a look like I was the slowest student in the class. “I keep forgetting that if somebody doesn’t have the last name Avery in this town, their last name is Drakos,” I sighed. “Of course Adam told Renzo Drakos, who told his brother Jase Drakos, who told—”
“My husband Zarek, whose last name is Post, I’ll have you make note of.” Chloe grinned at me.
“One Post out of many Drakos. Face it, we’re overrun.”
“There’s not many Becketts either. Just Adam and James,” she pointed out.
“That’s enough.”
"How are things? With Adam. Since the store?"
"Good." I pulled a weed that had no business being in the bed and set it aside. "We had lunch. Just us, no James, day before yesterday."
She looked up at that. "Where?"
"He picked me up and we drove out toward the Foothills Parkway. There's a little place out there, nothing fancy, good sandwiches, the kind of view that does half the work for you."
"And?"
"And it was easy," I said. "That's the thing about it, Chloe. It's just…easy. Like we've been doing this for a while." My twin absorbed this the way she absorbed most things that mattered between us.
“And?”
“We’re going out tomorrow night.” I kept my eyes on the flowerbed. "Renzo and Millie are taking him."
The pause that followed was perfectly calibrated.
"So it's a real date," Chloe said.
"It's a real date."
She set her trowel down and turned to look at me fully, with the expression that meant she was done being oblique. "Zoe."
"Don't."
"I'm not doing anything."
"You're about to do something."
"I'm simply asking," Chloe said, with great patience, "whether you've thought about what happens at the end of a real date. When Renzo and Millie have James. When there's no reason for anyone to be anywhere in particular."
I opened my mouth.
The back door opened and Angelica came out with a tray, three glasses, a pitcher of lemonade with actual mint in it because Angelica did not do anything halfway, and an expression that said she knew she’d been in the kitchen for exactly long enough to miss something.
"What did I miss?"
"Nothing," I said.
"She was about to tell me something," Chloe said.
Angelica set the tray down on the garden table and poured with great efficiency. "Tell me everything."
I looked between the two of them. Chloe, who had known me since before either of us knew what knowing someone meant. Angelica, who could read a room the way other people read large-print books.
"I was not about to tell you anything," I said.
"She has a big date tomorrow," Chloe offered.
"Oh, I know," Angelica said. " Millie texted me.
James is very excited about staying over.
Apparently, he's been told there will be ice cream after dinner, which Renzo is going to regret at approximately nine o'clock. I’ve been thrown over.
" She settled into her chair, picked up her lemonade, and leveled me with a look of exquisite patience. "So. Are you going to sleep with him?"
"Angelica—"
"Because if you are," she continued, as though I hadn't spoken, "I have opinions about the boots."
"There are no boots involved."
"The boots should absolutely be involved."
"I haven't decided anything," I said, which was at least partially true, and which both of them received with identical expressions of polite skepticism. They continued to stare, saying nothing. "I haven't. It's a date. People go on dates without it necessarily—" I shut up.
“Especially you,” Angelica purred.
"Angelica!" Chloe chastised.
"Well it’s true," she repeated. “I’ve got high hopes our girl can break her vow of celibacy.”
“It has been awhile for you, hasn’t it?” Chloe murmured. “Who was the last guy? Randall?”
“Ewww.” I said. “I didn’t sleep with Randall. The last guy was Dorian.”
“That’s even longer,” Chloe sat up suddenly, splashing her lemonade. “Are you sure you’ll remember what to do?”
“Shhhh, not in front of the baby,” I warned Chloe.
“What, she’s not hearing anything worth knowing. None of us are. So, are you going to sleep with Adam? Do you need pointers since it’s been so long?”
"I haven't decided," I said again, slower this time, which was not the same thing as saying I hadn't thought about it, and from the way both of them smiled into their lemonade, we all understood that distinction perfectly.