Chapter 20 #2
“Should I put my money in my bra before I go to the bathroom?” She glanced at my friends milling around. Lila had returned and pulled Marcus into a kiss, but was grabbing a property from her place at the table while he was distracted.
“Probably,” I said, reluctantly letting go of her hand. “I would, but…”
“You don’t wear a bra or have any money,” she said, patting my cheek. Before heading to the bathroom, she glanced around then shifted the two fifties from Marcus’s spot back to Kieran’s. My girl was getting the hang of house rules.
No, I thought, not my girl. It felt right to have her here, though.
I swiped a hand across the scar on my back, but I didn’t feel the same pang of loss I normally did.
As I took the two fifties from Kieran’s stack along with three hundred-dollar bills and shoved them in my pocket, I felt something like contentment.
I wandered into the kitchen, lost in my own head.
Although I loved spending time with my friends, this connection with Willow felt even deeper as her laugh floated into the kitchen from the other room.
“I know that look,” Emi said, slicing apples to fill in the fruit plate we’d decimated during the first half of game night. “You’ve got a thing for the little sister.”
I dragged my gaze from the doorway back to Emi before stealing an apple slice from her neat stack. “No way. I’ve got a thing for you, sweet cheeks.” I winked and flexed my arm muscles, earning her eye roll, but another peal of laughter from Willow made me glance over my shoulder.
“Aww, Deac. I’ve never seen you smitten.” When I turned again, she was holding out an apple slice for me, and I took it without comment. It was a Red Delicious apple, which reminded me of the woman I never even texted back. “It’s cute.”
“I’m not smitten,” I huffed, grabbing a few beers from the fridge and snagging the opener from the hook mounted on the wall. “Sure, she’s cute and fun.”
“Cute and fun is a wonderful combination,” she said, pouring blueberries onto the plate. “Almost like the exact combination of qualities that provide a baseline for someone you might be smitten with.”
I shot her a narrow-eyed stare and then accepted the fresh apple slice she slid out to me when she relented and held up her palms. “Fine. I give up.” Emi studied the fruit plate, looking side to side as if she would present it to a discerning group of foodies and not her best friends who were playing drunken Monopoly with the house rules that made all kinds of capitalism-fueled cheating legal.
She always did that—made sure things were perfect from every angle.
She plucked a few more strawberries from the clamshell container and placed them on the plate, nudging an apple slice to the side.
I loved this woman and her weird quirks.
Same for Marcus and Sybil, even though Syb had ditched us to fall in love with a former donut shop owner.
They’d become my people, and my chest felt warm thinking about that. It was the liquor—I wasn’t normally that sentimental, but I tugged my friend into a hug, interrupting her fruit checking.
“What’s that for?” she asked against my chest, already wriggling to escape my hold. “You’re being very affectionate tonight.”
“It’s not affection. I’m an emotionless womanizer—I’m trying to seduce you.” Ignoring the sappy things, I wanted to tell her about what her friendship meant to me. How I thought of her as family. She’d even spotted how I was feeling about Willow in no time. I squeezed her again.
“You couldn’t be a womanizer if you tried, and you know I just want you to be happy, Deac.
You’re a good guy.” She patted my chest affectionately and then did some complicated spin, pinning my arm behind my back and pressing me to the counter.
Looking at Emi, you wouldn’t assume she was a black belt who could take down men my size, but the cool kitchen counter under my cheek was a good reminder, though she let me go almost immediately.
Emi laughed and grabbed the fruit plate with one hand and smacked my ass with the other. “I’m unseducible, Rakes.” She looked over her shoulder with a wide, knowing smile as she strode back to the game. “And I love you, too.”
I nudged Willow’s Park Place card under the board, hiding it from view and hoping to avoid her three hotels, even though we’d made a deal.
She laughed at something Lila said as everyone streamed back in, and I noticed how relaxed Willow looked with my friends.
Every day, she seemed a little less scared of being recognized, or at least it seemed like she wasn’t letting it stop her anymore.
She’d enjoyed knowing that after Sybil and Kieran’s relationship started with a social media blowup, our group knew a little something about the public eye.
Her laugh, though, seemed to catch my attention no matter where we were in the house.
“I’m an excellent banker,” Lila said, taking her seat near the paper money. “I’m the most honest person in the room.”
Willow looked around her stack of property cards, no doubt searching for Park Place, and I grinned at my subterfuge. “Didn’t Marcus just find three property cards hidden in your bra?”
“Well,” Lila said, straightening the money. “He shouldn’t have been looking in there.” Marcus’s cheeks darkened, and the rest of the table laughed except Kieran, who had covered his ears, and I took a sip from my beer. My people.
“So,” Marcus said, raising his glass. “I have an announcement.”
“Is it about more things you found in Lila’s bra?” Sybil accepted the fresh drink from her fiancé, who covered his ears.
“Please stop talking about what’s in my little sister’s bra!”
Lila lifted an eyebrow at Marcus and ignored her brother’s theatrics. “Wait until he hears about what you found in my—”
“La, la, la,” Kieran sang loudly, and I noticed Willow’s grin widen at the playfulness of the group.
“I promise this isn’t sexual,” Marcus said above the laughter. “But Lila and I have decided to move in together.” Cheers went up from around the table, and I clapped Marcus on the back, happy for the guy.
Lila beamed. “The call I just got was our new landlord confirming we got the apartment. He’s coming to Chicago with me!
” Another round of cheers and surprise went up from around the table, but those words hit me unexpectedly in the chest. Marcus wasn’t just moving out, he was moving away.
Chicago wasn’t far, but it might as well have been on another continent.
“Wow,” I finally said, too late, and I caught Willow’s questioning expression from my peripheral vision. “Wow. Congrats, man!” I clapped him on the back again, even as my head swam with the news and trying to picture what this place would be like without him.
“I guess now’s as good a time as any to share my news,” Emi said, standing to be heard over all the conversation. “I quit my job!”
This time my cheer was right on time. She hated that engineering job, and the guys she worked with were sexist assholes. “All right! Awesome!”
“I’ve always wanted to get back into watch design, and there’s a chance to take this really stellar course with the top designers in the world, so I put in my notice. Time to take a chance.”
I stood and wrapped an arm around Emi’s shoulder.
“So proud of you,” I said, dropping a kiss to the side of her head.
She had told me designing watches was her dream.
She had photos of gears and sketches of her own designs all over her room, but it was a hard field to break into and a competitive industry.
Not to mention the best programs were in Europe, but post-pandemic, I guess they’d expanded to online courses.
I hugged her close and caught Willow’s thoughtful expression across the table.
I wondered if she’d been thinking about what she dreamed of doing next.
This whole list thing seemed like what she thought she had to do before she moved on with her life.
Her cheeks pinked under my gaze, and I winked at her.
I had a renewed energy to help her finish her list. Who knew?
Maybe she’d stay around awhile, even after Cruz returned.
Marcus was leaving, but with her around, it would still feel like home, like family, until I could get back to my PJ family.
“It’s exciting,” Emi said, tapping her bottle to Sybil, who had wrapped her in a hug from the other side. “I can’t believe I leave for a year in Switzerland in one month.”