Chapter 24
Edie
Coffee was still brewing when Edie made it back down the stairs, so she stopped in the kitchen and poured herself a cup without bothering to wait for it to finish. Taylor was standing beside the counter, looking nervous but in a way that made it clear she was trying very hard not to look nervous as Edie lifted the mug to her lips and sipped.
“We were worried about you,” Taylor said, her mouth setting the way it did when she was prepared to dig in her heels about something.
“Coffee first. Then we can talk about you four threatening to break down my front door.”
“Technically, we threatened to break a window.”
Edie slowly raised one eyebrow, silently taking pleasure in the way Taylor shifted from one foot to another. “Do you really think that makes it better?”
Clearing her throat, Taylor jerked one shoulder in a nervous shrug. “Maybe.”
“Let me rephrase. Do you think your Daddy would be any less pissed about paying to replace a window than he would a door?”
As if on cue, the front door in question opened then slammed shut again, and a moment later her kitchen was filled with the rest of their group. Edie narrowed her eyes at the hay stuck to Carly’s jeans and, somehow, in Noelle’s hair.
Ginny, as always, still looked flawless. Sometimes Edie wondered if she wasn’t part fae, considering she hardly ever looked mussed unless Rex was around. It just didn’t seem natural for her to always look so perfect.
Still sipping her coffee, Edie pinned them with the same stare she’d been giving Taylor. “I thought I told you to wait in the living room.”
Carly crossed her arms, a look of pure defiance etched into her features. “You also said you hadn’t fed the animals yet. We went and tossed everyone some food and let Luna and the llama out into the pasture. You’re welcome.”
Dammit. She’d completely forgotten after Grant had kissed her brainless. The man was dangerous. “She’s not a llama, she’s an alpaca. But thank you. Now, living room. March.”
It took a fair bit of grumbling, but they eventually all made their way to the living room and settled in what Edie had come to think of as ‘their’ seats. Taylor on the couch, with Noelle and Carly on either side of her, Ginny curled up like a kitten in one of the oversized armchairs, leaving the other open for Edie.
Taking her place, coffee cup cradled in her hands, she let her gaze slowly travel the room. Mostly for the pleasure of watching them all squirm in their seats, which they did. Even Ginny, who wasn’t quite as ‘Little’ as the others and who normally didn’t seem as affected by Edie’s bossy ways shifted in her seat, her cheeks coloring under Edie’s scrutiny.
From the stairs, she heard the low rumble of Grant’s voice and Jesse’s responding whisper. And everything in her positively ached to go to them, to see if they were all right. But she also didn’t want to draw any more attention to Jesse than necessary, so she simply sat and waited a bit longer.
Finally, Grant and Jesse made their way down the stairs, pausing at the bottom. Her eyes locked with Grant’s, and she saw the silent question there. Are you okay?
In response, she jerked her head toward the front door. He waited another moment before nodding slightly and herding their babygirl outside, his body shielding her from view. Edie waited until she heard the clear sound of tires crunching over gravel to finally speak.
“All right. Who wants to tell me what the hell has gotten into the four of you?”
She’d half expected all of them to start talking at once. Instead, there were lots of shared looks and subtle nods, as if they were silently debating who was going to be the one to actually do the speaking.
A problem she was happy to solve herself. “You,” she said, pointing to Ginny. “Speak.”
Ginny sighed, as if accepting her fate, then sat up straighter in her chair. “We were worried about you.”
“Why? Because you hadn’t heard from me in a few hours?”
“Twenty-four hours, Edie!” Obviously fired up now, Ginny leaned forward, anger sparking in her emerald eyes. “A whole fucking day! Which, okay, isn’t that unusual for you but this isn’t a usual situation, either. If one of our exes randomly showed up in town and we went radio silent on everyone, you’d be leading the charge to our house demanding to know what was going on.”
Edie opened her mouth to argue, then almost immediately snapped it shut again.
Because Ginny was right. If it had been Ginny, or Carly, or any of the others—hell, even if it had been Matt or Ian or Rex—in her position, Edie would have been out of her mind with worry.
“You’re right. I’m sorry I worried you for no reason. As you can see, I am clearly unharmed.”
“Physically, anyway,” Carly muttered darkly. “But she’s obviously fucked with your head since you ended up in bed with them.”
“For real.” Arms crossed, face set in a mutinous expression, Noelle glared at her from the couch. “How the hell did that even happen, Edie? I thought you were smarter than that.”
Ouch. Direct hit. Battleship sunk. Fighting the urge to squirm in her seat, Edie shrugged. “It’s… complicated.”
“Isn’t love always a bit complicated?” Taylor asked.
“I suppose there’s some truth to that.” Sighing heavily, Edie sipped at her cooled coffee, as much for the time it bought her as the need for caffeine. “I wish I could tell y’all that I know what I’m doing and everything will be fine. But I can’t. Because at some point, Grant and Jesse are going to go back to their lives in California, and I’ll still be here.”
With a growl of frustration, Noelle threw her hands in the air. “Then why are you doing it? Why do… whatever it is you’re doing, just to get your heart broken again?”
“Because it’s worth it,” Carly answered, her blue-eyed gaze locked on Edie’s. The anger had faded, leaving behind the kind of understanding only her Carly-girl could really muster. “That’s what it comes down to, right? Some things are too beautiful to pass up, even when you know it’s going to hurt you in the end.”
Carly always had been too observant for her own good. But then, she’d lived a lot in her twenty-some years, and she’d had more than her fair share of heartache. Edie swallowed down the lump sitting in her throat. “Yeah. Something like that.”
“I still don’t get it,” Nicole muttered. “She hurt you, Edie. And you just let her waltz back into your life like nothing ever happened. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Well, for starters, I didn’t let her waltz anywhere. Like I said, it’s complicated.”
“Then un-complicate it for us.” Unlike her bestie, Taylor looked more concerned than mad. “Because we were all prepared to go to war for you and now we’re, what? Just supposed to step back and let whatever this is happen? We just want to understand, Edie.”
Edie McDowell wasn’t a woman who was used to explaining herself. And though her instinctive reaction was to brush off their concern, Taylor’s words made her pause.
These were her girls. All it had taken was a word from her, and they’d banded together against someone they saw as a common enemy. That kind of love was as rare as it was powerful, and she owed it to them to honor that love.
“All right,” she said at length. “I’ll do my best to explain.”
She told them everything that had happened from when she’d seen them last. From the fights she’d had with Jesse, to Grant showing up unannounced, even Jesse offering to let Edie punish her for the way she’d left things.
Well. Almost everything. She skimmed on the details of the spanking she’d given Jesse and the aftermath, but she had a feeling they were filling the blanks in just fine judging by the shocked looks being aimed in her direction.
“And then Jesse said she couldn’t leave again without seeing if we could make a relationship between the three of us work and long story short, that’s what you all walked in on this morning. Us ‘trying to make it work’.”
A long, very tense silence met her explanation. Nerves had her worrying she might not keep her coffee down, but she sipped anyway, determined to give the appearance that she wasn’t nearly as stressed about her… situation as she was.
It was Ginny who finally broke the silence. “Well, don’t hold out on us. Did you make it work? And by ‘it’ I mean the sex, obviously.”
Thank god she’d just swallowed or she might have choked on her coffee. “We did make it work, actually. Pretty damn well, in fact.”
Despite the giggles erupting around her, Noelle was still glowering at Edie from her spot on the couch. “So, what? The sex is good and now all is forgiven?”
“No.” Edie shook her head slowly as she searched for the right words. “I can’t say I’ve forgiven Jesse, not completely. And I’d be lying if I said there’s not a part of me that’s worried this is just history repeating itself. But I have to know, Noelle. I have to at least give it a try, so even if it does blow up in my face again, I can at least say I gave it a shot. I’m sorry if that upsets you.”
“It doesn’t upset me.” Noelle rolled her eyes when Edie cocked an eyebrow at her. “Okay, fine, it pisses me off. But only because I don’t like seeing the people I love doing stupid shit that’s going to get them hurt. That’s all.”
“I know. And thank you for loving me enough to be pissed at me.”
That seemed to mollify Noelle a bit, and eventually the conversation shifted to happier things, like Carly’s delayed honeymoon. But when the conversation inevitably came around to Carly’s little bun in the oven, Ginny quietly excused herself.
Rising to her feet, Edie held up her mug. “Going to get some more coffee. Anyone need anything?”
“I should probably drink some water,” Carly said with a heavy sigh. “I’m already on thin ice with Daddy, no need to pile on the naughties.”
“A round of water, coming up.”
She headed to the kitchen by way of the little half bath where she had a feeling Ginny was hiding out. “It’s me,” she said after knocking lightly on the door.
“Come in.”
It was a tight squeeze, but with Ginny sitting on the closed toilet lid, they managed it. “You okay?” Edie asked, closing the door behind them.
“Yeah. Just needed a minute.”
There was a hint of red around her eyes, and her eyeliner was a bit smudged, but other than that Edie doubted anyone would have been able to tell she’d been crying without really looking. “Wanna talk about it?”
Ginny shrugged and sniffled back tears. “I went to the doctor on Monday.”
“Bad news?”
“I don’t know, honestly. She’s pretty sure I have polycystic ovary syndrome, which apparently explains a lot of symptoms I didn’t even know were symptoms. From what she told me, it’s not the worst diagnosis in the world, and it’s fairly common.”
“And she thinks that could be why you haven’t gotten pregnant yet?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. As far as I can tell, the whole fucking thing is a crapshoot.” Anger flashed in Ginny’s eyes. “Start this medication, track your cycles for a few months, take your temperature every morning to see when you might—might—be ovulating, then come back and we’ll talk some more. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll try a new medication. And if that doesn’t work, there’s more tests and more medications until, maybe, something works. Oh, but even if it works, having this condition also means an increased likelihood of miscarriage so even if you can get pregnant that doesn’t mean it’s going to stick.”
As Ginny poured out her frustrations, the ache in Edie’s chest grew. “I’m so sorry, honey.”
“She wants me to try and lose some weight, too. Said it may help the PCOS symptoms and make it easier to conceive. Which, you know, would be fine if my entire career wasn’t built on the premise of being unapologetically fat.”
“So?”
Ginny’s eyes narrowed dangerously, and Edie nearly retreated from the bathroom. While Ginny was normally a pretty happy, bubbly personality, her temper could spike fast and without warning. “So, what the hell am I supposed to tell my followers? I’ve spent years talking about how much I love my body and encouraging people to love theirs just as they are. I’ll feel like the biggest fucking hypocrite, and people will notice if I lose a bunch of weight.”
“Have you thought about just being honest with them?”
The corners of Ginny’s mouth pulled down in a frown. “About the baby stuff?”
“Yes.”
“No. It feels too personal, you know?”
“Yeah, I can see that. But…” She hesitated, uncertain how much she should say. But Ginny wouldn’t have said anything if she hadn’t wanted her opinion. “Part of having a platform like yours is the ability to meet people where they are. And if sharing what you’re going through helps even one of your followers feel less alone, maybe it’s worth it.”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
Sensing that anything else she had to say would just be met with resistance, Edie bent down to give her a hug. “You’ll know what to do when it’s time. You always do.”
“Yeah. I guess. Thanks, Edie.”
She left Ginny to fix herself up and made her way back to the kitchen to refill her coffee cup. While she was there, she snagged a few bottles of water for her girls and headed back to the living room.
Just as she was handing out the water, her phone buzzed. Pulling it out of her pocket before she returned to her seat, she smiled at the text notification from Grant. It was a picture of Jesse, grinning widely with powdered sugar covering half her face.
Grant
Well, this is how my morning is going. How’s yours?
Shaking her head, she tapped out a message in return.
Edie
Good. Y’all can come back whenever you want. I think I can safely promise no bloodshed.
Perfect. We’ll head back as soon as I get the little gremlin here cleaned up.
When she tucked her phone back into her pocket, she looked up to find Noelle watching her. And, for the first time since her girls had invaded, the fierce little brunette smiled.
Maybe things were still destined to blow up in her face. But if they did, she had no doubt her girls would be there to help her pick up the pieces.