Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
ADELE
Crushes & card nights
Within minutes, we were walking into the house. Greetings circulated around us and I ended up seated at the kitchen table, almost overwhelmed by the friendly ease among everyone here.
Unprompted, Elsa picked up the loose thread of our conversation from the car. “It’s true Cole has always been a flirt, even when he was a little kid. Haven said it only got worse in high school.”
“So, I think he’s just flirting with me,” I added, latching on to that, as if to convince myself.
Chloe whacked me lightly on the shoulder. “Nope. Cole has a crush on you. I know a crush when I see one.”
“Watch out!” Lucy called.
Jasmine was walking across the kitchen, her eyes dipping down just in time to deftly dodge the hamster scampering across the floor.
“Buttons is looking good,” Jasmine commented.
“He’s chubby,” Lucy replied with a smile.
“How do you know if a hamster is chubby?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“Based on my experience with two hamsters, Buttons is chubby compared to Ham,” Lucy explained, rolling her eyes before leaning down and scooping up the hamster in question.
She lightly scratched along his back, and he seemed pretty pleased about it. “When I met Levi, he had a hamster named Ham that ran loose in the house. So now every hamster has to run loose in the house. It’s apparently a rule. I always worry someone’s going to step on him.”
“He’s adorable,” I said, watching the white hamster with big brown splotches scamper around after she set him back down on the floor.
“I’ve never had a pet,” I admitted.
“No?” Jasmine prompted.
I shook my head and looked around the group. “I, uh, had medical stuff growing up, and I was gone a lot. So my parents said we couldn’t have a pet because nobody had time to take care of it. If we had ever had the imaginary hypothetical pet.”
“Oh. Is everything okay now?” Lucy asked, her brow furrowing with worry.
“Oh, yeah. All good.”
“She had major heart surgery more than once,” Chloe chimed in with a practical nod. “It’s a big deal and she’s a badass.”
Lucy’s eyes widened. “Are you okay?”
I nodded firmly. When you grew up dealing with medical issues, there was a line to walk where you couldn’t ignore them, but you tried to make them seem small. I still did that. “I’m good now. I just get regular checkups to make sure everything stays good.”
“And you lead hikes? On mountains?” Lucy blinked.
“Yeah. My heart is fine. Honestly, I always joke with people that I’ll probably be the least likely person to have heart issues again, because I’m constantly getting checked. The leading cause of cardiac death is someone’s first heart attack they didn’t even know was coming,” I added with a shrug.
Jasmine leaned back in her chair. “That’s an upside to medical issues, I guess. I have pretty severe asthma, so I know when you regularly see a doctor, it keeps things from slipping by.”
“What do you mean, major asthma?” Chloe asked.
“I mean possibility-of-asphyxiation asthma attacks,” Jasmine replied bluntly.
Chloe’s eyes went wide. “Seriously?” she sputtered.
Jasmine shrugged. “Yes. I’m fine. I always have my inhaler, but I do have to stay on top of it.”
“Holy wow,” Chloe replied.
Just then, someone else came walking through the door. At this point, there were over ten women here, and I was starting to lose track of names.
I glanced around the room, silently clocking the people whose names I already knew—Lucy, Jasmine, Chloe, Elsa, Susanna, Tiffany, Kendall, Madison.
A few minutes later, Elsa passed me a paper plate and nudged the tray of appetizers in my direction. “Eat,” she ordered.
Maisie, who I had just met, sat down across from me, her brown curls bouncing. “How often do you do this?” I asked.
Tish, who I had also just met, grinned at me from across the table. “Usually once a month. You look like what I probably looked like the first time I came.”
“Oh, you’re not an old hand at this?” I teased dryly.
She laughed softly, shaking her head. “I moved here about two years ago, and I love it. This area is so pretty.”
“Is there any part of Alaska that isn’t beautiful?” Chloe chimed in.
“Have you traveled around Alaska much?” I couldn’t help but ask.
Chloe rolled her eyes. “No, but I’ve looked at all the pictures.”
I snorted a laugh, as Lucy gestured toward the tray of appetizers. “Eat, and tell us your life story.”
Maisie nodded in agreement. “Yes, we need the scoop.”
As the evening rolled along, I began to feel like I had a gang of best friends, and I’d never really had a best friend before.
Somehow this, to be perfectly honest, motley crew of women—each so different—made me feel like it was okay to be exactly who I was.
I even surprised myself by being more open about my health growing up when questions came up around it.
I was an expert at skimming over those details.
As if maybe I could convince myself I had nothing to ever worry about again, if only others realized it was the metaphorical equivalent of a paper cut.
“So basically, you want to prove you’re a badass,” Lucy said.
“Well, I don’t want to prove anything,” I replied.
She shrugged. “I do.”
Amelia, who was seated beside her, laughed. They were near opposites. Amelia was tall and leggy, Lucy tiny and petite, almost like a fairy. Although Lucy’s attitude definitely belied her size.
“I’ve always been the one people want to pat on the head. No, thank you,” Lucy said tartly.
“Does Levi ever pat you on the head?” Tish asked with a sly grin.
“Oh God, no. He knows I’d kick his ass.”
I snorted a laugh at that. “Okay, I don’t think I’ve met Levi.”
“He’s a hotshot firefighter. All big and strong,” Amelia said.
“If you didn’t notice it yet, you’ll learn there’s a surplus of hotshot firefighters here,” Chloe added.
“Cole’s one,” Elsa offered helpfully.
Instantly, all eyes turned to me. My cheeks flamed hot.
“Why are you pointing that out?” I asked, not realizing that I’d just opened the door to a swarm of curious questions.
“Cole likes her,” Chloe said, also very helpfully.
“I don’t think Cole likes me,” I said, trying to sound casual.
“He does,” Elsa said, her nod bordering on vigorous.
“Those Silver boys,” someone else chimed in.
“Not the first time I’ve heard them called that,” I offered.
“Well, it is their last name,” Chloe pointed out in a perfectly dry tone.
I looked around the table. “Okay, so everybody here knows them?”
“Most of us grew up with them,” Amelia offered, with an eye roll. “They’re great guys. All of them.”
“And handsome,” Maisie added.
“Anyway, enough about Cole,” I said.
“Well, Cole might have a crush on you, but you sure don’t want to talk about him,” someone teased.
My cheeks were burning hot as I looked around the table. Finally, feeling a little helpless, I said, “I don’t have… I don’t do relationships.”
“Fair point,” Chloe replied. “I can understand that.”
“Well,” Lucy said, lifting her wine glass with a brow waggle, “be careful out there then. You’re at your own risk.”