Book Five Teaser #2
He studies it for a second, because he’s an asshole. “Little uneven on the left.”
“I like character.”
Ryan looks at me.
I look at Ryan. Then he smiles.
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Your fucking face did.”
His smile gets worse.
I point toward the steps. “Go wait for your pregnant girlfriend like a golden retriever outside a grocery store.”
Ryan glances toward the house and, instead of being insulted like a normal person, smiles like the pathetic asshole he has become. “Yeah.”
Fuck. Ally ruined him. Or fixed him. Probably both.
Before I can decide, the back door cracks open. Every guy in the yard moves. Kaid stops pacing. X shoves his phone into his pocket. Danny puts his plate down. Ryan turns fully toward the steps.
I straighten.
Katie makes a delighted little noise beside me. “Oh my God.”
“What?”
“You all just did the same thing.”
“No, we didn’t.”
“You absolutely did.”
“I adjusted my jacket.”
“You took a step forward.”
The door opens wider. Tobias comes flying through it.
Kaid mutters, “Fuck.”
False alarm.
Tobias stops in the middle of the patio and looks around at all of us. His hair is actually combed for once, he’s wearing little dress pants and a button-down Cassandra probably had to threaten him into, and the second his eyes land on Ryan, his grin turns evil.
Oh, no.
Ryan takes the bait immediately. “Are they coming?”
Tobias thinks about it. Slowly. The little shit knows exactly what he’s doing.
“My Ally is.”
“When?” Another thoughtful pause. “Tobias.”
“My Ryan.”
“You’re killing me.”
“I know.”
Walter starts laughing. Tobias runs straight toward him, and Walter catches him easily when he launches himself up. “My Walter!”
Walter grins. “Don’t torture Ryan too much.”
“Why?”
Walter considers that. “Actually, good question.”
Cassandra tells Walter to stop encouraging him at the exact moment the door opens again.
This time, it’s the girls. All five of them.
They come out together in a mess of fabric, hair, complaints, and somebody telling Becca to stop stepping on her train. For half a second, the entire backyard changes. Conversations cut off. Phones come up. Every mother in a twenty-foot radius makes some version of the same sound.
And beside me, four of my best friends completely lose their fucking minds.
Penny is in yellow, pale and bright against the blue and teal threaded through her blonde hair, the fitted top of her dress giving way to layers of ruffled fabric that move around her legs as she walks.
X goes still beside me, staring at her with the kind of expression that should probably embarrass him more than it does.
“Holy shit,” he says quietly.
Penny hears him. Of course she does. Her whole face lights up when she finds him, and she immediately lifts the front of her skirt to walk faster.
Alice calls, “Penelope, wait! Let me get one before you ruin your lipstick.”
Penny doesn’t even slow down. “You have pictures!”
“Not enough.”
“Mama MacHale,” X calls as he heads toward Penny, “I promise to return her in approximately the same condition.”
Gideon looks at him. “That sentence somehow made this worse.”
X grins, reaches Penny, and slides an arm around her waist. Penny barely gets out a laugh before he kisses her.
Alice takes the picture anyway. “Perfect.”
“Mom!”
“What?” Alice lowers her phone. “It’s cute.”
X looks over Penny’s shoulder. “Send me that one.”
“You are the problem,” Penny tells him, but she’s smiling when she says it.
“Your problem.”
“Unfortunately.” She grabs the front of his jacket and kisses him again.
Gideon sighs. “Both of you, pictures first.”
“Yes, Dad,” Penny and X say at the exact same time.
Alice reaches up when X passes and fixes his bow tie with the same absent little movement she uses on Penny’s hair. “Thanks, Mama MacHale.”
“You’re welcome. Now behave.”
“No.”
“I tried.”
Then Cat steps fully into view beside Penny. Black. Sparkling. Fitted so closely through her body that I know immediately Kaid is going to be a fucking nightmare. The slit up one leg does not help.
Kaid stops moving. Cat sees him staring and smiles. Not sweetly. That girl has never done anything sweetly in her life when Kaiden Monaghan is involved.
“Oh, this is going to go badly,” I murmur.
Katie follows my gaze. “For who?”
“Everybody.”
Kaid starts toward Cat before she’s even reached the bottom step.
Thomas notices. “Kaiden.”
“I’m walking.”
Cat reaches the lawn, and Kaid’s hand goes around her waist before immediately sliding down to her ass. Thomas closes his eyes. Callum laughs harder. Saoirse doesn’t even bother pretending surprise.
Fiona, standing a little behind Thomas, lowers her phone. “Kaiden.”
He looks at her with an expression of perfect innocence. “What?”
“Could you give us thirty seconds before you wrinkle her dress?”
Cat glances over her shoulder. “Mom, if he wrinkles this dress, I’m killing him.”
Fiona’s mouth curves. “I’ll help.”
Cat smiles back at her. It’s small. Easy enough that I almost miss the significance of it because Kaid chooses that exact second to bend and whisper something in Cat’s ear.
Almost.
Thomas sees it too. He doesn’t react. Doesn’t look at Fiona or make it bigger than it is. He simply holds out his hand toward her. “Phone?”
Fiona passes it over. “Get the back too.”
“Before Kaiden destroys it?”
“Preferably.”
Cat groans. “You two know I’m standing right here, right?”
“Unfortunately,” Thomas says.
Fiona laughs. Cat does too. There’s still something careful beneath it. There probably will be for a while. But it isn’t brittle anymore.
Becca comes down the steps next in champagne satin, and Danny goes completely silent. That gets my attention. I look at him. Nothing. No joke. No obscenity. No stupid fucking grin. Concerning.
“You having a stroke?” I ask.
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Should I get Darla?”
“Iz.”
Becca sees him. Smiles.
And whatever temporary brain damage took Danny out resolves itself. “Holy fucking tits.”
There he is.
Louise smacks him. “Daniel.”
“What?” Danny rubs the back of his head. “You fucking made her dress.”
Becca is laughing so hard she nearly walks into Cat. “Romance isn’t dead.”
“You look fucking incredible.”
“Better.”
Danny reaches her, grabs her around the waist, and immediately gets both hands on her ass.
“Daniel,” Clifford says.
“What?”
“There are twenty parents standing here.”
Danny looks around. “That’s actually worse for them than it is for me.”
Becca hooks her arms around his neck. “He’s got a point.”
Theodore takes off his glasses.
Danny sees him. “Oh, shit.”
Becca grins. “Now you’re worried?”
“I’m rebuilding a relationship with your father.”
Becca stares at him. “You’re rebuilding a relationship with my father?”
“We’re making progress.”
Theodore puts his glasses back on. “We are not.”
Katya starts laughing. Delilah nearly folds in half.
Danny looks genuinely wounded. “That feels unnecessarily hurtful.”
“Move your hands.”
Danny considers it. Becca looks over her shoulder at her father, then deliberately presses herself closer to Danny.
His eyes close. “Becs.”
“What?”
“You’re an asshole.”
“You grabbed my ass in front of my father.”
“We share a fucking bedroom.”
“That is wildly not the point.”
“Feels relevant.”
She does it again. Danny catches her hips. “Do that one more fucking time.”
Delilah immediately says, “Do it.”
Danny looks at his sister. “Whose side are you on?”
“Entertainment.”
Becca does it again. Danny bends into her neck, and Becca’s laugh turns into a yelp. “Did you fucking bite me?”
“You were warned.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“You started it.”
“I stood near you.”
“You were grinding on me.”
Danny freezes. Becca stares at him. Delilah makes a sound like she’s dying. Louise closes her eyes. Clifford looks toward the sky. Katya turns into Theodore’s shoulder because she’s laughing too hard to hide it. Theodore just looks at Danny.
Danny straightens. “Mister Carney.”
“Daniel.”
“Great weather.”
I fucking lose it. So does Dad.
Becca smacks Danny in the chest. “Why are you like this?”
“You picked me.”
“I was young and vulnerable.”
“It was last year.”
“I’ve grown.”
“Debatable.”
She shoves him again. Danny catches her around the waist and kisses the side of her neck, and just like that, Becca’s argument disappears. For approximately two seconds.
Then she elbows him. “Not in front of my father.”
Theodore laughs. Actually laughs.
Danny looks betrayed. “Et tu, Theodore?”
“Don’t call me Theodore.”
“Yes, sir.”
Ally is laughing too when she comes down beside Becca, one hand beneath the curve of her stomach. And Ryan changes. It’s subtle if you don’t know him.
The dark blue dress looks like somebody cut a piece out of the night sky and wrapped Ally in it, tiny points of light scattered over the fabric as it falls around her.
Her red hair is down, her freckles are uncovered, and for the first time since all of this started, there is absolutely no hiding what the rest of us have known for months.
The curve of her stomach is there. Ryan’s baby. Visible. Safe. No oversized blazer. No strategic angle. No wondering who noticed. Just Ally.
Tobias runs. “My Ally!”
He launches himself out of Walter’s arms and runs for her.
Ally barely has time to brace before he reaches her. “Hi, baby.”
Tobias looks up at her, then at the dress, then at her stomach. “You look like stars.”
Something moves across Ally’s face. Cassandra makes a tiny sound behind us. Ryan finally moves.
He doesn’t rush. That isn’t Ryan. He walks toward her slowly, eyes moving over her face, her dress, the baby, then back to her face like he can’t decide where to look first.
Ally smiles when he reaches her. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
“You’re staring.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re supposed to say something.”
“I had something.”
“What happened to it?”
Ryan’s hand settles over her stomach. His expression softens. “Forgot.”
Ally laughs. Then he kisses her. Not the polite kiss you give your girlfriend while twenty parents take prom pictures. Ryan slides his other arm around her waist and kisses her like the twenty parents, Delilah, Tobias, and the rest of us have ceased to exist.