Page 46 of Forgiving Her First Love

Nolan’s hookup from last night left when Sophie conscripted him into erecting a tarp over the picnic table and cleaning the barbecue. He agreed to cook, too, even though she was including classic wieners and smokies along with tofu dogs.

She was setting condiments on the picnic table with bags of cut buns, hangover finally receding, when she caught sight of Logan walking toward her with the older children.

Damned if her ovaries didn’t spontaneously burst like dandelions when she saw him carrying Cooper on his back, Imogen and Biyen happily skipping alongside him.

“Hi, Dad. Hi, Mom!” Biyen ran up to hug her waist.

“Hi, bud. Happy birthday.” She smoothed his rooster tail. “Did you have fun last night?”

“Uh-huh. Logan made blueberry pancakes for breakfast. With whip cream. Storm ate so many blueberries, he said her bum will be purple for a week.”

“That sounds about right. Where is Storm?” Sophie forced herself to look at Logan. This was her first face-to-face with him after his apology last night and their disturbing conversation about having more children.

His expression was remote, his attention on Nolan.

“Napping.” He tilted sideways to lower Cooper to the ground. “Emma said to call if you need her help, otherwise she’ll come down with Reid and Delta once Storm wakes up.”

“I think we have everything under control. Do you kids want to put the goody bags together? All the stuff is on the porch. Put the filled bags into the empty box. We need fourteen so don’t eat any of the candy until you’ve filled the bags.”

They all ran to where Gramps had come to sit in his lawn chair behind the rail.

“Fourteen?” Logan repeated with a horrified grimace.

“What can I say? Biyen is an inclusive kid. He invites the whole school. We have a big yard, though, and the shed if it starts to pour. I don’t do many parent things at the school so this is my contribution. Now that the kids are out of school and bored at home, I give them something to do for an afternoon.”

“Do the parents come?”

“A few might.” She shrugged.

“You don’t really hang out with the other parents, do you?” he said with a frown of realization. “Is that because you work so much? You and Quinley were always friends, weren’t you? Her son is Biyen’s age, I thought.”

He didn’t recall that she and Quinley had been rivals for his affections?

“People around here all have something to say about something. I can’t be bothered trying to straighten them out. I keep my distance and they keep theirs.”

“What kinds of things are they talking about?” he asked with suspicion.

“You staying in my house. Nolan staying on my lawn.”

“Oh for fu—” He stopped himself from swearing and glanced at the kids. “Really? Why didn’t you say something?”

“I did,” she assured him with a blithe bat of her lashes. “That’s why they send their kids here without setting foot on my lawn.”

“Oh?” His mouth twitched. “I’m not actually surprised by that. What happened?” He folded his arms, enjoying this, she could tell.

“I might have had a teeny-weeny tantrum at a bake sale my first year back. Not my best day,” she admitted, wrinkling her nose in self-disgust. “I mean, if certain people didn’t have gossip, they wouldn’t have anything at all, right? I should feel sorry for them. Instead, I set fire to a few bridges over a couple of remarks that weren’t untrue, just hypocritical. Hypercritical, in my opinion. Then I paid for the cake I had thrown on the floor and left.”

He was trying to stifle his laughter with his fist. “How have I never heard about this?”

“Because Quinley Banks knows I’m a crazy bitch who will murder a cake if she talks smack about me again.”

“Oh shi—eesh.” His shoulders were shaking.

“The boys play sometimes, but we keep to our corners.”

“And you don’t let her come to his party because you’re worried she’ll retaliate? Throw Biyen’s cake on the grass?”

“I paid a lot for the vegan, T-rex decal that I had to fix myself because they spelled his name wrong. Again.”

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