Page 72 of All Along

Lily sighs. “Children. Can we not fight today?”

Sophia points at Weston. “He started it.”

Lily slashes her hand in the air. “I don’t care who started it. It ends now. This is a family gathering and we have a new family member. Let’s be on our best behavior.”

Chloe barks out a laugh. “Caleb knows us. We went to high school with him.”

Caleb groans. “Don’t remind me. I still haven’t recovered from the time the five of you decided to streak across the gym at a pep rally while the cheerleaders were doing their routine.”

Nova scowls. “They shouldn’t have tried to ban us from cheerleading for life.”

“They didn’t ban me,” Paisley declares. “They bannedyouafter the incident.”

Nova rolls her eyes. “The ‘incident’. You make it sound as if people died.”

“There were broken bones,” Paisley says.

Nova glares at her. “Don’t be mean just because Eli has your panties in a twist.”

Paisley growls. “My panties are not in a twist over some jerk from high school.”

Lily throws her hands in the air. “I give up. You’re all heathens. I tried my best.” She shackles my wrist. “Come help me in the kitchen.”

I allow her to lead me into the house but glance over my shoulder at Caleb.You okay?

He lifts his chin in response.

“Holy smugglers,” I mutter when we reach the kitchen and I notice the amount of food on the counters. “How many people are you expecting?”

“With all of my girls falling in love, I have more men to feed.”

Her girls? Lily only has one daughter – Sophia. “Your girls?”

She rolls her eyes. “Sophia, Chloe, Nova, and now you.”

Oh.

“You do realize I consider you one of my own, don’t you?”

“Sure,” I lie.

She sighs but doesn’t call me on my lie. “How are you doing after the grocery store incident?”

I groan. “Does everyone know what happened?”

“It’s Smuggler’s Hideaway.”

In other words, yes, everyone knows.

“I’ve waited years for you to come talk to me about your parents.”

My nose wrinkles. “You have?”

She grasps my hands and squeezes. “Yes, darling girl. I wanted to be there for you, but I didn’t want to pressure you. I’m afraid I was wrong. I should have pressured you.”

I’m confused. Don’t get me wrong. Sophia’s mom has always been supportive. She was the mom of our friend group who always had cookies ready for us after school. And, when we got older, she let us hang out in the basement.

It was in her very basement where I tried moonshine for the very first time. She was also the one who held my hair while I threw moonshine up for the very first time. And she helped me when I had my first period. When I…

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