Page 7 of Breaking News

“Tequila is alcohol, Fin,” Mason explained.

I laughed as I grabbed the gargantuan bottle of tequila from the glass patio table. “Sarah, Owen—do you have shot glasses?”

“How about double shot glasses?” Owen asked, picking up a package of little, clear plastic dessert cups. We’d all just eaten strawberry shortcake out of them, and they were a little large for drinking tequila from.

“Those are more than adequate,” I answered, taking the package of cups from his hands. I poured generously.

Sarah sighed, blowing some loose strands of hair out of her face as she accepted a cup from me. “I think I’m going to indulge tonight, too,” she said, stealing a quick glance at Owen.

“You deserve it after everything you’ve been through,” Kendall said. Her eyes immediately widened like she’d said something she shouldn’t have. And then, lowering her voice, she added, “I mean, with the tornado and everything.”

Back in April, a tornado tore through Woodvale, ripping apart the elementary school gym where Sarah was the principal. I wouldn’t blame her at all for needing a drink. “It’s okay, it’s not a secret,” she told Kendall, likely addressing whatever it was that made her eyes widen just seconds ago. Sarah glanced from me to Meghan as I filled her cup. “I’m not sure if you all have heard,but Owen and I have been trying for a baby,” she said, “and our first round of IVF in March was… well, unsuccessful.”

“Fuck,” Meghan muttered, just as I said, “Oh gosh, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right,” Sarah said, but her half-hearted smile told us it was anything but. “Talking about it helps. Owen’s been opening up about it on his podcast, too. We’re not giving up.”

Mason, who worked for Owen, gave him a couple hard pats on the back.

With everyone’s cup now full—including Finley’s, which brimmed with Sprite—I raised mine to initiate a toast. “Here’s to getting through the hard stuff with the hard stuff,” I said, attempting to lighten the moment. And judging from Sarah’s soft chuckle, that did the trick. I turned to Abigail, giving her a warm smile as I continued. “Whether it’s a break-up or infertility or… being the person who has to edit Xander’s articles now.”

I grinned at my best friend, who rolled her eyes. “I’m glad my suffering isn’t going unnoticed,” Meghan mumbled, to which Xander joked, “Hey, I don’tneedan editor, so you can fuck right off.”

“Language,” Mason reminded.

Owen lifted his cup. “To all of us.” The rest of the group lifted their cups in unison, the pale golden liquor catching the warm glow of the string lights overhead. We collectively tilted our cups back to down our drinks, followed by a round of coughing, grimacing, and laughter. And as I glanced around that backyard, one thought stuck in my mind: I really like these people.

I blinked back tears as I swallowed a gulp of my hard seltzer to wash down the tequila. Pain spread from my lower back to my hip, worsened from the way I tensed up from the ice cube incident. As everyone scattered to find seats on the patio furniture, Xander watched as I pulled the pills from my pocket, preparing to wash them down with the drink in my hand.

“What’s that?”

“Ibuprofen. I’ve got a little bit of back pain,” I said with a half-shrug.

He scooted closer, eyeing the pills. “You might give yourself an ulcer, taking those with alcohol.”

That was a risk I was willing to take. “It’s okay, I’ve done it before.” He looked me in the eyes as I disregarded his advice, taking both pills in one swallow. I often downplayed my random aches and pains with Xander, rarely mentioning them. I didn’t want to sound like a hypochondriac, and this relationship was too new and fresh. He knew me as bright and bubbly Jill, and I didn’t want to ruin that.

Thankfully, he let it go, nodding for me to follow him over to the L-shaped couch on the patio. We joined in a conversation about power-hungry politicians, a topic this group never shied away from. Finley ran circles around us with the Gardners’ golden retriever, Leia, who only half-grasped the concept of fetch. “She doesn’t want you totakethe frisbee, yet she wants to chase it,” Owen was saying as he stoked the fire in the pit at the center of the patio.

“No take, only throw,” Chase said with a laugh.

“We need to get her a dog,” Mason told Kendall, meeting her eyes. “I kind of did promise her a dog when we moved out, but I think she forgot.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll remind her when the time comes,” Kendall replied with a wink. If I recalled correctly, Mason and Finley were all set to move into Kendall’s house in the coming weeks, once her sister moved out. I was just about to ask them how ready they were for the big move when Finley, having successfully yanked the frisbee from the dog’s mouth, flung it right over the tall, wooden fence.

Directly into Graham’s backyard.

“Oops,” she said, covering her mouth with both hands. We all turned as Leia jumped up, her paws scraping the wooden slats of the tall privacy fence. She gave a few determined barks as though that would make the frisbee reappear.

“Is Graham home?” Sarah asked, looking at Owen.

“He said he’d be grading papers tonight, so I think so,” I said. All at once, every head in that backyard turned toward me like I’d just said the most nonsensical thing they could imagine.

“Grading what now?” Xander asked, his hand resting on my knee.

So I wasn’t theonlyperson who had been unaware of Graham’s other job. Before I could explain, Finley and the dog were distracted by a figure appearing at the gate. “Daddy, there’s a man over there,” the girl said, running over to hide behind Mason’s chair.

I sat up a little straighter as Owen unlatched the gate to allow Graham into the backyard. He wore the same clothes as that morning, but he had unbuttoned his pale blue shirt at the top and untucked it at the bottom. A faint shadow of stubble traced his jawline, all peppered with little gray hairs. He held up the frisbee with his thumb and pointer finger. “Someone looking for this?” he asked as the dog cautiously approached him.

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