Page 55 of Carry Me Home
“Do you?” Chloe laughed. “I’ve lost all sense of time since he was born. Has it been forever or just a day? No one knows. Much as I love him, I’ve felt like I’m just an extension of him, like an extra arm or a leg.”
“Or a boob,” Essie suggested. She was flanked by Hannah on one side and James on the other.
“Definitely a boob,” Chloe agreed. “That’s all he wants, really, to eat and cuddle. It’s nice to get out and feel like a full human being for a minute. I’m my own person again. Anyway, Steven practically shoved me out the door. Said it would be good for me. I think he just wants Grayson all to himself.”
“They’re so cute together. Gray has that man wrapped around his little finger.” James sipped her beer and shook her head in disbelief. “Sometimes I still can’t believe that it’sStevenwe’re talking about.”
“You know what? I’m not all that surprised.” I pushed Chloe’s margarita to her. “He came to the bar one night last November, and it was the funniest thing. He was obsessed with your shoes. And flowers. Mostly, I think, he was just obsessed withyou.” I gave her a teasing grin.
With a happy hum, Chloe pulled the tumbler closer to her and took a sip. “Mmm. Delicious.” She licked the salt from her lips. “Was that the night Jack was here? Apparently he gave Steven some advice. It worked…for about a week.” Her lips quirked in a self-satisfied smirk.
Essie looked up from her wine. “Jack was here? In November?”
Oh,shit. She still didn’t know about that. I squinted at the ceiling like I was trying to remember. “Um, well, I don’t…hmm.”
“He was definitely here. There was a snowstorm that night, remember?” Chloe said.
I picked at my cuticle. “Was he? Hm.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Essie said slowly. “Jack was only here for, like, twenty-four hours in November before he bailed on us for Wyoming and Mom didn’t let him out of her sight for one single second except when he was sleeping or pissing.”
Hannah made a disgusted face. “Ew, Essie.”
Essie rolled her eyes. “Everyone pees, Hannah. I’m just saying. Jack couldn’t have been here.”
Chloe furrowed her brow. “Am I losing my mind? I swear it happened. It was a Friday night. I’m sure of it.”
“But Jack got here on a Saturday and left on Sunday,” Essie argued.
The suspense was killing me. Any second now they were going to figure it out.
Any.
Second.
Now.
Four pairs of suspicious eyeballs latched onto my guilty face.
And there it was.
A hot flush crept up my neck. My cheeks prickled. “It was a snowstorm,” I said feebly. “What else were we going to do in a snowstorm?”
“That’s valid.” James bobbed her head. “It’s like, what else were we going to do when the hotel only had one bed because the rodeo was in town? Sex happens.” She grinned at me in solidarity even as she gave Essie a sympathetic pat on her back.
Essie dropped her face in her hands. “Noooo.”
“Isn’t Brax Jack’s best friend?” Hannah pushed her glasses up her nose and stared at Essie. “You can’t complain when he has snowstorm sex with your best friend when you have all kinds of sex with his.”
“I can complain,” Essie muttered. “He said he was going to sleep with one of my friends to get back at me, and I told him not to fuck with single moms.”
“In his defense, all your other friends were taken,” Chloe said soothingly. She took another slurp of her margarita.
“And he didn’t know I was a single mom,” I defended.And he wasn’t fucking with me.
Essie huffed in disapproval. “Well, he knows now. He’s yourmanny, for fuck’s sake.”
“Well, now we’re not fucking at all,” I said flatly. “So it’s fine.”
