Page 3 of Lost in You (Flirting with Forever 1)

Sophia passes me the gorgeously wrapped gift that she’d been holding hostage.

“Should I go ahead and open?” I ask as I accept it.

Sophia gives me a warm smile. “Yeah, I think it’s more fun to do one at a

time so we can see what everyone gets. Go on, open it.”

I carefully pull the wrapping paper off to reveal a book sleeve—one Sophia knew I’d been looking at. “Aw, thank you so much.” My gaze wanders over everyone at the table. “I saw this a few weeks ago when Sophia and I were glancing through the new bookstore together.” My gaze lands on Sophia. “You even remembered the exact one I was looking at, too, with all the music notes on it.” I bite my lip and wipe away the hint of a tear from the corner of my eye. “I just love it.”

Sophia tilts her head, studying me. “Aw, come on now, don’t cry. You’ll get us all going.”

I blow out a deep breath and nod, then pull out Piper’s gift. “I had Piper.” With a watery chuckle, I hand it over to her. “Don’t worry, ladies. I don’t think she’s going to cry over this one.”

Piper wrinkles her nose as she starts unwrapping. “Thank goodness. I couldn’t handle it if we all got sappy.” She pulls a T-shirt from the gift box. “Oh!”

Zoey leans closer to read as Piper holds it up in front of the two of them. “‘Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.’”

Zoey frowns and looks at me and then Piper. “What’s that all about?”

I smile. “It’s a—

“Quote from The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,” Piper finishes, gasping, and drops the T-shirt into her lap. She puts her hands over her mouth to keep herself from squealing. “Madi, it’s so perfect. Thank you.”

“I know how you love your Sherlock. I couldn’t resist getting it for you when I saw it, my genius friend.” I wink at her, feeling a little bit better. Piper is about the smartest person I know. That English department would do well with her at the helm, so I hope everything works out for her after her earlier outburst.

Piper pulls a gift bag out that she’d stowed under the table and hands it to Zoey. “For you, my lovely.”

Zoey’s eyes light up. “I love that we did this, you guys.” With that, she digs into the bag, pulling out a wood-framed sign. “Oh my gosh.” She pauses to swallow. “It says, ‘You’re in a safe place to spill the tea.’”

Piper nods. “I figured it would be great for your office, Zoey.” Then on a chuckle, she says, “Maybe we should have gotten it out earlier so we didn’t have to pry Madison’s problem out of her.” Her gaze slides to me and she winks.

With a giggle, Zoey holds it against her chest for a second, all smiles, before she carefully puts it back in the bag. “Thank you so much, Piper. It’s just what my office needed.” She takes a second to wrap an arm around Piper, giving her a hug before scrambling out of the booth to pick up the huge box she’d brought in. “This one’s for Quinn.” She wrinkles her nose as we have to make room on the table for the box.

Curiously, it’s very lightweight.

Quinn pulls the wrapping paper off, then pokes around for a minute through Styrofoam pieces. “Hang on, there’s another box.” Lips twitching with laughter, she pulls out another wrapped box. “Well, at least we can take the big box off the table.” She opens it, finds another wrapped box inside of that one, repeat. She eyes Zoey carefully. “Is the real gift the laugh you’re having over there?”

Zoey can’t contain herself. “My mom used to do this for me at Christmas to make it more fun. Sorry,” she giggles, “I think the gift is in that one.”

Quinn pulls it open to find a mug and a gift card to our local coffee shop inside. She smirks as she reads the saying on the side. “‘Science doesn’t care what you believe.’” Snorting with laughter, she exclaims, “Too funny. Okay, all that unwrapping was worth it. Thank you, Zoey.”

“You’re welcome.”

Quinn passes a bag over to Hadleigh. “For our resident naughty girl.”

“Uh-oh. Now I’m scared. You all trusted Quinn with my gift?” Hadleigh looks at all of us, an expression of mock-fear in her eyes.

I can’t help but laugh. “None of us knew who had whom. Luck of the draw, girlfriend.”

“Right. Here goes nothing.” Hadleigh quickly pulls a book out of the bag and flips it over to take a look at the title. “Oh. My. God. So funny.” She turns it around for everyone else to see. “Bad Girls through History.” She giggles. “So perfect for me in so many ways. Thank you.”

Quinn snorts. “Wait until you read some of that. Definitely don’t use it in your world history class.”

Hadleigh grins wickedly. “I can’t wait to look through it.” She winks at Quinn, then pins her gaze on Sophia. “Okay, one last gift. Obviously, I had Sophia.” She hands her a small gift bag, and covers her mouth with her hand. I can see out of the corner of my eye that she’s already trying not to laugh.

Piper’s eyes meet mine across the table and she mouths, “Do you know what’s in there?”

I shake my head with a quick shrug. I really don’t, but knowing Hadleigh, it’ll be good.

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