Page 232 of Castleton Hearts Boxed Set

“Let him love you,” I said, and everyone went quiet. “Loving him is easy but letting someone love you can be hard. Let him love you.”

“That’s beautiful, thanks Charli,” Linley said.

“Have you tried pegging?” Em asked, and everyone stared at her. “What? A lot of people are into that.”

“No comment,” Linley said, but her face was so red, that was enough of an answer.

“Have we moved on to the sex-tips part of the advice?” Paige asked. “Because I’ve got those.”

The serious advice was over and now it was time to embarrass the hell out of Linley, as we should.

* * *

It was the perfect bachelorette. Granted, it was the only one I’d ever been to, but it was still the best as far as I was concerned.

The rest of Sunday was chill, Natalie and Em hanging out in our apartment with me, nursing our hangovers with double cheese quesadillas and trying to drink as much water as possible while we lounged on the couch and watched movies.

“I think I can finally move,” Natalie announced that evening. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt that awful before.”

“But it was totally worth it, right Nat?” Em asked, pushing Natalie’s hair out of her face. She’d tried to put it up earlier and the curls were doing their best to escape the hair elastic she’d used.

“Linley’s wedding coordinator seems cool,” Natalie said, standing up with a wince.

I sat up.

“Yeah, I can’t believe we haven’t really seen her around before now. She must just work a lot,” Em said, taking our plates to the kitchen to put them in the dishwasher. Em didn’t have a dishwasher in her cabin, so she was always excited to use ours. I wouldn’t be surprised one day if she came over with a box of dirty dishes.

“We should see if she’d like to hang out with us,” Natalie said. “She’s probably lost being in a new place. You know what that’s like, Charli.”

I jumped at the mention of my name.

“I don’t know. She seems like kind of a loner,” I said. “Not that I know her or anything, that’s just the vibe I got.”

I was babbling.

“It’s easy to be a loner when it’s hard to make friends. I’ll stop in at her work and see if she might want to meet us for dinner or something,” Em said. “All she has to do is say no, and then that will be that. But maybe she’s sitting around and waiting for someone to reach out.”

I pressed my lips together so I didn’t say anything.

I couldn’t talk about Alivia without giving myself away.

“Sure,” I said, and was relieved when the topic of conversation changed to Natalie really wanting a shower and Em asking if she could join her. I went back to the couch.

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