Page 7 of Stay for Forever

Lilac consults her watch. “Can we hurry this discussion along? I have an early morning meeting I can’t be late for.” Lilac is an environmental engineer, but you’d think she was a doctor making life and death decisions with how seriously she takes her work.

“Can’t be late because the person you’re meeting is hot?” Ashlyn asks.

Ellery laughs. “Are you joking? This is Lilac we’re talking about. She wouldn’t know a hot guy if he hit her in the face.”

“Hit me in the face? Why would anyone hit me in the face?” Lilac asks, but I notice her cheeks are pink.

Please don’t tell me she’s in love now, too. I’m going to be the crazy cat lady in the family. I glance down at the dogs in my lap. Amendment. The crazy dog lady.

Aspen claps to get our attention, and Bark Twain and Indiana Bones yip at her. I pet them until they calm down.

“Can we get to the point now?” She phrases her words as a question, but there’s no doubt in my mind it’s a demand.

“What is the point?” I ask as if I don’t know.

She throws her hands in the air. “How the hell did we not know you’re having an affair with a freaking movie star?”

“One, I’m not having an affair with him.” Nope. That ship has sailed.

Ellery snorts. “Who do you think you’re fooling? Maverick Langston showed up at my engagement party and said – and I quote here – I want you. You want me. It’s time to figure out where this can go.”

“Can we stop swooning over the ‘movie star’?” Ashlyn responds before I have a chance. “He’s not the only famous person in the world you know. I am married to a former football player who has a Super Bowl ring.”

I ignore her to confront Ellery. “How the hell do you know what he said to me? You were still in the house when he arrived.”

She blushes and dips her chin to avoid my gaze.

I wag my finger at her. “Nuh-uh. No way. You’re not ignoring me now. Tell me or I’ll puppy nap Honey.”

Honey is the puppy I gave Ellery at her baby shower. Everyone thought the gift was ‘inappropriate’, but who did she turn to when she thought Cole had left her? You got it. Her adorable puppy. And seriously, what did anyone expect me to gift her? I don’t have the first clue what a pregnant woman needs or wants.

She gasps. “You wouldn’t dare.”

I cock my eyebrow. “Try me.”

“Sage told me,” she mutters.

My eyes widen. “The same Sage who said she’d give me space to talk to Mav?”

Sage is the bane of my existence. If she weren’t a million years old, I’d teach her a lesson I refer to as ‘these cookies were made with puppy chow and not oats’. That’d show her.

“She calls him Mav,” is Ashlyn’s bizarre response. “They’re totally bumping uglies.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “We are not bumping uglies.”

“Doing the horizontal tango, going to bone town, getting a hole in one… whatever you want to call it.”

I wouldn’t call it any of those things because, unlike my baby sister, I’m not a permanent member of crazy town.

“How can I say this in a way you can understand? Maverick Langston and I are not involved.” I speak slowly and enunciate every syllable.

“I understand perfectly.” Lilac stands. “Are we finished with whatever this is? I need to get at least seven hours of sleep. I prefer eight, obviously, as eight hours of sleep is the optimum to maintain good health.”

Ashlyn groans. “Someone save me from a lecture from Ms. Know It All about proper sleeping etiquette.”

Ellery tries to stand. “A lecture on sleep etiquette is better than a gazillion lectures on what I can and cannot eat and what I can and cannot do.”

Lilac frowns as she extends her hand to help the very pregnant Ellery stand. “You do know ‘gazillion’ is not an actual measurement, don’t you?”

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