Page 116 of So Steady

Nicole screamed her frustration. “Stop talking about me like I’m not here!”

“You look like Bella,” Tabby shouted. “Your life is Twilight!”

Nicole could hear her running down the hallway, Sam and the puppies in hot pursuit. They sounded like the stampede that killed Mufasa. She ran to the door and held it closed. “Don’t come in here—”

Both her sisters burst into the room, pulling her away from the door and crash-tackling her back onto her bed.

“Get off,” she screamed as the puppies jumped up to join them, stepping on her hair and arms and faces.

Tabby bit her arm. “You loved Jacob. You loved Jacob and now you love Noah. Your life isTwilight,nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, naaaah.”

“Bella ends up…with…Edward,” Nicole panted, trying and failing to extract herself from her sisters or the mounds of puppy flesh.

“Yeah, but he’s not what you wanted,” Sam said, digging her long fingers into her side. “You wanted Bella to marry Jacob and now you’re the Bella!”

“You just said Bella is a lady-drip!”

“Yeah, but you’re fine.”

She glared at her twin. “Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

“I can’t believe how synchronistic this is,” Tabby said, raising Lilah high in the air. “Noah’s in a gang like Jacob, he has tattoos and a motorbike like Jacob. And he abs, at least that’s what it felt like when I gave him a hug. What is his actual muscle situation? He cut?”

Nicole shoved her sister away with such force, she managed to get her away from her. “Stop it! Noah and I aren’t a couple, we haven’t been on a date, nothing between us has been sorted out.”

“Yet,” Sam and Tabby said at once.

“Yet,” she agreed. “But it might not.”

“But it might,” Tabby said. “I have faith in the universe.”

So do I, Nicole thought, then she punched her little sister on the shoulder. “I do not look like Bella.”

“It’s a compliment, Kristen Stewart’s banging!”

Sam knelt up, looking out of the bedroom window. “Yeah, so I think the universe is doing its thing ahead of schedule.”

“Why? What can you see?” Nicole asked.

Sam smiled. “Come look.”

She stood and saw a guy on a motorbike parked by the curb, his heavy arms were flexed, his shaved head bent against the sun. Her heart squeezed tight, sending bright flutters down her body. “Did you know he was coming?”

“No, but he’s here.”

Tabby appeared at her elbow. “And he’s not even wearing a helmet. So badass.”

“It’s not safe.”

“Fuck safety. Go down there.”

Nicole chewed her lip. “Do you think I should?”

Sam and Tabby nodded.

“But I’m not dressed! I didn’t want to jinx seeing Noah by wearing nice clothes, but now he’s here and I’m in my pajamas!”

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