Page 46 of The B!tch List

“Damn it,” I muttered to myself. Now I was mad at him again. “Stupid asshole.”

“What are you talking about?” Lily asked as she thumbed through the magazine she’d been pretending to read ever since she’d arrived at my apartment.

“Nothing.” I was at one end of the couch, she was the other. I poked her thigh with my toe. “What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn’t you be helping with the preparations for your mom’s party?”

She looked over the top of the magazine and rolled her eyes. “My mom plans weddings, do you think she’d let anyone plan her ‘Big Birthday Party that isn’t a 50th’?” I shook my head. “No exactly.”

“Did you have the talk with them about all moving in together?” I asked.

Lily’s candy pink braids bobbed as she nodded. “Yep, unfortunately. I was enjoying being treated like a princess while they tried to pluck up the courage, but they told all of us a few nights ago when we like went to dinner in Middleton Ridge. It was so funny, we all had to pretend that we had no idea. Tate and Hunter made this big show of gasping, like they’d just been told the weirdest piece of news and then Hunter asked Mom what her intentions were to his dad and whether she planned on having any more kids. I mean he was joking around but Mom was like really embarrassed.” She started to laugh, throwing her head back and I envied her new, big family.

“You seem happier than you have in a while,” I said as she gave a happy sigh.

Her cheeks pinked and not for the first time I wondered whether there was a boy involved in making her more cheerful.

“I’m always happy.”

“Hmm okay.” I raised a brow having seen her in some less than stellar moods over her dad and how he’d hurt her mom. “Anyway, how’s work going?” I asked.

“Erm, yeah, good. JJ is doing well. He’s enjoying first grade.”

I frowned because she looked kind of sad about it. “What’s wrong, is the job not going so well?”

“What?” She stared at me and then plastered on a smile. “No. No it’s good. I guess as JJ gets older, he’ll need me less and less. I should think about asking Jennifer if I can do more hours at Cake Heaven.”

“He’s still not quite eight yet, Lily. I think you’ve got some time yet. Anyway,” I said, poking her with my toe again. “Tell me about the party. I bet it’s going to be amazing.” I didn’t mention that I might not go, even though Bronte had threatened to drag me there.

“God yes. You should see the decorations she’s putting up. She even managed to get some with 49 on them.” She grinned. “I don’t know why she’s so bothered about celebrating being fifty next year.”

“Maybe Jefferson will whisk her away somewhere next year.” I gasped. “Maybe he’ll propose when she’s fifty.”

Lily’s eyes went wide, and she wore an expression which said she had news.

“What?” I asked. “What do you know?”

She got herself comfy and threw the magazine to one side. “Okay, so you can’t breathe a word of this, but he took Tate and me to one side after dinner and asked for our permission to marry Mom.”

I jumped up and down in my seat with excitement. I loved Kitty and Jefferson and they totally deserved to be happy. “Oh my god, no way. That’s amazing.”

Lily nodded enthusiastically. “I know right. He showed us the ring because he wanted to check he’d got one she’d like.”

“And?”

Lily swooned back and held her hands to her chest. “Nancy, it’s amazing. Beautiful in fact. He loves her so much.”

“What’s it like? I need to know.”

“It’s this gorgeous oblong shape emerald with diamonds around it and there’s diamonds all around the band. It’s like a thousand times more gorgeous than the ugly thing that my dad got her when he started to make money.” Lily rolled her eyes at the thought of her dad who was currently in prison for fraud. “Jefferson said the emerald is just the color of Mom’s eyes and it’s a princess cut because she is his princess.”

We both sighed dreamily and for one bizarre, ridiculous moment images of Shaw entered my head. What the hell was I thinking.

“It’s going to be a beautiful occasion,” I said and then thought back to Lily’s happy mood recently. “You taking anyone?”

If I wasn’t mistaken, she blushed as she shook her head. “God, no. Men are off my list of things to do at the moment. What about you?”

I burst out laughing. “That’ll be a no.”

“Minnesota is going.” She winked at me.

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