Page 10 of Finding Their Place

Lily sipped, eyeing me over the rim. “So, which do you want first? The courtroom shit or the dinner shenanigans?”

“Fuck the Quell/cult fuckery. I saw enough of that on the news, and I’m ready to put it all behind me as I’m sure your men are—but how are Blaine and his sister doing after everything?”

“Better than I’d expected. I thought for sure that seeing Quell again would stir up shit in Blaine’s head, but he hasn’t had a single nightmare about his childhood. He’s just relieved to finally be able to move on entirely from the whole situation. His sister Sarah is still at Franklin’s grandparents with him and his siblings.”

Lily enjoyed another swallow of wine.

“They’re getting married at the end of the summer on the farm in Maine,” she continued. “Nothing major, no big celebration, but she wants Blaine to walk her down the aisle they’re going to mow in a grassy field.”

The thought of such an intimate ceremony tickled all my happily-ever-after dreams and poked at the enviousness I tried to keep caged up. “Aw! That’s so sweet.”

“Right?” Lily let out a sigh. “I’m so…full to overflowing it’s almost sickening.”

I wouldn’t know the feeling she spoke of, and that truth brewed the shit in my mind some more. “Okay, now give me the goods about that dinner Grey set up with your ex and his husband because I’ve been dying.”

And I needed a change of topic from weddings and happiness.

Lily laughed, her voice like a tinkling bell. “So, the second Levi opened their front door, I went flying up their walkway and jumped into his arms, leaving Grey and Blaine behind.”

I smirked and enjoyed a healthy swallow of my wine while Lily recounted forgetting all about her two lovers for the sake of hugging Levi again—but how she noted that any sexual attraction she’d once had for her ex-fiancé had completely disappeared. She’d just missed the friendship they’d carried beyond their engagement ending.

All four men had greeted each other without any sense of jealousy or hostility, keeping the situation from being awkward.

“Just sitting there while they shot the shit at the dining room table, thinking about how each and every one of them had at one time put their hands on my body made me fantasize about having my own harem.”

I snorted, almost choking on my drink.

“Just kidding.” Lily laughed. “I don’t want Levi or his husband’s hands on me ever again. Grey and Blaine are all I need.”

“Greedy dickmonger.”

“You’re just jealous.” She fake-simpered and winked.

“Damn right, I am.” I didn’t mind admitting that truth to the one person who knew me better than anyone—Garrett included.

“So, how’s your dating life going the past couple of weeks?”

I flagged down our waiter, ready for another drink. “Nonexistent.”

“Are you at least trying?”

“Why bother?” I glanced over those drinking at the bar to the left of our high table but found nothing of interest worth a second look. “I’m doomed to just pick up another narcissistic asshole who will only try to manipulate his way under my skirt.”

Lily’s gaze bored into me with concern furrowing her eyebrows.

“What?”

“How are you doing, Haley?” She was well aware how depression often attempted to grab me by the pubes and hold on for dear life.

Maybe it was time I started to wax on the regular. “I’m okay, but everything kind of sucks right now.”

Just not me…

I clung to the buzzed thought since it wasn’t gloomy, then tacked it on out loud to my last sentence to get Lily to laugh.

She did. “And how about Garrett?” she asked rather than helping bemoan my lack of action.

“He’s still got a sucking fixation—just not on me.”

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