Page 98 of Loving You

“Oh, save it,” she said with another giggle. “You think just because we were blatantly told not to look twice at them that we didn’t low-key watch them come and go like creepy weirdos? They workright there,and they’re hard to miss.”

I mean, now that I was fully in love with the guy, I had no trouble admitting that I’d stared at him in a super creepy way more than once before either one of us realized our bickering was actually foreplay.

But the others had always been the kind of hot like famous actors or musicians were. Not really guys you drool over because you see yourself with them, just objectively handsome men.

Had all of my sisters had their eyes on those guys, but the feud had kept them away? How weird would that be? Especially since now I was actively trying to get us all to hang out more.

I glanced around the table of women. “Who’swe?”

“Fine. Just me. June’s probably still too hung up on Detective Dumbass and May is… May.”

My eyes traveled to the two of them, talking with Ellie and Brenna like they were old friends.Well, thank goodness for that.It would have sucked for unrequited crushes to ruin all the good stuff happening at this table right now.

It really was amazing having these women together like this. After years of being afraid that my sisters—who knew too much—would spill their guts about Cliff to my friends—who knew nothing—this new, bigger family was like a balm to my soul.

“Well, sorry to burst your bubble and take the last of the Walkers,” I told Janie, slinging an arm around her shoulders. “But hey, I’m sure the right guy is out there somewhere, and I’m sure he’ll be just as worthy of creepy-ass staring as they were.”

She snorted. “We’ll see. In my experience, those are the ones who are the most annoying. Sorry, except them. I’m sure they’re not annoying.”

“Oh, they are. In their own way. But I guess it’s safe to say Kate, Ellie, Rachel, and I find their brand of annoying to be as hot as the rest of them.”

“What are you two talking about over there?” Brenna asked, turning in her seat.

My cheeks heated and I stifled a giggle, not willing to tell her we’d been discussing her hot-ass brothers in a decidedly objectifying way. “You don’t wanna know, trust me.”

“I do,” she replied. “I’m in the mood for some tea, especially since I can’t drink this champagne.”

Like a whip cracking through the air, all conversation at the table stopped. All eyes turned to Brenna, and for a long moment, no one said a word.

In fact, I thought maybe the birds in the trees had stopped singing too, becauseoh my god, did she mean what we all clearly thought she meant?

“Brenna Jane Walker-Taylor,” Jenna said, slowly standing to face her daughter from the other end of the long table. “Did I hear you right?”

“If you heard me say I can’t drink this champagne, then yes.”

I tucked in my lips as Jenna’s eyes grew impossibly rounder, and her closed fists came to rest on her wide hips.

Where’s my popcorn?

“Don’t play around with me, missy. Say the words. Do I need to buy another heart for my grandbaby tree?”

The tree—something Will and Kate’s son, Jackson, had created for her in his woodworking shop class—hung on the wall in Jenna’s living room, and it already had little pink and blue hearts for each of the grandchildren she currently had.

Brenna reached into her purse and pulled out a sonogram, then tossed it onto the table with averypointed look at Rachel when she did it. The move would have seemed like a strange way to announce a pregnancy from a daughter to her doting mother, but it was a throwback to something that happened with Rachel and Sammy, and it felt verythem.

I hadn’t been there, but I’d heard about it, and the fact that Brenna had copied the move Sammy had done just to mess with her mother—even though she hadn’t been there either—made me love them even more than I already did.

And as predicted, the only thing left for Jenna to do was shriek like a banshee before running to her daughter’s side and pulling her into what looked like a rib-crushing hug.

“Well, better she revealed it now than at your engagement party later,” Janie said quietly in my ear as we watched them hug.

I shoved her with a cackle, then went over to the table full of Walker and Carrigan women, ready to pour congratulations all over Brenna.

Damn,there was just no doubt about it.

Life was good. And since clearly the hits would always just keep on coming, I looked up to find Eric striding across the lawn.

I hopped up to join him as the rest of the table congratulated Brenna—which I’d do in a second, of course—and met him in the middle.

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