Page 137 of Unravel Me

“Ollie! Rosie told me to make more shirts for me and Ireland!”

“Carter, you’ve given that poor girl down the street a full-time job making shirts for you, and she’s only fourteen. You need to give her a break.”

“Okay.” He winks at me. “I’ll definitely do that.”Wink, wink.

“You’re a menace,” I whisper to him.

“You have no idea how high I can soar, Rosie.”

The girls pull me outside, gathering around a fire pit with all the fixings for s’mores while we sip at our drinks.

“I can’t believe we’re trusting those five alone with the kids,” Jennie says as she rotates a stick of marshmallows over the coals.

“Are you kidding me? I found a giant roll of Bubble Wrap in the garage two days ago. When I asked Carter what it was for, he said it was for Ireland when she starts walking. I thought he was joking, but when I laughed, he said, ‘Our daughter’s safety is not a joke, Olivia.’”

Cara gasps. “He called you by your full name?”

She nods somberly. “Connor and Ireland are possiblytoosafe with those boys in there.”

Jennie hands me a gooey s’more, and something thick settles in my throat as I stare down at it.

“You okay?” she asks me softly.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. This is just really nice. It reminds me of my parents. We used to camp several times a summer, and s’mores were my dad’s specialty. I haven’t had one in a long time.”

Jennie smiles, squeezing my forearm. “My dad passed when I was sixteen. It’s weird, isn’t it? Doing things now that we used to do then? It’s nostalgic in all the right ways, and it makes me feel like he’s right here beside me. But it’s still hard too. Because sometimes the feeling that he’s right next to me is so strong, I look over to say something to him, and…”

“He’s not there.”

“Yeah. It’s almost like I forget how to breathe for a second.”

“I know that feeling.” I squeeze her hand. “Thank you for sharing that with me.”

The four of us settle into easy conversation, and once the boys pop outside to let us know they’re going to lay the kids down, Olivia and Cara decide to addjust a little moretequila to the next pitcher.

“I’m not a violent person—”

Olivia interrupts Cara’s monologue with a snort.

“—but if I were given five minutes alone in a room with her—”

I snicker, and Cara points at me.

“You’re laughing, but I’m serious. If Courtney was standing on the edge of a cliff, my elbow would absolutely accidentally nudge her ribsjust right, and we’d never speak her name again.”

“Was she really that bad?” I ask. All three of them level me with a look, and I cringe. “I thought maybe the media was embellishing.”

“There was no embellishing.” Olivia sighs. “She was exactly as awful as they painted her to be, but truthfully, we’re just glad she’s out of Adam’s life. He’s always deserved so much more. She never felt like a part of this family.”

I look down at my lap at that f-word, the longing that pulls at me when I hear it. But then Cara speaks, coaxing my eyes back up.

“Not like you, Rosie.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re a family. We want you and Connor to be part of this family.”

Something happens then. The smallest shift but with the biggest impact. Like the final piece was already here, just slightly ajar, and someone tapped it, so gently I’d probably not notice it. Except finally, it slides right into place, this perfect fit that was just waiting to be filled, and suddenly everything is exactly the way it was meant to be.

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