Page 16 of Enemy Daddy Next Door

“Did something happen?” Gillian asks excitedly.

“No, nothing has happened. Nothing will ever happen, and I’ve told you this literally one million times because Drew and I are – ”

“Just friends,” the rest of us finish her sentence.

Harley shakes her head. “Lame. When are you guys going to realize there’s something there?”

Dana used to be Drew’s grief counselor. Since he left her practice, they became fast friends. In fact, he’s always her plus one to any Solace family gathering. And yet, after all these months, nay, years of friendship, nothing romantic has happened. At least that’s what she’s saying.

“You two would be so cute together,” I say dreamily.

“You’re living in a dreamworld, Amy,” Dana says.

That hurts a little bit. Nicks the outside of my heart. I might be twenty-four, but they all still treat me like a baby. When are they going to see that I’m just as grown as they are? Maybe with less life experience, in lots of ways, but I deserve to be taken seriously.

“Enough about me. I want to talk about your birthday, Amy.”

“Oh god, that,” I say touching my forehead.

“Don’t you dare react that way!” Gillian exclaims. “You’re turning twenty-five! That’s nothing.”

And yet, it’s a quarter of a century in my mind. “I know, but…” I’m a virgin who still lives at home with my dad. I cannot express to any of my sisters how deeply embarrassing that feels.

“What do you want to do, Ames?” Kira asks, turning her analytical, bespectacled gaze toward me.

“I don’t know. I just want…I just want it to be quintessentially Solace,” I say with a smile. “You know, something for us as a family. I don’t need anything fancy or a paint and sip like last year or…Something at home would be nice.”

Harley claps her hands. “That’s easy, then. A cookout.”

“How does that sound to you, Amy?” Dana asks me carefully.

I nod. “That sounds perfect.”

An alarm goes off. Kira launches her hand into her pocket and pulls out her phone. “Okay, chatting time is done. We have to get started on round one of packing if we’re going to get out of here at a reasonable time.”

“You set an alarm?!” Harley asks incredulously.

Kira downs her champagne and stands up. “I’ve set several alarms. You’ll be hearing them throughout the day. Okay, now, Dana and I are going to take the kitchen while Gillian gets started in Stella’s room. Harley and Amy, I want you to focus in on the closets.”

All of us stare at Kira, the master planner.

She claps her hands. “Chop chop!”

Dana and Gillian jump to attention and start to titter about, gathering moving boxes and packing material.

Harley lets out a heavy sigh and then grumbles just loud enough so I can hear, “I should have just stayed home with Tana. That would have been more relaxing than this.”

I laugh heartily and give her my hand. “Come on, we’ll make it fun.”

* * *

“This is…worse than I thought.”

Harley and I are staring into Gillian’s hall closet that is packed to the brim with…everything one could possibly imagine. It’s clear this has served as both a pantry for dry goods and just a place to chuck things she didn’t know what to do with. There are cans upon cans of beans piled up next to a picnic basket and a bag of rice on the ground that’s starting to spill out onto a couple boxes of boardgames.

“Do you think she’d notice if we just threw all this out?” Harley whispers.

“I heard that!” Gillian shouts from Stella’s room across the hall.

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