Page 18 of Alive At Night

“He knows it’s for a wedding date, but I didn’t mention Sofia.”

I’d only made the connection with Sofia over the last couple years, so unless Gemma had told Julian about her, he probably didn’t know I even had a sister.

“I wasn’t sure how much you wanted the others to know about your birth family, so I never said anything to him,” Gemma said, answering my thoughts for me.

“That’s probably for the best.”

Julian didn’t need to know the details. He’d somehow find a way to use them against me.

“Have you texted Noah yet?” Gemma asked.

“No,” I groaned. “I don’t know what to say.”

After abandoning her pasta bowl, Gemma clapped her hands together. “We need more wine for this.”

So more wine we got. But nearly a whole hour and an entire bottle later, we still hadn’t figured out how to successfully slide into Noah London’s inbox.

“He plays here, doesn’t he?” Gemma asked. Her head was in her hands, and she looked stumped.

I affirmed her question with a nod, and her lips stretched into one ofthosesmiles. A skinny-dipping on Lock Island past curfew kind of smile. Or a steal your dad’s convertible for a midnight drive kind of smile.

But those things hadn’t ended well, and I was a bit past my rebellious stage—seven or eight years past it. So I was pleasantly surprised when Gemma’s suggestion had me matching her grin.

“You know,” she said, “I think they have a home game tomorrow.”

I liked the path she was going down, but I had already spotted a few very critical roadblocks.

“There’s no way I’d be able to talk to him there, though.”

“Maybe.” Gemma swirled her wine in her glass, giving me a meaningful glance. “But I think I know someone who could.”

“You?” I asked hopefully, ignoring the obvious, gut-curling answer.

She shook her head. “A different Briggs.”

Damn.

“And I bet he would justloveto take you to meet his friend,” she added with a wink.

I groaned.

He would definitelynotlove it.

But God help me, I was going to ask him anyway.

CHAPTERFIVE

julian

IWAS REASONABLY CONFIDENT that Juniper had been staring at me for the past ten minutes.

Alright…maybe it had been more like thirty seconds, but it felt like a hell of a lot longer. The heat of her gaze on the back of my neck made it incredibly hard to focus on the files Daphne wanted me to review.

When I couldn’t take it any longer, I spun in my chair. And sure enough—there she was. Caught in the act. Staring at me. She jumped as though she actually thought she’d been inconspicuous.

I stared back at her. “Yes?”

Juniper dramatically put a hand to her chest. A finger played with the frilly neckline of her blouse, which today was a peachy color that offset her chesnut hair. At least there weren’t any more polka dots.

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