“Oh, a daughter,” she squeals. “It’s been too long since I cared for a little girl.” She leans close to whisper, “Between you and me, Ruby was awful selfish with her daughters. She never let me babysit them.”
“I did, too,” Ruby claims as she and Daniel bound down the stairs to join us. “But there was no way I was going to allow you to watch them again after you let them eat a gallon of ice cream.”
Sage shrugs. “I didn’t realize Aspen was tall enough to reach the freezer.”
“You should have been watching them and noticed before they managed to eat most of the ice cream.” Ruby turns to me. “The ice cream ended up on the floor, in their hair, on their clothes, on the walls, everywhere. Ashlyn was a baby, so you can imagine where her ice cream ended up.”
“I can’t help it if Feather phoned with news while I was babysitting the girls.”
Feather wags a finger at Sage. “Don’t you dare blame me for your babysitting mishaps.”
“Ever and Radiance never complained when I babysat Lyric, River, and Phoenix.”
Ruby crosses her arms over her chest. “Maybe because they didn’t have a phone installed in the farmhouse meaning you couldn’t get distracted by gossiping with your cronies.”
“I prefer the word busybody,” Clove announces.
“Me, too.” Feather nods. “But gossip gal has a nice ring to it. Did you notice our shirts?”
“The astronauts on the International Space Station noticed their shirts,” Lyric mumbles behind me.
“We didn’t realize hot pink meant bright pink,” Cayenne explains. “And by the time we did, the boxes had been delivered.”
“But the bright pink does match well with the silver sparkly fabric paint,” Petal says.
The women begin debating the merits of the various types of fabric paint and I decide now is a perfect time to escape. I’m not alone. When I step out on the back porch, Daniel, Rowan, and Lyric are already there. I lift my beer to them in a salute.
Daniel frowns. “You couldn’t have snagged me a beer on your way?”
I peer through the window and try to calculate the distance between the women and the refrigerator. Maybe I can make it without them noticing me?
Rowan pushes past me. “You need a professional for this.”
“Former professional,” Lyric quips, and Rowan flips him off before opening the door and rushing to the refrigerator.
He has the beer in his hand and is opening the sliding door to the backyard before the women notice him. He holds up the beer and opens the door with his other hand. “I need to deliver this to Mr. West.”
“At least you know you have the gossip gals’ seal of approval,” Rowan comments after he shuts the door behind him.
I cock my brow. “I do?”
“You think they’d be here busting your chops if you didn’t have their approval?” he asks.
Lyric motions to them with his beer. “This is how they show their love.”
Daniel lifts his beer. “Welcome to Winter Falls.”
I clink his beer, but I don’t take a sip. I’m too busy wondering how soon I can have a security system installed to keep the busybodies of Winter Falls out of my house. And here I thought winning my Ellie back was the biggest obstacle in my future.