“It’s a violation of my privacy.” Everyone laughs at Lyric’s statement, including Rowan. Lyric glares at him.
“Did you forget you live in Winter Falls?” Rowan asks between bouts of laughter.
Lyric marches toward Sage who giggles before running away.
“What just happened?” I ask the room.
“We schooled you on what happens when you piss off a West sister,” Ashlyn answers. “You’ve been warned.”
“I should have checked the expiration date on the condom,” I mumble.
“It might not have mattered,” Lilac says. “The World Health Organization claims condoms have a two-percent failure rate, but the actual failure rate is closer to fifteen percent.”
Ashlyn claps. “Thank you, Ms. Encyclopedia.”
“I, for one, can’t wait to meet mini Ellery. I hope it’s a girl. I’ve already picked out a ton of cute pink outfits,” Aspen says.
“And I have the perfect puppy picked out for her or him, I’m not fussy,” Juniper adds.
“I’m designing a nursery in our spare bedroom so my little niece can stay over.”
“I think we should have our own baby who can use the nursery,” Rowan responds to Ashlyn who wags her engagement ring at him.
“Dude, no babies before marriage.”
“Why not?” A middle-aged woman asks from behind me. When I turn around, she sticks her hand out. “I’m Ruby, the mother. And you must be Cole, the baby dad.”
“I thought Ellery didn’t want anyone to know,” I say as we shake hands.
Juniper snorts. “You can’t keep a secret from our mother. She was a Soviet spy in a previous life.”
“Why Soviet? I couldn’t have been a spy for my own country?” she grumbles as she sits down at the end of the row.
“Mrs. West is the high school principal. She does plenty of spying,” Rowan explains.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Forest hits the table with a gavel before announcing, “Let’s get this meeting started.”
I push out a sigh of relief when I note his pet squirrel, Chip, is not in attendance. Chip’s beady eyes freak me out. I swear he was plotting my death while he nibbled on my drawings the last time I saw him.
“I thought you were going to steal his gavel,” Juniper whispers to Ashlyn.
“I did. He must have bought another one.”
I ignore them since the meeting has finally commenced. My knees bounce up and down since my feet can’t remain still now we’ve finally arrived at the moment when I learn if Davis Williams won the bid.
“Does anyone have any announcements before we begin?”
“Don’t keep us in suspense, Forest!” a woman yells.
“Drink,” Juniper orders.
“The word is not. Feather said don’t, which is a contraction of do and not,” Lilac explains.
Juniper grins. “Drink!”
“For goodness sake,” Lilac mumbles as she sips on her beer.
“Yeah, Forest. Who won the bid?” another woman shouts.