“What are they talking about?” I ask Ashlyn.
She bats her eyelashes. “What do you mean?”
“Has anyone ever told you you’re a horrible liar?”
She plants her fists on her hips and grunts. “I’ll have you know I am an excellent liar. I graduated at the top of my class in drama school. Just because we’re not all big Hollywood stars doesn’t mean we’re talentless hacks. And here I’ve been defending you to my sister, Aspen.”
I obviously touched a nerve. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
She bursts out laughing. “Got you.”
Rowan, Lyric, and Cole enter the room. Rowan makes a beeline for Ashlyn. “Dream girl,” he mutters. “Are you causing trouble?”
Ashlyn stops laughing to glare up at her husband. “I am not causing trouble. I’m the mayor, remember?”
“You do know being the mayor isn’t a get out of jail free card?” Aspen asks her baby sister.
Aspen’s here? Maybe Juniper is as well. I scan the room for her.
“Juniper’s not here yet. Something about Bark Twain being sick,” Ellery answers my unasked question. “And before anyone asks, Willow is with Mom and Dad.”
“But I want my cuddles,” Ashlyn pouts.
“Have your own baby if you want baby cuddles.”
“I’m working on it,” Ashlyn grumbles.
“I believe it’s time to begin the meeting,” Lilac says as she taps her watch.
“Who’s the mayor here? Me or you?” Ashlyn asks before she kisses Rowan and bounces to the front of the room.
I settle on a chair in the second row next to Rowan.
“At least with Ashlyn trying to get pregnant, we don’t have to play the silly drinking game,” Lilac says as she sits down in the row in front of me.
“We don’t?” Juniper plunks a bucket of beer down at the end of the row.
“Why do my sisters insist on being childish?” Lilac grumbles.
“I’m not childish. I’m thirsty.” Aspen motions to the bucket. “Give me a beer, will you?”
Juniper hands Aspen and Lilac a beer. “Today’s word is ‘never’.”
“Never say never,” Aspen sings before sipping on her beer.
Lilac frowns but takes a sip on her beer as well.
“June Bug,” I call to gain Juniper’s attention.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Ashlyn pounds a gavel on the front table before Juniper can respond to me. “Hear ye. Hear ye. The May meeting of the Winter Falls business community shall now begin.”
“Does she think we’re living in the nineteenth century?” Juniper whispers.
“The expression ‘hear ye, hear ye’ dates back to the British Parliament in the 1600s,” Lilac explains.
“I never knew.” Juniper smirks. “Drink up.”
Bang! “First order of business is the community center.”