“Here you go,” Sophie said, appearing with three wine glasses in hand.
“Drinking on a school night?” Carmen asked, eyes twinkling.
“Mum, have you met Logan? Because if you haven’t, drink that wine down. You’ll need it,” Sophie said, nodding to the man himself.
“I’ve avoided it so far, redirecting myself to the kitchen each time one of the boys goes to introduce him,” Carmen replied. “What’s the male equivalent of resting bitch face?” We both spluttered then. “Yes, he has that.”
But right now he didn’t. He was chuckling along with the other guys, doing that jocular man talk thing that men seemed to do when in packs.
“The others seem nice…”
Sophie smirked at me, knowing her mother was fishing and glad it was me on the receiving end, not her for a change.
“Jury’s still out on that,” I replied.
“So you’re taking things slow?” The relief in Carmen’s voice was palpable. “That is the smart thing to do. It’s all so new and… what?” as a snigger erupted from her daughter.
“Nothing,” Sophie said with a smirk, then swept in and gave her mum a hug. “Just you being you.”
Carmen endedup sliding away to sit by the pool, but the two of us were not at all deceived by her lolling on a lounger. She was watching the boys as they splashed and wrestled with Evie, and she wouldn’t be looking away for a second. Soph grabbed my hand and dragged me into the kitchen to ‘help with the salads’. This was a universally accepted phrase to indicate girl time was needed.
“So how have things been going? Radio silence, babes. I’m getting worried,” she said, half-heartedly tossing salad with a pair of tongs.
“Skydiving,” I replied. “Getting head in a stand of trees by the roadside. Going out for dinner with Ben the other day and he wanted to knot me and stay the night. Oh, and did I mention that I hooked up with Reed via Howlr?”
“What…?” The tongs fell into the bowl with a clatter. “And I say again, what?”
“Seriously, you can’t make this shit up,” I said, then took a nice long drink of my wine, rolling the sweet/sour taste around in my mouth before swallowing. “I have well and truly established that I’ll never need a vibrator again if I decide to take things further with the pack.”
She burst out laughing, then tried to stop, but looking at my expression set her off into another explosion of laughter.
“How did you find Reed on Howlr?”
“I didn’t know he was related to Ben, did I?” I hissed, eyeing the back door. “I thought I was signing up for something casual and one off. Then I walk into the parenting agreement meeting.”
“Oh my god, Lils…” She reached for the bottle of wine and refilled my glass. “Spill, bitch, because I am here for this kind of chaos.”
Using as a few words as possible, our eyes trained on the back door, I spilled the tea as quickly as I could. Sophie made the process harder, stopping to clarify some points just for LOLs, but we got there in the end. When I finally stopped, I let out a breath, then shook my head.
“This is fucking ridiculous. We can’t… I can’t…”
“Lils, you were always due this,” she said, forcing herself to calm down. “You missed out on the masses of dudes clamouring for your attention that you deserved.” I rolled my eyes at that. She might have always inspired that kind of response, but I was little miss average. “But I guess the thing is they can be all intense with the ‘you’re my mate’ and stuff, but you’re under no obligation to do anything. You’ve made no promises to anyone. In some ways the fun one…”
“Damon,” I supplied.
“Right, he’s the one you want to listen to. Cut loose, have some fun, enjoy the feeling of a harem of men falling all over themselves to court you.”
“Except Logan,” I said darkly.
“Yeah, he seems like an arse. Kick him to the curb, but…” She straightened up then, gazing down at me with an expression that was familiar but always hard to take. Love. “If you’re upfront about the fact you aren’t thinking anything serious yet, then it's on them how invested they get. Have fun. Go on dates. Let the baby daddy look after the Evmonster while you run wild. Give that Reed another go, because dayum…”
She didn’t even know the half of it, my inability to fess up all the sordid details keeping her somewhat in the dark about his abilities.
“You’re only twenty-seven. You have a business you’re fighting to keep afloat and a child with very specific needs, and that’s taken up most of your life up until now. Well, you’ve got free babysitters and even a budding personal assistant in Jasper.”
Sophie tipped her glass at me.
“Keep communicating, but don’t let guilt get in the way of having the kind of fun you’ve always deserved.”