“I can’t help it,” Christy says, wiping tears from her eyes. “She kills me.”
I give Wynter a pointed look. “I’m gonna kill her if she doesn’t knock it off.”
“Truth hurts so good, doesn’t it?” Wynter asks.
“Gage, it’s time to go home,” I say.
“She’s horny.”
“Wynter!”
Even though I’m mortified by her, I’m also delighted to see her hysterical with laughter at her own jokes.
“What’s going on down there?” Roni asks.
“Nothing good,” I tell her.
“It’sallgood,” Wynter says.
“I need to get going,” Roni says. “My boobs are about to burst.”
“We can’t have that,” Derek says. “Let’s get you home to that little guy.”
Gage has arranged for Derek to drop us at my house, so we walk out with them.
“What’s up with Wynter?” Roni asks. “Is she okay?”
“She’s more than okay now and having a blast busting my chops about being with Gage. Before that, she had a rough moment over people moving on when her life is a mess. I told her it’s not a mess, but I’m not sure she believes me. She really wants to take care of Xavier, but Adrian hasn’t said whether he’ll hire her.”
“Where was he tonight?” Gage asks.
“I don’t know. I’ll text him to make sure he’s okay.” I send the text while we wait for Derek’s SUV to arrive from the valet. “He says Xavier was having a rough day, so he stayed home.”
“How about Hallie?” Roni asks. “Wasn’t she supposed to come tonight?”
“Texting.” I tell our friend we missed her tonight and hope everything is okay. “She says she got home late from work and had no gas left in her tank. She’ll see us at the ALS fundraiser next week.”
Our friend Lexi lost her husband to that hideous disease, and his medical bills have left her financially devastated. Kinsley, who lost her husband, Rory, to pancreatic cancer, and Naomi, who lost her fiancé, David, to lymphoma, have organized the event. Half the proceeds will go to ALS research, and the other half will go to Lexi.
“I’m so glad Lexi agreed to let the girls organize something for her,” Roni says. “I can’t imagine being devastated by loss and left with a mountain of medical bills, too. The loss is bad enough on its own.”
“For real,” Gage says.
“Has anyone heard anything from Aurora?” Derek asks as he drives us to my house.
“Not recently,” I reply.
“I’ve been following her husband’s trial,” Gage says. “They’ve got him totally nailed on rape charges.”
We voted to let Aurora into the group after her husband was charged with rape, because we agreed she’d lost the life she’d planned to lead with him the same as the rest of us did when our spouses died. She stopped coming to the meetings after Derek and Roni got together. We suspect it was because she wanted Derek for herself.
“I keep telling Derek he ought to call and check on her,” Roni says.
“Not doing that,” Derek replies gruffly.
Gage and I laugh at their banter.
“I feel sorry for her,” Roni says. “What an awful thing. If I were her, I’d leave the country until the trial was over.”