Which is why, here at Summer and Ethan’s house for book club, I’m ready. Ready to face the barrage of questions that I know are coming.
“Ladies, the party can start now. I’m here,” I announce, kicking the door closed behind me before toeing off my shoes and heading into the kitchen. I am determined to be my usual self tonight, enjoy my time with my friends, andnotobsess about Leo.
Placing the two bottles of wine I brought on the counter, I grab the already open one and pour a healthy glass before turning to face the wall of curious faces staring at me from the living room. Summer, Mila, Ashley, Paige, and Abby are all watching me closely. Too closely.
So much for not obsessing.
“Okay, okay, let’s get this out of the way. His name is Leo, he’s my high school boyfriend, and he just moved to town to be the new deputy chief. That’s it, that’s all, end of story. Any questions?”
I regret those last two words the instant Mila and Ashley’s hands shoot up in the air.
“Things were looking pretty cozy between you and that little girl. Is she his daughter?” Mila asks with a cute little smile. And I won’t even deny it, my heart melts a bit at the thought of Violet.
“Yes. She’s adorable but shy, so donotoverwhelm her,” I stare pointedly at Mila. “And since I know what your next question will be, her mom is not around, and no, I don’t know why.”
Ashley is still impatiently wiggling her hand up high in the air, so I take a deep breath and turn to her next. “Yes?”
“Do you still have feelings for him?”
My heart thumps over in my chest. Do I? I mean, I can’t ignore the fact that’s he hotter than I remember or that I desperately want to know if he still kisses as good as he used to. But do those count as feelings or just lust?
“That’s complicated. And it’s going to take a lot more wine and a lot more time for me to be able to figure it out, so can I get back to you on that?”
Ashley pouts but nods. “Fine. But next book club, we expect more details.”
Paige stands up and I breathe a sigh of relief. She’s the voice of reason in our group, and she’s also the one who’s determined to try and keep us on track with the actual discussion for the book we read.
“If we are quite finished discussing Serena’s former flame, could we please bring our attention to our read for this month?”
I pull my copy ofBred For Themout of my bag, for once eager to get to the book talk and away from me. For all that I’m a performer, this is one time I’d rather not have the limelight. And seeing as this book was, by far, the hottest one we’ve ever read, it should be easy to divert the topic.
“I gotta say, I was skeptical when you said this was a threesome, but goddamnit, those guys are hot together. The way they take care of Hailey is just, wow.” I make a chef’s kiss gesture with my hand.
The girls all make noises of agreement. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this book club adventure, it’s that we’re all a lot more dirty minded than we thought. But the books have brought us even closer, and these nights tend to be when we can share anything and everything with each other. Even though I don’t really want to talk about my crazy stuff right now, I know these women are my safe place.
“No kidding. I swear when Hailey first hooked up with Bobby, and Jameson was watching, I had to find Jackson as soon as the scene was over. If you know what I mean,” Mila says with an exaggerated wink.
“Yeah, you know I grabbed my vibrator after that one,” I chime in. “Two orgasms later, I was able to keep reading.”
No partner, no problem when it comes to my sex life. Hell, half the time I think I do a better job than a guy would anyway. Nonetheless, it’s a lonely place being the only single one left in our group. It’s why I tend to tune out the ooey gooey relationship talk when it starts. But thankfully, the guy-on-guy action in tonight’s book keeps things moving at a spicy pace when it comes to our conversation.
Later on, when we’re finally cleaning everything up, I find myself lingering even as the others start to leave. When she isn’t running the beach front resort her dad left her, Summer teaches a few yoga classes at my studio, and there’s something I need to talk to her about but haven’t had the chance.
“How are things going at the resort?” I ask as I dry one of the wineglasses we used tonight.
“Great.” Summer gives me a warm smile. She’s got such a calm and steady energy; I can feel it filling me in turn. “Now that I’ve hired Stephanie to help out, I’m not running around quite as crazily. I think she’ll be a huge asset moving forward.”
Here’s my opening. I need Summer on board with teaching more classes because the demand for her yoga instruction is growing. Unlike the demand for my children’s dance classes. I’m terrified that I’m maxed out both on my time for classes and on potential students. But if I don’t figure something out, I soon won’t make my mortgage payments.
“Your waitlist for yoga is still pretty long, isn’t it?”
“It is.” Summer frowns slightly. “I’ve been thinking about how to reconfigure my class layout in the studio to accommodate more, but I don’t think I can without compromising people’s personal space.”
“Would you teach another class?” I blurt out before I can stop and think about it.
Summer’s eyes widen, but she’s smiling, so hopefully, that’s a good thing.
“I would love to, but I wasn’t sure if you had any available time for me.”