Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 33887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
“So what brings you two to New York?” I asked belatedly.
Oddly, Chloe didn’t answer. Instead, she gave me big eyes which I was certain I was supposed to be able to read, but alas, as we weren’t best buds (yet), I could not.
Therefore, I gave them back.
She returned them again, before jerking her chin toward the kitchen, meaning Hale.
My heart lurched.
Was something up with Hale?
Nothing seemed up with Hale.
Had I misread my man?
Did this have to do with the text from Tom?
“What?” I mouthed.
She shook her head in the negative, barely perceptible, and I knew why.
A glass of water came into my line of vision, offered to me by my guy.
I took it with a, “Thanks, honey.”
He sat on the arm of my chair that wasn’t holding my coat just as another text came in.
Maybe all the texting was what Chloe’s gestures were about.
Curious as ever, even if my life—after five positive drugstore tests, and a credentialed medical doctor confirming—was unexpectedly derailed, I picked up my phone from my thigh and turned it over just as Hale answered the question neither Chloe nor Judge did, “They got advance notice of that text Tom just sent and headed out early so Judge and I could get some work done and Chloe could get some shopping done.”
“I’m meeting with two designers who I might stock at my stores, Hale,” Chloe drawled petulantly, something she was really good at when it came to Hale.
Then again, he was the older brother who gave her shit constantly, so she’d had practice.
Hale grinned at her and teased, “And shopping.”
See?
“Of course. I am me,” she returned.
As this happened, I saw the first text was from Genny, the second from Sully, and while I was studying my phone, a third one came in from Rix.
I didn’t read them, but I sensed what they were about.
It was Thursday evening.
Demanding an in-person family meeting in New York, when quite a few of the people who were attending were on the West Coast, with not even two days of notice was not only inconvenient, it was concerning.
“Is everything all right with Tom?” I asked Hale.
“I don’t know,” Hale replied. “I just know my plane left two hours ago to do the rounds of picking everybody up.”
What?
Whoa!
I turned to Chloe and Judge. “Do you know what’s going on?”
Judge shook his head and said, “No clue.”
Chloe added, “Dad just said it wasn’t bad.”
“Are you worried?” I asked her.
“What I’m hoping is that it’s an intervention between Jamie and Nora,” she responded.
Instantly, I was hoping that too.
Jamie and Nora had been pussyfooting around each other for ages. They spent more time together than most husbands and wives, and yet they lived apart and kept calling each other “friends” and “companions” when everyone could tell Nora was in deep for Jamie, and the only one who didn’t know Jamie was in deep for Nora was Nora…and Jamie.
“What I suspect is that Dad and Mika are going to announce they’re engaged,” Chloe went on.
Suddenly, my mood took an upswing.
“Oh my God, that’d be brilliant!” I cried.
Chloe smiled, it was genuine.
It was still…off.
“I know,” she replied.
“Not sure I get the drama,” Hale muttered.
I glanced up at him to see he wasn’t angry or upset. That said, we were some of the ones for whom this wasn’t inconvenient seeing as we lived in the city.
“I love the drama,” Chloe put in, unsurprisingly.
“You love that it’s an excuse for all of us to get together,” Judge amended.
“That as well,” Chloe replied.
They stared at each other for a beat, then two, then three, and this was as strange as everything else that was happening that evening, because they were communicating, they just weren’t speaking.
“So we’re here for that,” Judge began, aiming those words to Chloe, then he looked toward us. “But also…”
He didn’t finish.
He was back to staring at his wife.
She fidgeted in her seat on the couch.
“Baby,” Judge prompted.
“Maybe after dinner,” she murmured. “And about three more cocktails.”
“Maybe get it out of the way,” Judge returned.
“Maybe don’t push,” she shot back, becoming noticeably agitated.
“Maybe we’ve been having this discussion for the last six months and you need to stop procrastinating,” Judge retorted.
“We’re all family here, and we’re all friends,” Hale cut in. “So this is a safe space for you to share whatever it is you two are talking about.”
My man.
He had a way.
And that way was just telling them to spill it already without using those words.
“Hale—” Chloe started, but she cut herself off, a sudden acute look of worry on her face.
I tensed even as I felt Hale tense beside me.
“What?” Hale asked, his voice sharper with concern. “Are you okay?”
“She’s fine. We’re fine. Everyone is fine,” Judge assured. “It’s just that we noticed something off about our wedding rings.”
Um…
Hunh?
Hale sounded as confused as I felt. “Your wedding rings?”