“I’m Ally.”
Sophie shook the proffered hand. “I’m Sophie.”
“You’re the reporter, right?”
Sophie was surprised by the question. “How did you know that?”
Ally settled on the stool between Mandy and Sophie. “Mandy keeps me updated on my brothers’ comings and goings. It gives me something to hold over their heads when I’m mad at them – which is pretty often, actually.”
“I see.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ally said. “I like to hear the gossip from her point of view. It’s much more entertaining than the monotone grunts I get when I ask them about their love lives.”
Sophie liked Ally immediately. She could see how comfortable Mandy and Ally were together – and the knowledge made her relax. If Ally didn’t care about Mandy sleeping with James – and Mandy and Ally had been friends for years – she probably wouldn’t get all weird and territorial about Grady.
Ally took a sip from Mandy’s drink. “That’s good. What is it?”
“It’s a pomegranate margarita,” Mandy replied. “It’s yummy.”
“You look like you’re feeling better,” Ally said. “That’s good. Grady said James was sleeping on the bathroom floor with you.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet,” Heidi cooed.
“It was,” Mandy agreed. “For about five minutes. Then it got annoying.”
“Why?” Heidi asked. “That just proves how much he loves you.”
“Love only goes so far,” Mandy said. “I don’t care how comfortable you are with someone, you don’t want them to watch you puke.”
Ally laughed, the sound somewhat musical to Sophie’s ears. “I can’t believe he did it. You’ve completely turned him around.”
“What do you mean?” Sophie asked.
“James was the consummate bachelor until Mandy came along,” Ally replied. “He was the love-them-and-leave-them type. Then Mandy entered his life and stopped him in his tracks.”
“And you’re okay with it?” Sophie asked.
“What? Mandy having sex with my brother? Yeah. I’m totally fine with it.” Ally dipped her head closer to Sophie conspiratorially. “If you want to know the truth, I always had a feeling they would end up together.”
“You did not,” Mandy scoffed.
“I did, too,” Ally said. “He always doted on you. Not in a creepy way,” Ally explained to Sophie hurriedly. “He was just kind of protective of her. It would’ve been creepy if he doted on her in a romantic way back then.”
“I guess I’m just surprised,” Sophie said. “I don’t have a lot of experience with brothers and sisters, but I’ve always heard that sisters don’t like the women their brothers bring home.”
“I think that’s true of certain women,” Ally said. “It’s certainly true of all the other women I’ve met who’ve had the bad taste to sleep with my brothers. When it’s the right woman, though, you want your brothers to be happy.”
“You have a nice way of looking at things,” Sophie said.
“I like to think of myself as enlightened,” Ally said.
Mandy snorted. “When are you going to find a guy to settle down with?”
Ally shrugged. “When I find one who can stop me in my tracks, I guess.”
“Just don’t let him watch you puke.”
“Finn says that he made you chicken and stars,” Ally said. “That’s so … cute.”
“It was kind of cute,” Mandy admitted. “Now that I’m better again, though, he wants me to elect him president for the effort. That’s not so cute.”
“That’s a typical man,” Ally said, waving off the comment. “Every time they do something selfless they want you to stand up and applaud. Remember when we were thirteen and Melissa Hudgens was bullying us?”
“God, Melissa Hudgens. She was a real bitch,” Mandy said. “I wonder what happened to her?”
“Remember when she stole my watch?”
Mandy nodded. “Yeah, now that you mention it. Didn’t Grady beat up her brother?”
“He did,” Ally said. “He said he couldn’t beat up a girl. So, instead, he beat up her brother and then the brother brought the watch to the house.”
Sophie smiled. “That sounds like a protective older brother.”
“Yeah, well, the problem with that was that every time he wanted something from me over the next four years, he always brought up the watch. At a certain point, a watch is just a watch,” Ally said. “It was like a ten-dollar watch, for crying out loud.”