Easy Kisses(45)
“Good to meet you,” Adam says and waves hello to me. “And this gorgeous woman is my girlfriend, Sarah.”
“Oh good! I finally get to meet you! I’ve heard all about you,” I say and lean over to hug the pretty woman to my right. I was so excited, and surprised, to hear that Adam found someone.
“It’s great to meet you, too. Hi, Simon.”
“You’re meeting a lot of people tonight,” Callie says with a laugh to Simon. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m perfectly fine,” he says and takes my hand in his. He kisses my knuckles and Callie’s eyes find mine. She winks at me and nods, and I know that I have her approval.
For reasons I’m not entirely sure of, that makes me very happy.
“Well, slap my ass and call me Sally! Here come some more,” Callie says with a laugh. I spin around and find Gabby and Savannah walking to us, all decked out in sexy dresses and heels.
“Hey!” I stand and hug them both, then proceed to make introductions.
“So this is the famous Savannah,” Simon says and leans in to kiss her cheek. “It’s truly a pleasure to finally meet you.”
“Oh God, what did you tell him?” she asks me, making us all laugh.
“Only great things,” Simon replies and then frowns and pulls his phone out of his pocket. The frown doesn’t leave his face when he returns it to his pocket and takes my hand in his.
“Is everything okay?”
“Fine. It’s just my mother.”
“It’s awfully late. Are you sure nothing is wrong?”
“No, darling. She’s fine. And it’s early morning there. I’ll call her later.”
I nod and turn back to my sisters. “What are you guys doing here?”
“Beau kicked us out of my house,” Gabby says and orders an extra dirty martini from Callie.
“Why?” I ask.
“Because she really needed a night away,” Van replies for her. “I’ve received at least twenty texts from her today. She was having a shitty week.”
“Do tell,” Simon says as Adam pulls a bar-height table over for us, along with extra chairs. This way, we can stay close to the bar so he and Callie can still be part of the fun while they work.
“Well,” Gabby begins with a sigh and takes a sip of her drink. “Rhys has been gone back to Chicago for less than a week, right?”
We nod.
“And I’m pretty sure my kids are already trying to kill me.”
“Come on, it can’t be that bad,” I say, but Van is already shaking her head and giving me the warning look.
“It’s that bad,” Van says. “Go ahead and tell them. Let it all out, honey.”
“On Tuesday, Sam informed me that he needed cupcakes for the last day of school, which was the next day, and he decided to wait until bedtime to tell me. Of course. Then Ailish came down sick the evening after we saw you and Simon. The dog decided to poop all over the freaking house while I took Sam to a birthday party on Thursday, and then later that afternoon, Sam broke another damn window.”
“How many does this make now?” I ask, trying to hold my laughter in.
“Nine,” she replies between gritted teeth.
“Sam wants to be a baseball player, like his daddy,” Van informs us all, earning a glare from Gabby.
“Rhys doesn’t break windows. Rhys doesn’t need me to actually assemble every single snack he has.” She turns to us, her eyes a little manic now. “I swear, the kids never want something simple to snack on like an apple, or some little fish crackers. No. They want a sandwich with cheese and meat and mayo. Or better yet, mac and cheese.”
She lays her head on her arm on the table and whimpers.
“All I wanted was a bubble bath.”
“Shh, it’s okay, ladybug,” Declan says as he approaches the table and strokes his hand down Gabby’s hair while the rest of us laugh with hilarity. Even Simon is chuckling, his eyes dancing with humor.
I lean in to him. “I know this is a lot. We can go whenever you want.”
“Are you kidding? I’m having a great time. I’m about to start asking questions about you as a child.”
Gabby’s head comes up. “Oh, this is a better subject by far. We have lots of stories.”
“Great.” Simon rubs his hands together eagerly and I shake my head.
“No one wants to hear this.”
“Oh, but they do,” Van says with a gleeful smile. “What do you want to know?”
“Was Charly always so confident?” he asks.
“Oh yeah,” Gabby says with a nod. “She was always the most headstrong and put together.”