Sophie was standing at a bar table with Evie, who’d been so kind to her the night she’d returned from Paris, and Victoria, Olivia, Georgie, Lucky, Grace, and Emily—who, it turned out, was Victoria’s sister. She was still trying to understand how all these women fit with the men, meaning who was whose, but she knew she’d get it eventually.
Plus she liked them. They were all so sweet. Including Gina, who was about a hundred times more famous than Tyler. Tyler was a well-known guitarist and vocalist in the blues world. That was nothing compared to mainstream pop.
When Sophie had emerged from Hawk and Gina’s guest room two weeks ago, freshly in love and stunned at that turn of events, Gina had hugged her and promptly tried to mother her. It was rather amusing considering they were close in age, but with two young children underfoot, mothering people was just sort of natural to the superstar.
Buddy’s was raucous and fun, a real let-down-your-hair kind of place. Everyone drank beer or wine or soda, and they ordered all kinds of fried things like chicken wings, burgers, fries, mushrooms, and cheese sticks. The worst kind of food but also some of the best tasting.
Sophie took it easy, but she ate. Chase grinned over at her from where he sat strumming the guitar. He’d even fed her a cheese stick with sauce. Considering all the sex they’d been having, she figured she could afford a few cheese sticks here and there.
“So there’s still no word on who killed Grigori Androv?” Olivia asked, pushing a platinum-blond lock of hair behind her ear.
“No, but his closest friend who grew up with him in an orphanage inherits everything, including Zoprava.” Victoria shook her head. “Plenty of motive there.”
Sophie sipped her beer and quietly agreed. Sergei Turov had put on a good show, but she figured it had to be a show. He’d cried on the news, vowed to find whoever had harmed his friend. He blamed shadowy military organizations, foreign governments, and rival software firms.
He had an airtight alibi for Grigori’s murder, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t ordered it done.
“Well, he wasn’t a nice man,” Evie said, her hand resting over her belly. She barely had a bump but apparently she was pregnant. Emily had a bump as well, but even smaller. “He snatched Sophie and would have sold her to the highest bidder if y’all hadn’t stopped him.”
She said the y’all for Victoria who, it turned out, was one of the team. So was Lucky, except she and her husband had been flying home when everything went down and they’d missed the excitement.
Georgie looked at Sophie as she nibbled on a fried mushroom. “How did your parents take the news of you and Chase?”
These women had embraced her as one of their own. Whether she wanted besties or not, she seemed to have them. Oddly enough, she liked it even if she was still getting used to it. These people were genuine—unlike the people she’d grown up with in LA, the people who ran in her parents’ circles.
“They were surprised,” she said. “But what can they say? We’re adults.”
That was the easy way of putting it. Tyler had been a bit pissed, but that’s because he’d made it about him. Specifically, that Chase didn’t care about her and was just nailing her to get back at him.
That had nearly earned him a punch in the throat, judging by the look on Chase’s face at the time, but he’d refrained. For her sake, she knew. They’d left California that night—and then he’d told her on the plane that if she wanted to spend any holidays with Tyler and her mother, she just needed to tell him which ones and they’d work it out. He’d be there by her side if he wasn’t on a mission and to hell with Tyler’s bullshit.
“No,” she’d said, “I’m not particularly interested in any holidays right now.”
Chase’s mother had welcomed them with open arms. Carrie Daniels was every bit as sweet as she’d ever sounded on the phone, and she’d embraced Sophie right away.
Chase told Sophie later that his mother had actually raised her voice at him when he’d suggested he’d been worried she might be upset about him and Sophie.
“Honey,” she’d told him, “Tyler Nash gave me the greatest gift I ever got in this life—you. Nothing he can do, nothing he has ever done, will take that away from me.”
And just like that, their families knew about them. Now they could get on with the business of building a life together. Since Chase had lost everything in the fire that claimed his apartment, they had to find a place to live, which they had. A cute town house near the military base where he worked.
She’d moved her stuff down from New York last weekend. She and Chase had driven a U-Haul into Manhattan, then packed it up and headed back to DC. She’d said good-bye to her job at the restaurant, gone to see her acting teacher, said good-bye to a few friends—and that was it. Good-bye New York, hello DC.