This was her dream, and she was living her dream.
Right?
They started out at Kemoll's downtown, a place Liz assured her was one of the best Italian restaurants in the city.
It sounded fabulous to Haven. One, because she was starving, and two, because she loved Italian food.
Once inside, where Liz had made a reservation, they were met by Jenna, Gavin's sister, and Tara, Liz's sister-in-law. Tara was married to Gavin's brother, Mick, who was currently playing football for San Francisco. Jenna's husband, Tyler, played hockey for the St. Louis Ice.
"Savannah can't make it tonight. She's out of town working a consulting gig for some big-shot Hollywood star," Liz explained as they got to their seats. "Savannah is married to Alicia's brother, Cole, who plays for the Traders."
Haven blinked. "You all make my head spin. And I'm sorry I won't get to meet Savannah tonight."
"Some other time," Jenna said with a grin. "I think there are enough of us here that we'll make a party of it."
"Who's minding your club tonight, Jenna?" Alicia asked.
"My assistant manager. She's doing a great job, so I can take a few days off now and then." Jenna turned to Haven. "I have a music club that I started up last year. It's doing pretty well."
"I heard about it," Haven said. "It sounds amazing. And congratulations."
"Thanks. It's been fun. It hardly seems like work when there's music involved."
"Jenna sings beautifully," Liz said. "I keep pushing her to record her music and go for a record deal. She's resisting me."
Jenna waved her hand. "I'm happy where I am, staying an amateur."
"Now I'm really curious," Haven said. "I'm going to have to stop at your club and hear you sing."
"You're welcome anytime."
Their waitress came by and took drink orders.
"Just sparkling water for me," Liz said. "I'm the designated driver tonight."
They decided on a bottle of cabernet to share and a couple of appetizers as well.
"I hear you're profiling Trevor Shay," Tara said. "That must be interesting. I know Mick has talked about playing against him in football. He's quite the athlete."
"He's definitely interesting. We've captured a lot of him on film and I haven't run out of interview questions for him yet."
"Haven's actually known him for a lot of years. They went to the same college, and her parents were his dorm parents," Alicia said.
"Oh, really?" Jenna said. "So you're friends with him. That probably helps."
"It has."
Their waitress brought the wine and poured for everyone. It was incredible, and Haven felt immediately more relaxed after a few sips.
"Or are you and Trevor more than friends yet?" Liz asked with a waggle of her brow.
"Oh, is there something going on between the two of you?" Tara asked.
"Liz," Alicia said. "You're such a busybody."
"That's me, honey. Always up in everyone's business. But that night we were all together at your place, Alicia, I definitely saw some sparks when Trevor and Haven looked at each other. I'm just doing follow-up."
"I have . . . no comment," Haven said, returning Liz's smile over the rim of her wineglass.
"I think that means yes," Jenna said.
Haven should have been uncomfortable with the line of questioning. But actually, she enjoyed it, liked the ease and camaraderie with these women. They weren't mean-spirited, they were fun and genuinely curious. And God, she liked having women friends to talk to.
They ordered dinner, and she loved that everyone selected something different. She was going to enjoy seeing their food.
"Mick's got three road games in a row," Tara said as she took a bite of her salad. "Which means I'm going to have to rely on Mom to help me with Sam. Thank God I have her. If we hadn't made the move to come back here, I don't know what I would have done. I have to deal with my business, which is picking up a lot, and I love having the little guy, but now that Nathan is off at college, I'm kind of on my own when Mick is out of town."
Tara shifted to look at Haven. "Nathan is my other son. I had him when I was very young, well before I met Mick. So yes, I have one kid in college, plus a toddler. I know, it sounds insane."
Haven grinned. "It sounds like a beautiful family. You're very lucky."
"Thanks. I feel that way. Crazy sometimes, but still, so happy." Tara turned back to Liz. "Anyway, I'm kind of on my own when Mick is out of town."
"I know what you mean," Liz said. "Since Genevieve arrived, it's been great, but I'm still on maternity leave. As soon as I go back to work-which will be all too soon for my liking-I'm going to have to give serious thought to hiring a nanny." She finished that off by scrunching her nose.
"You know Gavin's mom will be happy to help out," Tara said. "She's offered to babysit."
"I know she has, but she's already watching Sam, and I don't want to burden her with an infant. Besides, Genevieve is a handful. To burden her with an infant when she's already watching a toddler? I don't know."
"Uncle Jimmy can deal with Sam while Aunt Kathleen takes care of the baby," Alicia said. "I think they could do it."
"They could, and they wouldn't balk. I'll have to talk to Gavin about it. Plus, he'll be available to watch the baby once baseball season is over with, but that's only a few months."
"And babies need consistency," Jenna said. Then she shrugged. "Or at least that's what I've heard. Since I'm not a mom, I'm just offering useless advice."
Tara laughed. "Your advice is never useless. Everyone's welcome to weigh in."
Jenna waved her hands. "No, thanks. I have enough issues just trying to decide what kind of vodka to order for my bar. I'll leave the baby stuff for you and Liz to deal with."
"Well, now that you and Tyler have been married almost a year, when will-"
"Not yet," Jenna said, cutting Tara off midsentence. "We're not ready for babies yet. I want a couple of years with just him and me together as a married couple before we start popping out babies."
"Fine." Tara affected a pout. "I'll ask again this time next year."
Jenna laughed. "You do that."
"See how much fun this is, Haven?" Liz said. "We used to talk about men and sex. Now it's babies."
"We still talk about men and sex. We just haven't finished the wine yet, and Liz isn't drinking because she's driving-and breast-feeding."
Liz frowned at Alicia. "So you're saying I'm the drunken instigator of all the men-and-sex conversations?"
"Typically, yes." Tara gave her a direct look.
"I'll have you know I don't need to be drunk to talk about sex. As a matter of fact, Gavin and I just recently jumped back on the sex train, postbaby. And it was about damn time."
Haven was very much enjoying this conversation. She could understand why they were all so close.
"Really," Tara said. "And how did that go?"
"I was a little leery at first. I mean, after you poke a seven-pound infant out of your vagina, things are a little tender down there at first. When I first had Genevieve I told Gavin his cock was never coming near me again."
Tara laughed. "I remember having a similar conversation with Mick after Sam was born."
"This isn't making me want to have children anytime soon," Jenna said with a grimace at Haven and Alicia.
"Or, quite possibly, ever," Haven added.
Alicia clinked her glass with Haven's. "Seriously."
"Oh, but it gets better," Liz said. "Everything healed up and I got horny again."
"Of course you did," Alicia said with an added eye roll.
"And let me tell you, the first time having sex when you haven't had sex for about eight weeks?" Liz waggled her brows. "It was like a fireworks show. I can't tell you how many orgasms I had."
Alicia leaned over toward Haven. "You'll get used to Liz. She's very descriptive about her sex life."
"And she forces us all to talk about ours," Jenna added.
Liz snorted. "Oh, right. I force you. You love talking about all that hot sex you and your hockey stud have."
Jenna studied her fingernails. "It's not my fault. You bring out the worst in me."
Haven laughed. She had no idea she was going to have so much fun listening to women talk about sex and babies.
They ate, and drank more wine. Every course was amazing. Haven had the veal, which was tender and delicious. By the time she finished eating, she was full and desperately needed to get up and walk around a bit. She was thankful their next trip was to a club Liz had picked out for them, and even more grateful when Liz said she planned for them to dance their asses off tonight, because she needed to burn some calories.
They'd spent several hours drinking wine and talking about their careers, their men, and life in general.