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I love it.

“Come on, Aunt Grace, if I’m going to read this stuff, wouldn’t it be better to be in a discussion about it with your grown-up, mature friends instead of mine, who are all anxious to be the first to lose their virginity?”

“Oh, hell, Layla, do you talk to your dad about this stuff?”

“No way. He’d lose his mind and tell me I have to find all new friends.”

I laugh. “I’m about to tell you the same thing, because you should not be having sex at your age or for the next ten years.”

“Or, you could just let me come with you. Please. Please. Please.”

She has a point, and I’ll probably tell Gavin anyway. A girl can only keep so many secrets.

“Fine.”

She squeals and jumps up.

“I’m headed to the spa.”

“Enjoy!” I say as she bounces out the door.

Her dad has his hands full.

I grab my phone and look at the text from Preston.

And clearly, so do I.

It’s best if I leave this one on read.

“Oh my gosh, give us all the details,” Brooke says the moment we sit down at Sips and Stories for a much-needed girls’ night.

“Yessss, I need to know everything,” Sadie says as she carries a bottle of champagne and a bottle of orange juice from Hudson’s bar, which is connected to her bookstore. Technically, since she’s married to the bar owner, she owns both, but still, the bookstore where we are tonight is her dream.

My gaze wanders over shelf after shelf of books. Romance books, to be more specific.

It’s what all of us girls here have bonded over during the years. It started with Brooke and Sadie. I started to trickle in at some point with Shay, and then Quinn and Ruby made an appearance. Life over the past few years has made it harder for us to all be together at once, but that happens when some of us are getting married and having kids and others, like me, are trying to save their family business with a fake engagement.

You know, the topic they all want the details on. All these women have ever heard me say is how much I loathe Preston King. They are going to see right through me. Especially Shay. We used to be inseparable. Now she’s married with babies, and although our friendship is everlasting, life looks different for us these days.

I shrug and smile. “I mean, it’s all pretty crazy to me, too.”

And that’s not a lie, but it’s the best answer I can give right now without giving too much away.

Not to mention Layla, sitting next to me, hanging on to every word coming out of my mouth.

“Um, yeah.” Brooke pours her mimosa first. “I can still picture you running in the other direction at the kickoff festival last summer when Preston was looking for you.”

“Right?” Layla adds, and everyone looks at her, then at me.

“Just go with it,” I say and shake my head with a smile.

Layla rolls her eyes.

“But really, you’ve avoided him so much over the years,” Sadie adds.

I nod slowly. That checks out. I typically avoid Preston when he’s in town. He’d always be in front of me, asking what I had planned for the night or something. There was a point in time when I humored him and answered all his questions. A part of me thought that maybe he was asking because he wanted to take me to dinner or something, but then he would just say okay and walk off.

Ugh. It annoys me just thinking about it.