Page 80 of Always Be Mine
“Great party, Lucy.” Annie offered her a beer, but she shook her head.
“I’ll have a drink when all the children have been safely delivered back to their parents.”
“Fair enough.”
“I’ll have yours.” Kat joined them and grabbed the beer from Annie’s hand. She popped the cap off and tipped back the bottle, drinking down half of it while the rest of the women watched in wonder.
“Something on your mind, sis?” Charli grimaced. “Or are you just really thirsty?”
“I was just…” She sighed dramatically. “You know when you’re expecting something to happen and you’ve really been looking forward to it, but then it doesn’t happen and you’re just…”
“Disappointed?” Annie offered.
“Yes.” Kat pointed the bottle in her direction. “Disappointed. I am disappointed.” She tipped the bottle back and drank deeply again. “Very, very disappointed.”
“Anything you want to talk about?” Annie asked.
“Nope.” Kat finished her drink. “Sure don’t. But I do need something to do tonight now. What’s everyone up to? We should have a girl’s night out.”
She didn’t mean to do it out loud, but Lucy groaned at the idea.
“If you don’t want to hang out with us, Lucy, just say so.” Charli pretended to look offended.
“Oh no! It’s not you guys, honestly.” Truthfully, Lucy would have loved to hang out with all of them, and a ladies’ night would probably be a lot of fun. Under different circumstances. “I’m straight up exhausted. The only thing I want to do is crawl into bed and sleep for nine hours.” She couldn’t tell them that besides the party, the reason she was so tired was because she’d been up until well past midnight cuddling with Craig and sneaking kisses the night before. And the night before that. And the night before that.
“Fair enough.” Kat nodded. “Another time?”
“Absolutely.”
“I’m out, too.” Charli stretched backward in her chair and pushed her belly up and out. “Baby says no to late nights.”
“Baby doesn’t know what she’s missing.” Kat blew a kiss in the direction of Charli’s baby bump. “Annie?”
“I don’t know, Kat. I was actually going to offer to keep Meri overnight tonight to give Lucy the night off.”
Lucy perked up.A night off?
“Technically, I’m not on the clock this weekend,” she admitted. Lucy tried not to look excited about the prospect of her and Craig having the house to themselves with no chance that Meri could walk in on them at any moment. The last few weeks had been so busy with the school year winding down, and then Meri’s birthday, despite the fact that they were in the same house, she felt like she’d barely seen Craig. Her body vibrated at the thought of finally being alone with him.
“Lucy?”
She blinked and swiveled in her chair to look at Annie, who stared at her, waiting for a response to a question she hadn’t heard. “Sorry. I…what were you saying?”
“You must be tired.” Annie laughed. “I was just saying that Craig mentioned how even when you’re not officially working, you’re always kind of helping out with Meri.”
“He did?”
Annie nodded. “He was going on and on about how great you are with her and how hiring you as her nanny was the best decision he’d ever made.”
A strange sensation flowed through her. On one hand, she was happy that Craig said such glowing things about her, but on the other, it stung a little to hear that he’d called her thenanny.Which was stupid, because that’s exactly what she was. Still.
“I’m glad he thinks it’s working out so well.”
“Oh, I think it’s working outverywell.” Kat wiggled her eyebrows.
Of all his siblings, Lucy was the most concerned about Kat discovering that there was something going on between them.
She opted to play dumb. “It is. Meri’s great.”
