The phone buzzed almost immediately with their three affirmative replies. That was that, then.
“Well,” I said, setting my phone face down and repeating my own thoughts out loud, “that’s that.”
“Proud of you,” Brandon said.
“Terrified for you,” Kara added with a wink.
I forced a laugh and picked up my sad mason jar again. Around me, the buzz of craft night picked back up as our other friends came back into the fray. They all crafted and chatted and guffawed with laughter while I pretended that the world hadn’t just shifted under my feet.
Well, it hadn’t done the shifting quite yet. But maybe it was just beginning to.
24
LUCA
“If I never have to go to that piss-poor excuse for a diner again, it’ll be too soon,” Gavin grumbled from the front seat as he turned down the street leading to Marv’s.
“The food is pretty good, at least,” Cade jumped in. I rolled my eyes from my spot in the back of the SUV—as the youngest of the three of us, and maybe the least assertive too, I always ended up “riding bitch,” as Gavin used to call it.
“And none of us are mad about seeing Allie again, no matter where it is,” I pointed out. I was the only one of us who was willing to admit such a thing. Maybe I was just the most pathetically down bad, but I liked to think it was because I was the most emotionally mature, despite what the numbers said.
“Yeah, well,” Gavin started, clearing his throat in a nervous way. “I’m not exactly stoked at the idea that she’s gonna tell us who Daphne’s dad is today.”
Even though I wasn’t in the running for that particular piece of news, I could understand the apprehension. I felt it myself, if only because I worried knowing the truth of who shared DNA with Allie’s daughter, her heart outside of her body, it would affect my connection with her. Weaken it.
“What scenario would be best, do you think?” I asked my friends, trying to catch glimpses of their expressions, even though all I could see from the back seat were parts of their profiles.
“Hell if I know,” Gavin answered after a beat. “You’d think I’d want the woman I’ve hooked up with all of twice?—”
“Three times,” Cade corrected him quietly, and I bristled at the implication that the two of them had shared her recently. Why did I feel like I’d been left out of some schoolyard game at recess?
“Three times,” Gavin agreed, continuing his thought. “You’d think I’d want this woman I’ve hooked up witha few timesto not have gotten pregnant with my child all those years ago. But if she’s Cade’s…”
He trailed off, and we all could hear the unspoken sentiment. It’d be hard for any of us, regardless of the outcome, to get confirmation one way or the other. God knew I was already struggling, knowing the little girl I’d grown to care for so deeply belonged to someone who wasn’t me. We had no idea how the paternity claim would change our roles in Allie’s life.
“Allie’s not just someone we’ve hooked up with though,” I said, testing the waters carefully. I could only speak for myself, but I had a strong inclination that my friends were in similar states of emotional confusion. “It’s…morenow. Right?”
Gavin let out a grunt. “Fine. It’s more. But like…are we just gonna keep pretending this isn’t weird? I mean, we’ve all slept with her. All of us.”
Cade snorted. “We all slept with her years ago. At the same time.”
“It’s only weird if we make it weird, I think,” I said, my face heating up, though they thankfully couldn’t see it. “Or…if Allie thinks it’s weird.”
“Maybe,” Cade said. Silence fell, only the rumble of the car’s engine filling the space. Carrying us closer and closer to Marv’s.
“Feels a little anticlimactic,” I said without thinking.
“What, you want us to fight or something?” Cade suggested, and Gavin laughed.
“Right. We’re gonna take our shirts off and brawl in the parking lot.”
“Old-school alpha male style,” I agreed somberly. “No other choice. Only question is, should we oil up first or just wing it?”
“Please don’t say oil up,” Cade groaned. “I can never unhear that.”
We were all laughing now. The tension broke, a rubber band stretched too far. In the mirror, I caught both of their eyes, and for a second, I saw it—the same stupid affection I felt for Allie mirrored back at me from two of my best friends. None of us wanted to walk away. And at least if it was up to us, it looked like we wouldn’t have to.
Allie was a different question entirely.
