Ollie tipped her head back and laughed. “You always say that when I win, Grams.” Ollie hurried out of the chair. “I’ll get it,” she called and ran down the hall toward the family suite they’d stayed in last summer. Levi came through the door, glancing at her and then her brothers.
Grayson nodded in Jilly’s direction then rose from his seat. “We’re on cleanup, Bright. Why don’t you grab a coffee and sit down while we take care of it?”
Levi watched her closely and she could feel the energy hummingbetween them. This was real. And if she didn’t want to mess it up, or land flat on her face, she needed to pull herself together.
“We’re going for a walk.”
His lips tipped up on one side. “I’ll save your dessert.”
“I like dessert,” Ollie said, coming back into the room with her card game.
Everyone laughed. Levi shrugged. “I’ll try to save you some, but if she’s anything like you, she’s going to love that s’more.”
He winked at her. She had wine, good girlfriends, brothers who cared enough to show it, and Levi Bright winking at her before going to feed her daughter a homemade, gourmet s’more. As teenaged Jilly would have said: What even was her life right now?
Seventeen
The walk was short-lived and easily traded in for some back-porch-under-the-stars time. There were technically two back porches; one with the hot tub, built farther out from the house, sort of off to the side. This one, attached to the house, was a place Jilly had grown fond of last summer when she and Ollie had been living in the lodge’s family suite.
Jilly curled into one of the cushions on the outdoor sectional couch, careful not to jostle her wine. Presley was wrapped in a plaid blanket, curled up at the far end, her own wine in hand. Lainey lit the propane fire table before sitting down between them, right in the corner, then picked her wine up from the table and lifted it in cheers.
After filling them in on the things making her heart and her mind wrestle with each other, Jilly stared up at the night sky, trying to count the stars until her breathing calmed.
“Andrew is a monkey butt,” Lainey said, breaking the silence.
Presley sipped her wine. “That sounds like something Ollie would say.”
Jill laughed. “That doesn’t make it less true.”
“Levi’s a good man, from what I’ve seen for myself so far anddefinitely from what I’ve heard,” Presley said, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders.
Noises creaked and croaked through the trees. Looking toward the lodge, Jillian could see shadows of people moving in the dining area. Her family. Gramps. Levi.
She’d miss her parents when they left. This lodge had become a second home to them. It didn’t have the backyard where she and Beckett and Gray had played and argued, made up games, and chased each other around, but they were making new memories here. When Ollie was seven, her brothers and dad had built a cute little playhouse that mimicked her parents’. It now sat nestled in some trees near the start of the kids’ hiking trail. Her mom had created a little garden around the cobblestone walkway her dad built last summer. It made her smile every time she looked at it. Even though now, Ollie said she wished she had a zipline instead of a playhouse.
“Spill,” Presley said, nudging Jilly in the shoulder.
Jill looked at her would-be sister-in-law. “I’ve known him since we were kids. I can separate the past from the present. I’m not a kid anymore. Ihavea kid. There’s already too many feelings for it to be a fling or one-night stand. And that’s not really my thing anyway. Though, relationships aren’t my strong suit, and who knows what he’s actually looking for.”
“He looks at you like you’re a hell of a lot more than a fling, Jilly,” Lainey said, leaning back in her seat. “You might be jaded toward relationships because of your dipshit ex, but you’re not blind and Levi Bright is not subtle.”
She wanted to believe that it meant as much to him as it did to her, but Andrew calling today had messed with her belief in her ability to separate fact and fiction. Maybe she was just looking at it all through a fifteen-year-old’s rose-colored glasses.
“She’s right. He looks at you the way I hope Beckett looks at me,” Presley said.
Both Lainey and Jilly quickly confirmed that Beckett looked at her with hearts in his eyes.
“And if he still wanted to kiss you after your first attempt, you know he’s into you,” Lainey said with a quiet giggle.
“Shut up,” Jill warned.
“When was your first attempt? Why haven’t I heard this?” Presley sat up straighter.
“You have to tell her,” Lainey said.
“You have to tell me,” Presley said, scooting closer.
Jilly sighed. “I wanted to kiss him so badly. I was only fifteen. He was leaving because he’d gotten a scholarship to an elite culinary school.”
