Awk-Weird (Ice Knights, #2)(78)
Her throat tightened, and she blinked back tears that lately always seemed to be searching for an excuse to escape as she tore the wrapping paper. Inside were two teeny tiny white socks with little paintbrushes on them. They were adorable and sweet and just… She let out a shaky breath, trying her hardest not to cry.
“I know they’re pretty basic, but the things they sell at the baby stores are so lame. Someone really needs to start a business that has some badass baby gear with a message, you know? The babies are the ones inheriting this planet we’ve managed to fuck up so thoroughly,” he said. “I left the receipt in there in case you wanted to take them back because they’re not what you want.”
Giving up on the whole dry-eyed thing, she threw her arms around Larry and hugged him tight. “They are perfect and exactly what I want. Thank you.”
He went stock-still before awkwardly patting her with three solid thumps. “You did take the grape juice, right?”
“Yes,” she said, chuckling as she let him go. “I just, well, I guess I hadn’t realized until now how lucky I am in the family I’ve found.”
“Dude, that’s modern living; we create the world we want to inhabit.” Larry gathered up all the paintbrushes and unused canvases from the painting session. “Anyway, have a good night and I’ll see you next week.” He started to walk away but stopped mid-stride. “By the way, my cousin is looking for a few hours of volunteer work, too, so after the baby comes, maybe we can have her come by during the painting session to look after your baby while you paint.”
And with that little bit of kindness, he turned and walked toward the back of Paint and Sip where all the supplies were kept.
Tess stayed frozen, processing everything that had just happened. Larry wasn’t wrong; people did create the worlds they wanted to inhabit. Sure, it didn’t always work out the way they intended, but that was the beauty of life—it was always possible to start again. Looking around at her girls who were putting on their coats and getting ready to brave the weather on the short drive to Moretti’s Bar and Grill for the traditional post-painting wine (and now seltzer), it dawned on her just how lucky she was. She’d been waiting for someone to make the world she wanted without realizing that she’d already done that.
There was only one person missing, and it was beyond time she did something about it.
“I’m gonna have to skip out on Moretti’s,” she said, brain already spinning as she tried to formulate what she’d say to Cole as soon as she saw him, how she’d explain that the temporary thing wasn’t working for her and that together just made so much more sense than separate because she loved him and hoped he could maybe start to love her, too. “There’s someone I need to go talk to.”
“At nine on a Saturday night?” Lucy asked, doubt pouring off her. “Who?”
“We don’t have to be in Tess’s business all the time,” Gina said, rolling her eyes at their workaholic bestie. “If she wants to go meet up with a mystery stranger, then it’s no business of ours even though we, of course, will always be here for her to hear what was said and how the happily ever after happened.”
Tess cocked her head and gave her friends a good scan. They looked clueless—a little too clueless—about her plans. Did they have her brain bugged? “You forgot the part about who I’m meeting.”
“Like we don’t know that already,” Fallon said as she zipped up her parka. “Why do you think I’m trying to get you to Moretti’s? I told you guys just being up front would be so much easier.”
“Not all of us are blunt like the business end of a hammer,” Gina said.
Lucy looked at Fallon and grinned. “Well, two of us definitely are.”
“You guys are totally confusing me.” Tess looked from one of her friends to the other. “Who is going to be at Moretti’s?”
“Cole Phillips,” all three said together.
Okay, that was not the answer she was expecting. And why did they look so happy about it? Earlier all three of them were deciding the best ways to hide his body. “I thought you guys were planning his painful demise.”
The three of them exchanged knowing grins.
“Let’s just say we had a feeling you might change your mind about him,” Gina said.
“My shovel’s still in the trunk, though,” Lucy added in a tone that promised it was not an exaggeration and that Harbor City’s scariest crisis communication guru was indeed in possession of a possible murder weapon.
Tess laughed, a big, loud sound that filled the Paint and Sip and earned them all a shushing from Larry as he prepped for the next class that was starting to filter in.
She gave her girls a quick group hug, her eyes doing that whole tearing-up-because-pregnancy-hormones-are-a-bitch thing again. “You guys are the absolute best friends I could ever have.”
“Friends?” Gina let out an exaggerated gasp. “I’ll have you know, we’re sisters.”
“Come on before it gets all sappy again,” Fallon said, steering them toward the door. “Let’s go see your man.”
Her man. It was as much of a strange concept as having sisters, but both fit. Her grin couldn’t have been pried off with a crowbar when she got into Lucy’s car with the ever-present Mountain Dew in the cupholder and took off toward downtown Waterbury and Moretti’s Bar and Grill. She had no idea what was going to happen next, but she was positive she was going to make sure it ended the way it should.