Say It Again (First Wives, #5)(97)

“Enjoy it,” Shannon told her. “Don’t let some guy come in and mess that up for a while.”

“Hey.” Victor, Shannon’s husband, nudged her arm.

“She’s only eighteen.”

Victor narrowed his eyes. “Then why are you drinking?”

Claire laughed. “There’s a rule, if you speak more than four languages, you get to consume alcohol.”

“That’s not a rule,” Wade said.

She scanned the room. “Everyone here who didn’t have a drink before they were twenty-one, please raise their hands.”

Crickets . . .

She lifted her glass. “Cheers.”

AJ sat on the arm of the sofa, placed his hand on Sasha’s shoulder. “I’m taking Claire home. She isn’t driving,” he told everyone.

“How long are you guys staying in town?” Reed asked.

Sasha glanced at AJ. “We’re going to stay through the twenty-sixth. Neil’s wife invited us over for . . . what do they call it?” AJ asked.

“Boxing Day,” Sasha reminded him.

“Yeah, I guess it’s a thing.”

“I’m so happy you decided to join us. I hope we can expect to see you more often,” Trina said.

Sasha felt AJ squeeze her shoulder. “As long as no one gives me the pregnant pills, I’ll be . . .” She paused. “We’ll be around.”

Trina stood and grabbed a package from behind the chair. “I know we said no adult gifts, but I thought you might like this.”

Trina handed her the present. The gold metallic wrapping paper and silver ribbon sparkled in the white lights of the room. “Trina . . .”

“I know.”

Sasha ran her hand over the package and felt tears in her eyes.

“You’re not supposed to cry until after you open it,” Reed teased.

Sasha glanced at the eager faces around the room, her eyes landing on Claire.

“Gifts mean a lot more when you never get them,” Claire told everyone in the room.

Avery moaned. “Okay, now I’m going to cry.”

“Never get presents?” AJ asked.

“By-product of being an orphan.” She wiped the tears and opened the gift. Two framed photographs. Sasha ran her hand down the picture of Alice and Fedor. The woman who saved her and her half brother she never had the chance to meet. Her throat knotted. The second picture was of Trina, Wade, and Lilly.

She was crying again.

“I know you move around a lot. I thought you might like to bring your family with you.”

Sasha set the photographs down and choked back her emotions. She stood and crossed the room to her onetime sister-in-law. She opened her arms and hugged her for the first time.

When she let go, she realized that nothing had shattered, and nothing had hurt, that maybe hugging wasn’t such a bad thing.

“Looks like it’s time to open stuff up.” Liam took his son’s hand and led him to the Christmas tree.

For the next half hour, the toddlers opened presents and the parents of sleeping babies opened things for their children. And Claire. Watching her open several gifts from people she hardly knew was a gift in itself.

Trina waved Sasha over into the kitchen, where she was talking with Lori, Avery, and Shannon. “All right, ladies. I thought since we’ve been a little too busy to have our club meeting, maybe it’s time for something different.”

“What meeting?” Sasha asked.

“We called it the First Wives Club,” Avery said.

“And since we’re all married . . .” Trina stopped, glanced at Sasha. “Okay, you’re not, but from the looks of things, that isn’t going to be long.”

“That’s assuming a lot,” Sasha said.

Trina paused. “Sure, okay.” She reached into a bag and pulled out four copies of the same book. “I was thinking book club. You know, give us something to talk about other than baby clothes and diaper rash.”

“‘The Ten Million Dollar Bride’?” Lori read the title out loud.

Trina started to laugh. “Yeah, it’s about a woman who marries a man for a ten-million-dollar payout.”

“You’re kidding me?” Avery asked, laughing.

“Cathartic, right?”

“It’s a romance novel.” Lori was still looking at the cover.

“Great deduction, Einstein. It has great reviews and it made the New York Times.”

Sasha waved the book in the air. “You want me to be a part of a book club?”

Trina looked at her like she was crazy. “Well, yeah. We meet every three months. How hard can it be to read a book every three months?”

Avery tapped her copy of the book on Sasha’s arm. “If I have to read a romance novel, you have to read a romance novel.”

“I really don’t,” Sasha teased.

“I’m in,” Shannon said.

Lori set her copy aside. “Would it convince you if I told you we try and have our meetings . . . or book clubs, in different locations every time?”

“What kind of locations?”

“Any place we can shop. Paris, Barcelona, New York, San Diego.”

She looked at the book again. How painful could it be? “Okay, I’m in.”