Not Broken: The Happily Ever After(37)
“Good thing I’m dating an interior designer then. She can help me pick out all new stuff. Saves me the trouble of making it look like some bachelor pad only for you to change it when you move in. Eventually...eventually move in,” I added, seeing the look of protest on her face. “But we’ll worry about that tomorrow. Today we have to just go get a grill and some lawn chairs, since the first official celebration in this place will be in honor of your birthday.”
“What did you do?”
“Who me? Nothing...much. Just having a small family gathering.” The frown on her face got bigger. “Don’t blame me entirely, you know Macy. No way she was letting you not celebrate your birthday again.”
She laughed. “Your sister is very bossy.”
“You picked her as your friend. I didn’t get a choice in having her be my sister.”
“So, this is my fault then?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Chapter 20
Calida
Walking into my house, I welcomed the quiet after spending all day with Malcolm and our families. As much as I loved them, I always felt as though I was being watched. How’s Calida doing? Is she smiling enough? How’s she acting around Malcolm? On top of fielding relationship questions, they all assumed the next step would be me moving in with Mal. It was exhausting to keep up with everything they expected from me. I now had to add being self-conscious about how much I drank after the comment Malcolm made.
Shawn squirmed in my arms, readjusting himself as he slept. Placing a kiss on his nose, I repositioned him to better adjust his weight before maneuvering up the stairs. He was getting so big, and he seemed to double in weight when he slept.
Dorian was coming in just as I got back downstairs. All I wanted to do was curl up on the sofa with a glass of wine and enjoy the silence, so I prayed she wasn’t in a talkative mood.
“How was the cookout?”
“Good. Sorry you missed it.”
She rolled her eyes. “You are such a crap liar.”
I walked over to the bar, grabbed a bottle of Chardonnay from the wine fridge, and pulled down two glasses. “I’ll work on that.”
I popped the cork, and filled one of the glasses, and held it out toward her. She took it from my outstretched hand, kicked off her shoes then headed over to the sofa. I let out a small sigh, realizing she had no plans to head downstairs. I filled my own glass, before carrying it and the bottle over to join her.
“Here.” She handed me an envelope. “Happy birthday.” I stared at her before taking it. “What?”
“You’ve not gotten me a gift in years. Most times, I was surprised you remembered to send me a text.”
She took a sip of her wine. “It’s the least I can do since you so graciously let me stay here.”
I handed her my glass, so I could open my present. It was a gift certificate for a full weekend getaway at a luxury resort in Asheville, NC—a romantic getaway for two. Et tu, Dorian?
Folding the paper, I stuck it back in the envelope. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. And it has a two-year window, so no rush on using it.”
I smiled, taking my glass back from her. “Two years. Well that’s nice.”
She raised an eyebrow and gave me a once-over. “Figured you’d appreciate that.”
I nodded, and took a drink of my wine. I did appreciate it, more than she knew, or maybe not based on the look she gave me.
“That’s new,” she commented, pointing toward my neck.
My hand went to the necklace in response. My fingers ran across the rough surface of the diamonds inlaid in the infinity symbol. “It was my gift from Malcolm. To match the ring.” My thumb rubbed across the smooth metal on my finger. I made a mental note to get the roses out of my car later.
“The infinity symbol, how very romantically cheesy.”
“Look, you can talk shit about me all you want, but not him. Understand?”
She held her hands up in mock surrender. “Whoa there, Sally, I wasn’t talking shit. Well, not really. While that whole never-ending-love thing is a little cheesy, I have to admit the sentiment is actually kind of sweet.” She stopped to take another drink of wine before grabbing the bottle to refill her glass. I held mine out to be topped off as well. “Daniel certainly never made any gestures like that. Hell, even his proposal was less than romantic, more like a business deal.”
I sat back, quietly drinking my wine, unsure of how to respond. Dorian and I didn’t do heart to heart sisterly chats. We certainly didn’t talk about men and relationships unless she was flaunting hers in my face, as she’d done for so many years. Now, for the first time since she mentioned getting divorced, she actually looked sad over it.
“At least he asked you,” I said quietly, before taking a large gulp of wine. I didn’t know what possessed me to say that, and especially to her, but it came out before I could stop it.
She frowned, “Oh, please, you know Malcolm would ask you in a heartbeat if he didn’t think you’d say no.”
Dodged bullet, she didn’t know I was talking about Seth. However, I hated that she was correct about Malcolm. Now, that he had Macy’s blessing in dating me, he acted as if we’d been in this relationship for years.