Addicted After All(194)

Before I reach Lil, her older sister cuts me off, glowering at me. “You couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate costume,” I tell Rose, popping the tab of my drink.

“Do you even know what I am?” she retorts, her hands haughtily placed on her hips. I scan her costume: a black tutu, black paint over her eyes, and her hair in a bun.

“A devil. Oh wait, that’s not your costume. That’s just you.” Clearly, she’s dressed as the Black Swan, pulling off a Natalie Portman look.

“If I was a devil, my trident would be halfway up your ass by now.” She pokes my chest with her finger. “I gave you my sketches last week and they’re still unopened.”

“Calloway Couture Babies will survive if I take a couple extra days to look through them,” I remind her. “And really, you don’t need my approval.”

“Yes I do,” she retorts. “We’re business partners.”

I laugh. “That’s the scariest thing I’ve heard all day.”

Her lips twitch in a smile. “Just look at them.”

I nod. “I will.”

She flips her hair with her hand and her yellow-green eyes land on her husband, who’s chatting with the neighbors. He wears a fake smile, even with the vampire teeth. And he cradles his daughter in his arms, who’s dressed in a white tutu and headband.

Before she can march over to him, Connor notices her approaching and breaks away from his conversation with the neighbors. Rose narrows her eyes at the fake teeth in his mouth. “Those probably make you slur and yet you’re still schmoozing.”

“It’s what I’m good at,” Connor says, clearly. Her eyes turn to fire and he only grins wider. Jesus. “Assumptions are what you aren’t good at, darling”

“I’m better at them than you, and that’s all that matters.” She holds out her hands for Jane. “Come here, little gremlin. We’re matching. You don’t need to be in the hands of an egotistical vampire.”

Connor beams and when they stare at each other it’s like two dominant personalities equalizing out. Impossible. But somehow right. I shake my head and leave their sides just as they turn their conversation to French.

I finally make it back to Lily, sliding next to her. I hand her the cookie and then lift Moffy in my arms.

“Have you seen Daisy?” Ryke suddenly asks us, coming over with a plate of chips and spinach dip. “I can’t f*cking find her.”

“Check the moon,” I tell him.

He gives me a weird look.

My lips pull in a dry smile. “That’s where she claims she goes in her answering machine message.”

“Hilarious.” He pops a chip in his mouth.

Moffy squirms, waking from his nap. He tries to suck on my finger, and before I ask, Lil passes me his bottle. I press it to his lips, and he eagerly grips the sides as he drinks.

Then Lily makes a gasping noise.

“What?” I quickly look up at her, but she’s not focused on Moffy.

“You don’t see it,” she says, trying to cover my eyes. Hers are planted on something by the apple bobbing tub.

“Too late,” I tell her, my gaze narrowing at Garrison dressed as nothing. He just wears all-black. And he fixes my sister’s wet hair off her forehead, her costume: Chun-Li from Street Fighter. His hand brushes her hip, and she lets out a nervous laugh.

I like him. But I like her more. Willow is my responsibility while she lives in Philly, and his track-record is shit.

“They’re cute,” Lily reminds me.

I shake my head and grimace the longer I watch this young romance unfold. I wonder if we were that love sick growing up.

Ryke tells Lily, “He’s a f*cking hormonal teenage guy with anger issues. It’s not cute.”

Lily swallows a bite of cookie. “I was a hormonal teenage girl. Minus the teenage part, I still kind of am…”

“And you’re adorable,” I tell Lily, kissing her temple.

“Anger issues,” Ryke emphasizes, licking his fingers.

Garrison slings his arm around Willow’s waist. Great. Quickly, I press a hand to Moffy’s ear and shout, “Hey! You two!”

Willow and Garrison’s heads whip over to the hay bales across the pool. It takes a single Hale death-glare for them to break apart like a bomb exploded at their feet.

“That was mean,” Lily tells me.

Ryke butts in, “You wouldn’t think it was mean if you knew the shit he said about you.”