Cuff Me(36)

“Yes,” she said automatically. “Everything’s great.”

Elena narrowed her eyes.

“Really,” Jill said. “He’s such a good guy. You all liked him.”

“Well yeah, but it doesn’t matter that we liked him,” Ava said.

“I like him too. Obviously. I love him,” Jill said.

And she did. It was just…

Every time they’d talked on the phone lately, it had felt… well, almost sibling-like.

He asked about her day, she about his. They laughed, and there were no awkward silences. She cared about what he had to say.

But something wasn’t right. She smiled whenever she saw his name on the caller ID, but there were no tummy flips. No slightly dry-of-mouth excitement to talk to him.

And there should be. Their relationship was young. They should absolutely still be in the tummy-flip stage.

And yet…

Had Jill and Tom ever really been in the tummy-flip stage?

Jill threw back the rest of her champagne.

The four women strolled out of the bridal shop empty-handed and headed toward Fifth where they’d have better luck hailing a cab.

Elena and Ava walked ahead, but Jill held back with Maggie, who was entering the waddling stage of her pregnancy and moving a bit slower.

Maggie linked her arm with Jill as they walked side-by-side in companionable silence.

All four women were good friends—Jill had known Elena the longest, of course. And then Ava had started dating Luc, and fit in marvelously.

And then came Maggie, who was welcomed to the group enthusiastically when she’d captured Anth’s heart.

But of all of them, Maggie was perhaps the kindest.

A kindness that Jill was occasionally jealous of.

Maggie was so damn sure of who she was, and who she was was just good. Maggie had once been the waitress at the diner the Morettis treated like their second home, but she’d recently made a career shift over to publishing.

A pretty perfect fit considering Mags was an author in her own right; she’d recently landed a book deal for a teen love story.

Add in the fact that she was married to the love of her life and pregnant with the first Moretti grandchild…

The bitter truth was, Maggie had everything Jill wanted.

Her footsteps faltered slightly as an alarming thought hit her upside the head.

What if that was the reason Jill had said yes to Tom’s spontaneous proposal?

Not because she wanted to marry Tom, but because she wanted everything that came with it.

Maggie stopped with her, turning her warm brown eyes on Jill in concern.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” Jill said, tugging her ponytail. “Maybe not. I don’t know.”

Maggie glanced up ahead at the other two women. “You want to go somewhere? Talk?”

Jill smiled. “You mean without Elena interrupting every five seconds?”

Maggie smiled back. “My sister-in-law can be… opinionated.”

Jill sucked in a breath at Maggie’s statement.

There. That was what was bothering her. When Maggie had said sister-in-law, Jill felt it all the way to her bones.

The truth of what was bugging Jill hit her like a bucket of ice water. Her three best friends were all part of the Moretti clan. Officially.

Elena was a Moretti. Maggie was a Moretti by marriage. And Jill had no doubt that Luc and Ava had a wedding in their future.

Which meant…

It meant that Jill was the only one of the group who wasn’t a Moretti. Would never be a Moretti.

And sure, they treated her like family now, but what about when she married Tom? What about if—when—she moved to Chicago…?

Jill sucked in a gasping breath.

Maggie put her hand on Jill’s back in alarm. “What’s going on, honey?”

“I don’t want to move to Chicago,” Jill said. The declaration came out a little breathy.

She bent over and rested both hands on her knees. Her breathing got even shorter—the air harder to come by as though it refused to enter her lungs.

Elena and Ava had apparently realized that they’d lost two of their group and turned back, and then they were there, each of them every bit as concerned as Maggie.

“What’s going on?” Ava asked.

“No big deal,” Jill said weakly. “Just having a breakdown here on the sidewalk for all to see.”

“Talk to us, Jilly,” Elena said, her voice gentler than usual.

Jill opened her mouth, but no words came out.

“She doesn’t want to move to Chicago,” Maggie explained quietly.

“Well, of course she doesn’t,” Elena cooed, cupping Jill’s face and searching her features as though looking for open wounds. “We’re not in Chicago.”

Jill smiled. Weakly, but still a smile.

“Have you told Tom this?” Ava asked.

Jill shook her head.

“You have to,” Ava said firmly. Kindly. “You’re one half of the relationship. You get a say.”

“I know,” Jill said, biting her lip. “I know that. And it’s not like he made a unilateral decision. We talked about it, and I agreed, thinking that maybe a change would…”

She broke off and the other three women waited patiently for whatever breakthrough Jill wasn’t sure she had the courage to reach for.