Reading between the lines, she said, “I love you, too.”
He pulled her in for one last kiss, winked, and waved as he drove away. Twelve days. It’s only twelve days. When his car disappeared around the corner, Reno whined, and she reached down to pet him. “I know. It’s going to be the longest twelve days of our lives.”
Chapter Seventeen
“STOP BEING SO stubborn! He loves you. He just doesn’t know how to tell you!” Amber shouted at Keira Knightley in Pride and Prejudice, which was playing on the television, just as she’d done the dozens of other times she’d watched it. It was one of her favorite movies.
Reno lifted his head from where he lay on the floor beside her.
“He’s not wrong for her. Look at me and Dash.”
Reno tilted his head at the mention of Dash’s name.
A pang of longing washed over her. Her body hurt from her seizure, but she’d wanted to go to work this afternoon anyway to keep her mind off Dash and the seizure, both of which had thrown her for a loop, but Phoenix had threatened to quit if she showed up at the bookstore. So here she was, having a picnic on her living room floor, watching a movie she knew by heart. She surveyed the plethora of half-eaten foods from the diner surrounding her on the blanket. Dash had been gone for only two hours, and she’d tried to eat her way past missing him.
Comfort food wasn’t nearly as comforting as having Dash’s arms around her.
She scooped macaroni and cheese onto what was left of a hamburger and shoved it into her mouth as a knock sounded on the front door. Before she could get up, the door flew open and Brindle, Sable, Morgyn, and Lindsay charged in.
Brindle shifted Emma in her arms and stopped in her tracks, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head. “Whoa. Houston, we have a problem.”
“You keep eating like that, and Dash will have to roll you out of here.” Lindsay sauntered over to the blanket.
“Roll her into the bedroom is more like it.” Sable put her hand on her hip, her cowgirl hat perched on her head. “Something tells me he won’t mind.”
“Cut her some slack, you guys. Can’t you see she’s missing him? She’s even wearing his sweatshirt.” Morgyn hurried closer, bell bottoms swishing along the floor, bangles jangling on her wrists as she knelt beside the blanket and tossed her long blond hair over her shoulders, her expression softening. “Are you okay, Amb?”
“I’m fine.” She didn’t want anyone thinking she was lost without Dash, even if she felt like a piece of herself was missing. “I was just hungry. What are you guys doing here?”
“Hello?” Brindle said sarcastically. “You had a seizure yesterday, your boyfriend told you he loves you, and he left today. We were worried about you, and from the looks of things, we have reason to be.”
Amber turned off the television. “I’m really okay.”
“Did you hear that?” Sable raised her brows. “That was my bullshit meter going off.”
“You guys have already done so much. You took care of me yesterday, and all of you took over the signing, and Morgyn and Brindle even went to dinner with Shea and Hawk.”
“Dinner was hardly a hardship,” Morgyn said. “We had fun.”
“Fun drooling over Hawk. That man is hotter than all get-out,” Lindsay said.
“You’re not kidding,” Brindle agreed. “He and Shea nearly combusted at dinner.”
“I’m glad you had fun.” Amber leaned forward and hugged Morgyn. Then she pushed to her feet to hug the others.
Sable rolled her eyes. “Why are there always hugs?”
“Because I love you.” Amber hugged her tight. “Dash said all of you guys were wonderful at the signing.”
“Aren’t we always?” Brindle said. “He did great, by the way. But he must have asked me a hundred times if I’d heard from Mom or Sable to see how you were.”
“He was a wreck when he got here yesterday,” Sable said. “He was worried he’d caused her seizure.”
“He didn’t cause it. You know that.” Amber tried to ignore the smirks her sisters were exchanging, and reached for Emma. She was adorable in striped leggings and a long-sleeved shirt Sable had given her, which had BOYS DROOL, AUNTIES RULE across the front.
“Of course he didn’t,” Morgyn said.
“His goal post did.” Lindsay laughed.
“Amber’s not used to all those late-night touchdowns,” Brindle added.
“Would you tell your mama to stop?” Amber said to Emma, and nuzzled against her cheek, earning drooly motorboat noises. Emma squealed, reaching her grabby hands toward the food. “Is she hungry? Can I give her something?”
“She’s always hungry. That girl can eat her daddy under the table.” Brindle tickled Emma’s tummy, and Emma’s giggles filled the air.
Lindsay nudged Amber. “I heard Daddy likes to eat Mommy under the table.”
Everyone laughed.
“What can I say? My man is good on his knees,” Brindle said with a laugh. “You can give Emmie some macaroni noodles, but I didn’t bring a bib.”
“It’s a little scary how you can go from sexy talk to baby talk so easily.” Amber sat with Emma on her lap and handed her a noodle. Eyes wide with delight, Emma shoved it into her mouth.
“Wait until you have kids,” Brindle said. “You learn to fit your sexy in every which way you can. It’s a good thing babies don’t remember when they’re this age, or our baby girl would have all sorts of naughty stories to tell.”
“How about you keep those stories to yourself. I don’t want to lose my appetite,” Sable said, and she and Lindsay sat down on the blanket.
Brindle grabbed Amber’s laptop from the end table and joined them, her fingers flying across the keyboard. “I promised Pepper and Grace I’d get them on a video call when we got here. Axsel had band practice, but he said he’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Don’t forget to add Trixie and Jilly to the call,” Lindsay said.
Brindle gave her a deadpan look. “Like I could forget them? They’ve been texting all morning.” Trixie Jericho and Jillian Braden, Graham and Nick’s younger sister, lived in Pleasant Hill, Maryland.
As Amber gave Emma more noodles, which Emma immediately fed to Reno, she looked around her at the women who had been there for all of her trials, tribulations, and celebrations, and she felt monumentally blessed. “It’s been so long since I’ve had a seizure, I forgot how everyone huddled around me afterward. I’m really glad you’re here.”
“Oh, darlin’, this is about much more than your typical seizure aftercare. Your man told you he loved you when you were bleary-eyed from a seizure.” Lindsay rubbed her hands together. “We want all the juicy lovesick details.”
“After we talk about your seizure.” Pepper’s voice came from the laptop as Brindle set it on the coffee table so they could all see it. Pepper might be Sable’s twin, but she was as proper and careful as Sable was brash and risky.
Amber braced herself for an inquisition as Pepper, Grace, Trixie, and Jillian said hello to everyone and gushed over Emma. While Grace, Sable, Amber, and Axsel were brunettes like their mother, and Morgyn and Brindle were fair-haired like their father, Pepper was a beautiful mix of both.