“I felt that way too.” He kissed my forehead. “But it’s sunny today, isn’t it?”
“It is,” I confirmed. Jen’s subsequent shriek had me grunting under my breath, and this time, I was the one who growled, “Later.”
He smiled, and I hurried away after I kissed a squirming Jake then snarled at Jen the second I was in the entryway, “You totally cockblocked me!”
She was standing at the top of the stairs, glowering down at me, but her mouth rounded in surprise at my snarl. “I did?”
I huffed as I rushed up the stairs. “Yes. You did.”
“But I thought you and Finn weren’t doing the nasty.”
“Well, we sure as hell weren’t doing it in the driveway,” I grumbled, “but, you know how it is.”
“In the air love is,” she intoned as if she were Yoda.
I snorted.
“You look gorgeous, babe,” Jen complimented. “No wonder he wants on top of you.”
My nose crinkled. “Charming.”
She grinned. “You totally wanted to bang him. Now that I think about it, you were definitely eye-fucking him.” She made a moue with her mouth. “Do you want to go back and find him? I’ll look after the monster if you want to go and get it on somewhere.”
My eyes widened in horror. “With his family and Savvie’s and everyone here?”
“Girl, trust me, you need to try it before you judge.”
“I couldn’t.”
“Finn’s vanilla, huh?” Jen queried sympathetically.
I thought about one of the last times we’d had sex before the miscarriage. When he’d fucked me on the baby grand piano…
Squirming for real now, I rasped, “No, but he wouldn’t like it if anyone heard me come.”
“Luc’s like that too,” she said breezily. “But he’s started shoving his tie in my mouth to stem the sound.”
Jen had never believed in TMI, but she was getting worse because her and Savvie egged each other on.
With an eye roll, I demanded, “Why’s Savvie gone bridezilla?”
She shot me a look. “I’m asking you to come up because I know Lena’s gone downstairs, okay?”
Jen knew about Lena. She’d heard the confession that Lena had sent me, and was pissed at me for not taking it to the cops.
Inside, tension crawled through me like I always knew it would at the mention of her name, but I merely nodded. “I understand.”
“Well, she’s bitching about how deep the neckline is on Savvie’s dress, and well, the fact it’s black.” Jen grinned. “It’s an awesome dress, just a little non-traditional. Anyway, Savvie isn’t used to being told what to do.”
My lips twitched. “That’s total BS.”
“Being told what to do by Aidan is one thing,” she said wryly. “Orgasms make everything worth it.”
“You and Luc should come to ours on Saturday. You’d see how he’s got her panting after him.”
“I already see that whenever we’re together,” she grumbled. “The only bright spark is that Junior looks like he’s got a dildo up his ass whenever she snarks him. I can’t make out if he’s pussywhipped or if she’s cockwhipped.”
“Like you’re not the same,” I chided. Her smile was coy, and before she could take me back into the land of smut, I murmured, “Did Lena make Savvie cry?”
“No. She made her get mad. It took three hours to get her hair into a certain style and she ruined it when she dragged off her dress and told Lena that she wouldn’t get married at all if she wouldn’t leave her and her dress alone.”
My mouth rounded. “She threatened to call off the wedding?”
“Yep,” Jen said cheerfully. “Anyway, Lena toddled off like the she-bitch she is, and now we’ve got a hairstylist crying because ‘the hair is ruined.’”
“He phrased it that way?”
“He’s one of those guys, you know? Super melodramatic.”
“You’d know, Ms. Melodrama,” I teased.
She laughed. “See? If I think he’s bad then he is.”
Finally making it to the end of the landing where Savvie was getting ready, I tugged on Jen’s hand. “You ready to see Paddy?”
He was standing up at the ceremony for Aidan. I felt bad because Finn should have been there, but he wasn’t going to be a groomsman so that he could stay with me.
“Nope,” she muttered. “I’ll be opposite Brennan though, and Savvie made sure Paddy was at the bottom so I don’t have to look at him.”
“Finn says he didn’t know you existed.”
She shrugged, tossing her hair over her shoulder in a move that was pure sass. “I don’t care.”
I grabbed her hand. “I’d do anything to have a relationship with my parents, Jen. I know how it ended with your mom… maybe you could have something decent with your dad.”
Her mom had tried to use Jen to pay off her debts. Thank God Luc had smelled a rat and had been there to protect her.
She bit her lip. “Don’t fuss, Eef.”
“I’m not. I’m just saying it how it is.”
“I miss Ellie too, you know?”
Tears made it harder to choke out, “I miss her every day. It was an ache before, you know? Like, it had faded some.
“I could think about her without wanting to bawl, but it’s dragged it back to the surface so it’s fresh.” I sucked in a sharp, pained breath. “It hurts,” I said simply.
“Oh, sweetheart, I know,” she whispered, tugging me into her arms for a hug. “I’ll talk to him today, okay?”
I muttered in her ear, “More than a ‘hello, sperm donor?’”
“You drive a hard bargain,” she complained.
“You could ask how Liam is. Maybe talk about how often he’s going to be visiting New York now he’s back in the fold,” I prompted. “If you want, I could invite him around for Saturday night dinner and you and Luc could come then. But you know you’re always welcome.”
She squeezed me. “Thank you, sweetheart. You’re the best, do you know that?” Jen pulled back and cupped my cheek. “I learned something today.”
“You did?”
She nodded. “I impart this knowledge to make up for the fact I cockblocked you.”
I groaned. “Jen, I’m trying to be serious.”
Clucking her tongue, she said, “Do this.”
She crossed the thumb of her left hand across her palm, then tightened her fingers over it. With her other hand, she pressed the tip of her pointer finger to her chin, before she opened up her clenched palm and pinched the soft meat between thumb and pointer finger with the same digits on her other hand.
“What on earth? Is that some kind of secret handshake?”
“Do it,” she ordered.
I huffed, did as she said, then demanded, “What now?”
She smirked. “Now you can choke on Finn’s dick tonight without gagging.”
Cackling at me as she raced into Savvie’s room, I shook my head and experimentally pressed my finger to the back of my throat.