“I’m great. Absolutely perfect. I love your family.”
As he looked around the table at everyone sitting there, he realised he did too.
“What did I miss?” Chaya said a week later, dropping down onto the end of the long table they’d nabbed for early evening drinks at The Refuge, a beautiful building nearly a hundred and thirty years old. Despite the scrubs and hospital pass she still wore, Chaya was still breathtakingly beautiful.
“Nothing yet. Willow was giving Cerys tips on how she should think about using Shamaze to promote the studio.” Izabel waved the server over. “What do you want to drink?”
Chaya scanned the table. “I’ll have that fruity-looking thing Willow’s drinking.”
Willow laughed. “It’s a virgin cocktail. Join the others in their prosecco. I don’t mind being the only non-drinker.”
“Nah. It’s cool. I’ve had a long day and I’m driving today.”
With drinks ordered and delivered, Cerys leaned in. “Enough about studio videos. Now Chaya is here, I want to hear the good stuff. What is going on with you and Luke? Because I heard you were making out at Nan’s last weekend.” When she’d finished, she signed what Willow assumed was the same thing to Zoe.
“They were.” Chaya took the slice of orange out of her drink. “And Luke watched you all dinner. Are you doing okay?”
“First, he kissed me twice, if you’re being generous about the second.” Willow looked around the table as four pairs of eyes watched her expectantly. She wasn’t used to this. Women friends who cared enough to ask about her. “And, honestly, I don’t know.”
“You like him?” Zoe asked.
“That’s not part of the plan.”
Izabel laughed. “Falling for my brother’s best friend wasn’t in my plans, either. But you know what they say about plans.”
“What do they say about plans, Iz?” Cerys asked.
Izabel waved her hand as if brushing the question away. “I don’t know. Something about the best laid plans always going to shit when a good-looking guy with ink and broad shoulders appears.”
Cerys signed, and Zoe groaned. “Girls. We are better than that.”
“I’m pretty certain I just proved that I am not,” Cerys laughed. “Jase had me at moon boots.”
“Moon boots?” Willow asked.
“Oh, I had these super practical boots for the snow in Detroit. I thought they were kinda cute, but Jase kept telling me they were made for the Apollo moon landing.”
Willow took a sip of her drink. It was fruity. Too sweet. “He doesn’t tell you what you should wear, does he?”
Zoe laughed. “No. But she should tell you he had this little cartoon pair of her boots tattooed on his ribs.”
“Okay. So, that’s cute.” Willow wondered if Luke would ever add something about their baby to his own tattoos. Something meaningful, something important. Ink was permanent. Even when he and their baby were apart, he’d carry a piece of the baby with him. Melancholy teased the edges of the good mood she’d been in when she’d arrived.
“Anyway, we’re not talking about Jase. We were talking about Willow and Luke.” Iz tipped her prosecco glass in Willow’s direction. “And you need to ’fess up.”
“Are you always so direct?” Willow asked.
“Funnily enough, no. If you’d met me last year, I would have avoided anything that even remotely felt like confrontation.”
“What changed?”
“A set of those broad shoulders and an inked body who encouraged me to take up my own space. I’m a work in progress. But again, you’re stalling. Luke. You. Tell us all the things. Well, not all the things because seriously, I don’t want to know the freaky things my brother gets up to.”
Willow sighed and looked down at the table for a moment, organising her thoughts. “It’s complicated. I think we both know that if I hadn’t got pregnant, a one-night stand would have been all we ever added up to.”
Zoe sighed. “I bet it was a really good one-night stand, though. Not that I’m interested in Luke. But he just gives off those really capable vibes.”
“He totally does,” Chaya said.
“I don’t want to think about my brother’s vibes,” Iz said, pretending to stick her fingers down her throat and gag.
Willow grinned. This must be what it felt like, to have a close group of girlfriends, who overshared details of their life but had each other’s backs. She’d only ever had Riley as a real friend, but even Riley was letting her down lately. Never available to do more than message each other. “Yeah. I’ll admit he’s very capable.”
Capable didn’t even begin to describe the way she’d felt when he’d run his hands all over her body. Even now, when she caught sight of him without his shirt, she felt stirrings in places that had no reason to stir. But he’d not done anything beyond the kiss he’d given her a week earlier. He’d climbed into bed at night and been gone in the morning. They were back to one step forward, two steps back.
Zoe laughed. “I bet Alex is the same.”
Izabel choked on her drink. “Oh my God, I feel the need to defend Matt if we are starting some rating of whether they are good in bed or not.”
“I mean, if we’re comparing, you’d be well placed to decide between Matt and Jase, right?” Chaya said with a grin.
As Izabel’s jaw dropped, Cerys joined in with the rest of the table’s shocked laughter. “You did not just go there.”
“Sorry. Couldn’t help it. Iz just opened the door, I had no choice but to walk through it. Sorry, Iz, Cerys.”
“Forgiven.” Izabel looked over at Cerys and mouthed the word sorry.
“Wait,” Willow asked. “You and Jase? And Matt?”
“One was a mistake, and the other was forever. Two years apart. And you live and learn. But back to my brother, Warner, before this lot distracts us again. I think he likes you. And you like him. And it’s obvious we all like you. Why aren’t the two of you doing more than just making it work?”
“It’s complicated. We don’t want the same things out of life at all. I mean, there are the logistics. I live in Malibu, and he lives here. He doesn’t want to be tied down. I understand things were tough for you both growing up.”
Izabel sobered. “It was. I mean. It wasn’t. We had a great life until we didn’t. Dad worshipped Mum and was the glue that held our family together. Luke was going to be an airline pilot. Did you know that? That’s what he wanted to do. Had plans to finish his A-levels and apply. He always wanted to see the world. We just never really had the funds to do anything beyond the family trip to Benidorm or Corfu or somewhere like that every year. Then, Dad died and it all went pear-shaped. Mum was bereft. Dad had taken care of everything. Did all the banking. Fixed everything in the house. Mum worked part-time at Primark, but she wasn’t the most independent. And while I was mad at her leaving for a long time, I think she was lost in her own grief. So that meant Luke had to step up and do everything for us. And she thanked him by leaving us. I don’t even know if she really loved Kevin, Dad’s best friend. I think she just wanted to be taken care of again.”