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“Oh. I never even thought about it for my events.” Maggie bites her bottom lip while she thinks for a moment. “Either?”
The idea of working with her on her events doesn’t bother me. Maybe I should sit with the idea, try it on for size.
“I’ll think about it.” I drop a kiss on her nose.
We lay on the couch in silence for a while. Maggie’s breathing evens out and her body goes limp against me. I turn the idea over in my mind. Baking may have started as a way to compete for my daughter’s affection, but it’s become its own kind of meditation in my life.
But the most important question—the one I don’t have an answer to—is what do I do about Nate?
Maggie
Gentle shaking wakes me up from a delightful nap. “Wha—”
Kel’s chuckles deepen and the shaking increases.
“Your drool-face is super sexy, Mags.” Ophie’s voice chirps from somewhere above my head.
I push myself up, but Kel’s quiet grunt reminds me he’s hurt and I’m crushing him. With a squeak, I try to roll off him without pushing against his chest. Instead, I end up rolling sideways off the couch and getting wedged into the space between the couch and the coffee table. My half-full coffee sloshes dangerously at the impact. I’m on my back, arms and legs sticking straight up like a turtle on its back. “Ophie!”
Kel and Ophie are in hysterics, laughing at my predicament. I try to get up, but my upper arms are trapped and I can’t get any leverage.
I flail a few times, but nothing helps. Instead, I swear I get more stuck.
“Help me,” I whine, but neither of them moves to help.
“Sprinkles, I’m stuck here until you move.” The amusement in Kel’s voice makes me happy, even if I am flailing around like an overturned armadillo. “Watch out for the coffee,” he adds unhelpfully.
“Ophelia Rose Moore. Help me up.”
Her only answer is more giggles. Ignoring me and my struggles, she reaches out a hand to Kel. “Nice to officially meet you. I’m Ophelia, Maggie’s younger sister, and the light of her life.”
“More like the thorn in my side,” I grumble.
“What was that? You don’t need my help? I’ll just head to my room and put my headphones on in case you two are going to have loud sex.”
Kel’s cheeks turn bright red—mine are hot enough that I’m sure they match. “Ophie. Apple of my eye. If you don’t stop being an ass and help me, I will tell Kel all about your obsession with poop.”
Kel waves a hand in the air, still comfortably laid out on the couch and not offering to help me in the slightest. “Olive had a poop obsession when she was a toddler. It’s pretty normal.”
“It’s not normal when you’re sixteen.” I smirk at my little sister, enjoying the way her cheeks flame up at Kel’s laughter.
Ophie huffs a sigh and moves to the opposite side of the coffee table. With a grunt, she pulls it toward herself, giving me enough space to drop my arms and squirm to my hands and knees.
“You might as well stay there, Mags. Just try to keep the sexy times to your bedroom. I don’t need to see your boyfriend’s naked ass, although I’m sure it’s a very nice one.” Ophie backs away down the hall. “Nice to meet you, Kel. Oh!” She takes a few steps back and looks at me over her shoulder. “The girls and I are planning a trip to Vegas for Spring Break—for Cammie’s bachelorette. I’ll text you the dates.”
By the time I’ve pushed myself to my feet, Kel is up off the couch, his laughter fading to the occasional chuckle. “She’s…something.”
I shake my head, pushing my tangled hair out of my face and straightening my hoodie. “You know, everyone in my family has always given me shit for being impulsive, the flaky one who doesn’t have it together. Daisy has a magazine-worthy house and the perfect two kids. Ophie is the smart one—she’s getting her Master’s in Global Supply Chain Management. I don’t even know what that means. But Ophie’s never been the screw up. In fact, she helped me cover up some of my more, erm, problematic, mistakes. So, even though she gives me shit all the time, I can’t get too mad.”
Kel raises an eyebrow at my words. “Problematic?”
The blush creeping back up my cheeks is warm and uncomfortable. “Um…let’s just say that my friends ranged in age and I didn’t realize that maybe my high school friends shouldn’t be partying with Daisy’s college buddies until I caught a twenty-one-year-old making out with a seventeen-year-old in my bedroom.” I grimace at the memory. “I started curating the invite lists a little more carefully after that.”
With another one of his soul-warming chuckles, Kel pulls me into his arms for a hug. “I feel like there is an endless supply of stories I want to hear about your wayward youth. Nate and I didn’t get up to nearly as much trouble.”
“Mostly, I was the only one who got in trouble.” I glance down the hall at Ophie’s closed door. “I worry about her sometimes. She’s so determined to do well at school that she hardly ever takes time to have fun.”
“Sounds familiar.”
