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“Bet your ass it is.” She cocked her head in the direction of the guesthouse. “Gotta get back to work, kiddo, but I can’t wait to meet your friends.”
Thankfully, Matty, who was helping my mom set up the lawn for my birthday bash, distracted me by looking supremely hot in turquoise board shorts and a black tank top as he lifted stuff from one part of the lawn to another part of the lawn.
If he posed for me while he did it, well, that was between us.
After he’d made one last trip carrying poles for the DJ tent, Matty kissed me and said, “Joan and I are headed out to grab ice for the party. Love you byyyye.”
I eyed his retreating figure suspiciously.
Matty and Joan were not the kind of people who “grabbed ice” so I knew it was a bold-faced lie. Besides, Joan wasn’t even here yet. Still, I let it slide because I’d overheard them the other day talking about visiting an antique shop to pick up “you know what” for “you know who.”
They were literally terrible at keeping secrets, which was crazy when I thought about how they were able to fence and re-home stolen artifacts for years without getting caught. Thank goodness they’d hung up that line of work and were instead channeling that energy into conservationism and partnering with authorities to combat black market sales.
Mom was directing traffic, so to speak, with the party planners, and Stefon, God bless his billionaire soul, was actually wearing flamboyant swim trunks and inflating pink flamingo pool floaties on the patio. The things that man did for my mom.
So I ate Franky’s delicious bagel and drank her coffee and looked at the time on my phone until the front gate screeched open.
And then I ran to the main entrance like a goddamn idiot just in time to see Davies drive into the roundabout.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen my friends recently. Mom and I had flown back to Vegas a few weeks ago so that Mom could host a Vaulteneau charity event. Matty wanted to go, but there was a mandatory weekend rehab session with his counselor. Matty started making progress once he found a counselor he connected with. It wasn’t easy since he had to go through three counselors before finding Dr. Nance.
So while Matty was up in a mountain retreat with Dr. Nance, I spent two days sequestered with my friends, answering their rapid-fire questions about the hotness that was my boyfriend, Matthias Vaulteneau. I’m sure the permanent blush painted on my face that weekend told them everything, but I wasn’t one to kiss and tell, not that I thought my friends would sell us out to the tabloids. Suffice to say they quickly figured out that Matty and I were together together, and not just fooling around, and that yes, my mom was cool with it and that no, Stefon hadn’t gone nuclear on us.
At some point over the last few weeks, my friends sort of figured out the sordid tale about Mr. Jones and why he fled to the other side of the world. While they all had thought Mr. Jones’s attentions toward me were suspicious, they didn’t realize just how far it had gone. One by one, my friends pledged to disembowel the man should he ever show his face again.
The line of people willing to hurt the man was getting pretty long. Even Drew’s grandmother, Miss Paulina, quickly disowned him when she realized what her grandson had done.
While my first impression of Miss Paulina when I arrived to the Vaulteneau estate wasn’t very kind, she’d apologized to me directly the day after she discovered the truth, which I’d appreciated. Part of me hated feeling like a victim, so I knew healing would take a while, or so my therapist kept reminding me.
But I had Matty, my mom, and my best friends, who surrounded me and supported me without question. Stefon was even growing on me when he’d ask me about my writing over family dinners. It felt nice to be included, to be appreciated.
So no one could blame me when I opened the rear passenger door before the car even came to a complete stop.
“Oh, my God,” Raj gasped as he stepped out of the sleek black town car. He craned his neck as he took in the Vaulteneau mansion’s blue turret. Kinzy, Rowen, and Brieana all tumbled out after him, each more aghast than the last. I wanted to laugh at how round their eyes got. “This place is unreal. You’re like, Bezos rich, my dude. Somebody pinch me.”
My smile widened when we all leaned in to pinch Raj’s hairy arm.
Bezos rich? Not even close.
“The estate is pretty crazy,” I agreed with Raj in a wheezy voice because at that exact moment my short friend pulled me into a fierce hug. “Matty and I sleep in the guesthouse, but the main house has plenty of room. Mom put you guys in a double suite on the third floor. It’s got killer views of the ocean.”
“Your mom rocks,” Kinzy said after she’d had her turn at hugging me. “I brought a large canvas and my painting supplies. Private jets are like, the best. Lord Byron and I may take a walk along the beach later, if that’s okay.”
And yup, Kinzy still believed she was dating the ghost of Lord George Byron. “That’s okay,” I said, because who was I to say she wasn’t.
Rowen, who wasn’t a hugger, offered a fist bump while Brieana sidled up beside me to put her arm around my waist as I steered the group toward the main entry doors.
“You and your boyfriend sleep in the guesthouse?” she inquired. Her lips curved into her signature charming gap-tooth smile that left me in no doubt of what she actually meant. She’d seemed to have grown at least an inch since I last saw her. She was still the smallest of all of us. “Alone…without adult supervision?”
“Subtle, Brieana,” Rowen accused her good-naturedly.
“Actually,” I said as we ascended the grand staircase, “Matty and I have separate bedrooms. And last I checked, I’m eighteen and an adult.”
“Uh huh,” Brieana crowed, her dark, gemstone eyes lighting up with triumph as she took in my pink face.
Of course, we mostly slept in Matty’s bedroom, but there were plenty of nights where I’d stay up late in my room writing, especially when inspiration hit. Other nights, when Matty had to get up early for practice, he’d want a solid’s night sleep on his own.
Not that I planned to explain any of that to them.
