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“Is that normal?” I asked.
“Everyone is different,” Gina answered.
“Does that mean you guys don’t get any sleep?” I wondered if this entire house party was going to be made up of insomniacs.
“He’ll give us five hours most nights,” Gina said. “We take turns with the three a.m. feedings.”
I shook my head. Having a baby seemed like a lot of work. They didn’t look exhausted though. They looked happy. And when Porter slipped an arm around Gina’s waist to give her a kiss, I knew she had found the right man. Porter took over for Gina in the kitchen, throwing the vegetables into a pan. He pulled a rotisserie chicken out of the fridge and began shredding it, adding meat to the mix.
Gina and I sat in the living room, catching up. “What do you think of the lumberyard?” she asked, neatly skirting the entire issue of war.
“It’s fine,” I said. “The first day was hard. I wasn’t used to that much walking. Now I’m good.”
“Porter used to hang out there as a kid,” Gina said, glancing over at her lover.
“Yeah.” I tried to remember Porter from high school and failed.
“His friend’s parents owned the place until they sold it to Dad.”
“Dad seems to be happy,” I said.
“How are things between you?” Gina asked.
I ran a palm across my head awkwardly. “My landlady told him where I was and he stopped by my first day in town. I haven’t seen him too much at work. It’s been ok I guess.”
“Why did you come back?” Gina asked.
I shrugged. “I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
“But you’re enjoying your stay?” she asked hopefully.
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “It’s a good job, good people.”
Gina ran her hands down her legs, stopping at her knees. Suddenly our little reunion didn’t seem to be going so well. I considered the implicit message in our conversation, that I hadn’t chosen to return and that I didn’t want to reconnect. It was true that Singer’s Ridge had been my fallback and not my destination of choice. And it was true that I had put off seeing Gina again out of cowardice. But I really did like my job and all the people I worked with. And I was growing fond of Aly in a way that made me consider staying.
Just as I was about to explain all of that, the doorbell rang. Gina opened it and leaned out onto the stoop to hug Aly. I heard feminine voices and my outlook brightened. Aly and I had already ironed out all our lingering conflicts. There wasn’t anything except the promise of passion between us.
I stood up to join the girls in the entranceway, eager to escape the mistakes I had made. Aly had changed from her work clothes into more casual jeans and a T-shirt. The only thing that gave me pause was the lack of fabric spared for the shirt, how it hugged her chest and cut off just below her navel. If I didn’t know any better, I would have sworn she had picked the sexiest T-shirt in her closet.
Or maybe she looked sexy no matter what she wore.
She caught my eye and smiled, reaching around Gina to press her hand into mine. I gave it a squeeze. I didn’t think it would be appropriate to hug her or kiss her, even though I longed to taste those lips again. Now wasn’t the time, in front of my sister and my boss, but I swore that our time would come. Someday soon, I was going to hold Aly in my arms and take my time undressing her.
Gina’s eagle eye settled on our conjoined hands. “I see you guys know each other.”
I reluctantly let Aly’s hand drop.
“We’ve had that conversation,” Porter said from the kitchen.
“Where’s Seth?” Aly moved past us, setting her purse down on the couch.
“He’s asleep,” Gina said.
“Should we be quiet?” Aly whispered.
Porter shook his head.
“If he wakes up, he wakes up,” Gina explained. “Can I get you a soda?”
