Page 47 of Knocked Up By the Silver Foxes

“You’re glowing,” she informs me, voice pitching up. “You are literally glowing. Your skin is doing a whole thing right now.”

“It’s the shower products, they’re very good, you should⁠—”

“Harper Brooks.”

“Sophia Thorne,” and instantly the memory of Killian between my legs flashes through my mind. I shake my head, physically shake my head to try to focus, but dammit, it’s not working.

She laughs, sudden and bright, and drops onto the little velvet bench behind me. “You’re the worst liar I’ve ever met and I grew up watching my mother lie to my father.”

“That’s a very high bar.”

“You clear it effortlessly.” Her voice goes softer. “Are you okay?”

The shift in her tone does what it always does. I look at her reflection and she’s looking back at me, not teasing anymore, just present. Real.

“Yeah,” I say. And I mean it, which is almost the strangest part of the whole morning. “I really am.”

She holds my gaze for a second. Nods. Lets it go, which is one of the things I love most about her. She always knows the difference between when to press and when to just be.

The grin comes back. She props her chin in her hand. “Good. So…”

I look at her waiting for her to finish. “So…what?”

“Was it good?”

My eyes go wide. “Sophia.”

“Like I don’t need to know who did what because, ew, but like on a scale of one to⁠—”

“Absolutely not discussing this with you.”

“I mean, unless there was a barback last night I didn’t notice, there are only three possible,” she goes quiet and then gasps a sound, “HARPER!”

Oh, God. “I didn’t say anything!”

“You went red.”

“It’s warm in here.”

“It’s barely twenty degrees, Harper.”

I pick up the comb again just to have something to do with my hands. Sophia watches me with the patience of a woman who has infinite time and nowhere to be, and after about ten seconds of aggressive combing I give up and drop back onto the bench beside her and she immediately tips sideways and puts her head on my shoulder and I let out a breath.

“One question,” she says.

“No.”

“Are you my new mom?”

I put my face in my hands again. She laughs until the bench shakes and honestly. Honestly. This is fine. The smile is back and maybe it just gets to stay today.

The chime from my phone on the nightstand cuts through the room, then another, two more in quick succession, and Sophia glances over.

“Oh, yeah. That’s been going off.”

“For how long?”

“An hour? Maybe longer.”