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“There’s nothing wrong with a little ball sweat and you know it,” a voice says defensively through Nadia’s phone. I’m not surprised to see Harry’s smirking face on her screen.
The man has video-called his wife at least five times since we got here. Harry and Nadia are definitely in the honeymoon phase of their marriage and it’s virtually impossible to pry them apart.
“Ewwww.” Meghan laughs, vigorously shaking her head from left to right. “I will never be able to look at Harry the same way.”
Nadia tips her chin up and laughs. “Oh, come on. We’re all adults here.”
I slap a palm over my mouth and giggle. “Sorry, Nadia. You know we love you but no one wants to think about you and your man’s balls.”
We keep trading around our tiny wine glasses and scrunching up our faces in disgust. This outing is starting to feel like a bust.
“You girls don’t know how to appreciate a quality bottle of wine,” Noelle scolds us from across the table.
And that’s how the woman ends up with the ‘leftovers’ from every single wine flight we try.
I watch in amusement as Emma and Nadia proceed to get their mother-in-law drunk. Eventually, they don’t even bother sampling their wines first. They just slide each wine glass straight to Noelle, one by one.
Cash and Davis’s mother is the principal at Honey Hill Elementary but tonight, she seems hellbent on shedding her usual responsible and upstanding persona. It’s just too much fun watching Mrs. Westbrook enjoying herself.
And enjoy herself she does.
“I can’t believe you girls are making me drink alone.” She casts a pout around our table. “Come on, Alana. Join me!” With a beaming smile, she beckons me over.
I want to turn her down, but that grin on her face is contagious.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” I get up and round the table, wiggling my butt in time with the upbeat music as I squeeze myself into the space between my ex-mother-in-law and my best friend.
I’m sure other people find it strange, but I’m still close with Noelle, even after my divorce from her son. Just like the rest of the Westbrooks, she treats me like family.
Strange or not, I’m incredibly grateful for the relationship we have. Davis’s mom has been a mother to me since I was a teenager. Hell, she’s the one who would supply me with tampons and painkillers whenever I got my period.
I may be in my thirties now, but I still enjoy her maternal presence in my life. She’s wise, steady, reliable. Heaven knows I’ve long given up on finding those qualities within my own mother.
Anyway, I accept the glass Noelle stretches out to me and take a sip. One taste and I feel my expression flip upside down. I gag. “Ugh! Is this sewer water?”
Laughing, Noelle flings an arm around me, and I laugh, too.
Moments later when she reaches up to take the clip out of her hair and shake it out, the colorful silk scarf around her neck slips.
Meghan gasps so hard she chokes on her drink.
Now, I’m simultaneously patting Meghan’s back and gawking at my ex-mother-in-law’s neck.
Nadia’s jaw drops. “Mrs…Westbrook…” she admonishes, each word drawn-out and horrified. She’s scandalized.
Davis’s mom hastily tries to readjust her scarf, but it’s too late. We’ve all seen it.
“That’s a hickey!” Emma shouts, before falling into a fit of giggles, her long red hair tumbling over her shoulders.
“Oh, Noelle. You’re a bad, bad girl.” Meghan laughs.
Even though the woman covers her cheeks in embarrassment, she fails to cover the blush climbing to her ears.
The girls start teasing her mercilessly.
“Was he good to you?”
“Did you like it?”
