She looked at Kate. Slade and Stone, who had joined them, stood behind them listening to the whole conversation.
Kate finally said what they were all probably thinking. “How do you do it?” she burst out.
Alexa cocked her head. “Do what?”
“Everything!” Arilyn said. “How do you stay in love while managing careers and babies and stress and life and family? What’s the secret?”
A shocked silence fell over the group. Alexa looked at Nick. Michael rested his chin on Maggie’s head. Max placed his hand over his wife’s belly.
Then they all burst into hysterical laughter.
“Oh, boy, it’s official!” Alexa announced. “We’re old.”
Maggie groaned. “Yep, getting asked by the younger generation how you handle it all sucks. Should we tell them the super secret to lifetime bliss?”
The group leaned in. Arilyn held her breath.
Maggie snorted out a laugh. “Gotcha! Trust me, there is no super secret. It’s a lot of hard work.”
Carina giggled. “And fights. Lots and lots of fights. Oh, and making up. And wrong choices.”
“And crying, lots of crying,” Alexa added.
“But it’s all worth it, as Mama Conte would say,” Maggie pointed out.
Then the three women linked arms. “You’ll figure it out. We did. Let’s go dance.”
The couples left for the dance floor.
Kate sighed. “Damn them. Why don’t they just tell us the real truth?”
Slade leaned over and kissed his new wife. “’Cause we already know, baby. And I’m going to make sure we never forget.”
Kate reached up and slid her arms around his neck. For a moment, they were lost in each other, alone. Just a bride and groom with a brand-new life stretching ahead of them.
“I love you, Slade Montgomery.”
“And I love you, Kate Montgomery.”
They kissed. And when Arilyn turned, Stone was staring at them with a mix of emotions in his eyes, so raw and so real, she wondered if she’d ever figure him out. Because for just a second, it looked like he also wanted what they had.
But that was impossible.
Arilyn reached out and touched his arm. Wanting to belong to him for a sliver in time, she sought connection. He answered the call, drawing her close, his arms wrapped tight around her waist. The music pounded, and guests chattered, and couples whispered.
“I want you.”
His words were stark. Stripped bare. No pretty words, or promises, or poetry. Yet Arilyn felt his wanting in her soul, and bones, and heart. She lifted herself up on the toes of her pretty shoes, and whispered the only answer in his ear.
“Take me home.”
fifteen
ARILYN IMAGINED A few things on their first night together. Pulling at each other’s clothes, slipping into a world of dreamy sensuality with little awkwardness and an all-encompassing, blistering heat. Somehow, in her fantasy, they didn’t walk into her bungalow at midnight and deal with a series of fantasy-popping occurrences beginning with Mrs. Blackfire.
They reached the porch and the slam of a door echoed in the quiet. The scrape of the walker warned her before she heard the familiar, hissing voice. “Officer Petty! There’s been a break-in at Arilyn’s house. I called the police, but they refused to send someone, and I’m going to sue the town.”
She heard his quick intake of breath. Hmm, he still wasn’t practicing the technique of drawing the air from his belly up to his chest. She’d have to go over that in class again on Monday. “If the police didn’t send someone, they didn’t think there was a break-in,” he pointed out. “What did you see?”
Her face lit with the excitement of a crime. “A young girl. Small, blond, braces. Wearing jeans with one of those shirts that show off her belly button, which is kind of ridiculous in this type of weather, and way too old for her.”
Arilyn turned, swinging her high heels from her fingers. She grasped for her own patience. Was it so wrong just to want to go inside and have sex without talking to anyone? “That’s Tina, my dog walker, Mrs. Blackfire. She was here to walk Robert. I’m watching him while Kate’s on her honeymoon.”
“Oh.” The brief disappointment quickly disappeared. “But she had something under her arm! She stole something from you! Why didn’t Patrick walk the dog? I don’t trust these young kids anymore. They don’t know the value of honest work.”
“Poppy had a field trip today, so I had Tina take over. I let her borrow a few books of mine; that’s probably what you saw under her arm.”
Her face fell. “Well, you should check anyway.” She pointed toward Stone. “I wasn’t pleased with the police response. They said that since she had a key, she wasn’t a burglar. In my day, it would’ve held true, but this is a new age. Burglars have keys now! We need to be watching every second!”
Arilyn tried not to groan, forcing a smile and opening her door. “I agree. I’ll talk to Stone about it. Good night, Mrs. Blackfire!”
She gave a small humph, then disappeared back inside. Arilyn figured she had a few minutes before the telescope began moving. She motioned toward the windows. “Pull those blinds down so she can’t spy,” Arilyn hissed.
Stone chuckled, moved forward, and froze.
Robert, Kate’s paraplegic pit bull, came racing down the hallway at top speed. Happy and desperate for company, he dragged his back legs behind him with expert ease, his large body hauling his way toward Stone for a classic doggy greeting.
Pure fear carved out the lines of Stone’s face. His skin looked clammy in the hall light, and he huddled against the door, watching the dog bound closer, stuck in a memory of horror where he couldn’t fight back.
Oh, God, she’d forgotten. Pit bulls. The bite. His fear of dogs.
Robert.
“Robert, stop!” she whipped out, firming her voice and stepping in front of Stone to block the path.
The dog skidded to a halt. Eyes filled with trepidation for doing something wrong, he whimpered low and ducked his head.
“Shhh, sweetheart, it’s okay.” Arilyn dropped to the ground and hugged him, pressing her forehead to his in a gesture of humbleness. “You’re a good boy. But Stone doesn’t realize that yet. You need to give him a chance to get used to you before knocking him over for kisses. Understood?”
Robert wriggled, licking her cheek gently. She snuggled, reached out to check his bladder, soothing him with a pat. “You did good tonight. We have to be careful of bladder infections while Mommy and Daddy are away. Let’s get you hooked up and bring you outside.”
She straightened and walked toward Stone, who watched the whole encounter with wary eyes. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, reaching out to place her hands against his chest. “I forgot to tell you Robert is a pit bull. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, Stone, I swear. Kate saved him when a car crushed his back legs. I know he looks big, but his back legs are useless. He’s a good dog.”
Stone let out a breath. Color seeped back into his skin. “I’m sorry for being an ass,” he muttered. He wiped his palms down his pants, his gaze stuck on the dog, who was waiting patiently to say hello. “He just looks like—looks like—”
“The dog who bit you,” she said softly. “I know. But Robert isn’t like that. Can you give him a chance?” He remained silent but nodded. “Thank you. I have to take him out first. I’ll be a minute. Why don’t you grab a drink and make yourself comfortable?”
Keeping his distance, he skirted around Robert’s excitedly shaking body, and put the high counter between them. Arilyn hooked up the dog’s scooter, adjusting the straps, and let him go free.
Laughing, she watched him race over the lawn, round and round as the wheels turned. His head thrown back in doggy abandon, he breathed in the cold night air and managed to go to the bathroom under the Tree of Spite. After some of his energy had been spent, she brought him back inside, unhooked the scooter, and grabbed his box of treats from the table.