Page 59 of Single Mom's Guide to Love

We all chuckle at that one. Oh, if Simon only knew some of the things that Stella and Emmett have done in the office they share with him, I guarantee he wouldn’t be saying that sentence.

“Fine, you can stay,” I say. “But when we get to conversations you don’t like, your choices are to suffer and listen or go to the bar and come back when we’re done. Deal?”

He holds up his right hand. “I solemnly swear to not freak out over girl talk.”

“We all heard that, right?” The three others nod their heads. “So, where were we?”

As soon as the words are out of my mouth I regret saying them. Because I remember where we were, and I wasn’t about to like it. And judging by the Joker-type smile on Quinn’s face, I’m right.

“We were rating how hot your client is. I was then going to ask the table to place bets on how big his dick is.”

“Whoa!” Simon yells. “This is girl talk?”

“It is,” Ainsley says with an eyebrow wag. “Can you handle it?”

Coming from any other person in this town, that sentence would only be mildly funny. But coming from the sister who is the angel of our clan, who I’ve never seen drunk, and is by far the purest of us all, it’s fucking hysterical.

“Oh my God, Ainsley!” Stella says between laughter so hard she might fall out of her seat. “I fucking love you.”

The smile that grows on my Ainsley’s face is priceless. “He wanted girl talk. So he’s getting it.”

“Well played.” I didn’t want to talk about Logan tonight, but something about the topic bothering my brother makes it enjoyable. “And we’re not guessing.”

“What the hell!” Simon is now downright confused. “What am I missing?”

“Sorry, we’ll catch you up,” Stella says as she proceeds to fill Simon in on everything. And since I clearly know the story, I take the opportunity to pull Quinn in closer.

“Care to tell me what’s going on with you and Porter?”

Quinn takes a pull of her beer and shrugs her shoulders. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb. There were looks, Quinn. Looks you don’t give someone you used to go to high school with and see a few times of the year. So spill.”

Here’s the problem with Quinn: Her poker face is stellar. She doesn’t get my red cheeks. Or Stella’s drifty eyes. And she’s the opposite of Ainsley, who has never been able to tell a lie. Quinn could look you dead in the face and tell you the sky is green and you’d believe it while looking at blue as far as the eye can see.

“Nothing to spill,” she deadpans. “I don’t know what you think you saw, but I can assure you it was nothing.”

She turns away from me, which is as much of a tell as she’ll give.

I don’t know what, but something is up. And I don’t know when my schedule will allow for me to dig into it, but it needs to be added to the list. Or I’ll sic Stella on her. My baby sister has a doctorate in social media stalking.

“Wow,” Simon says, indicating he’s thoroughly brought to speed. “Look at my sister, banging a billionaire.”

“I’m not banging a billionaire.” I snap.

“But you want to.”

I whip my head to Quinn. “Why do you say that?”

“Because five years ago, when you and Josh got divorced, you sat with us at this very bar and declared to the town with your full chest and both titties that not only were you never getting married again, but you were done with dating and sex was off thetable. That you were a mother first, a business woman second, followed by sister and daughter. And that’s all you had room for in your life.”

“You did,” Ainsley says. “You were very adamant about it.”

“Thanks for the reminder. But what does this have to do with Logan?”

“I’m just saying, you held on to that mantra for five years and didn’t budge an inch. And now you’re trying to tell me it only took one hot as fuck guy with an accent and a few martinis to make you throw that out the window? There had to be something more there, even if you don’t know it yet.”

I stay silent, because I’m pretty sure she’s on to something I don’t want to admit to myself.

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