Page 113 of Bloom

Chiara wraps her arms around my middle, firing off a flurry of excited words that match Nova’s in speed and incomprehensibility. And then Eliza is on me, Grace next, Jackson and Luna and Alex too, Herc nipping at my shins all the while, until Lux is folding me in a warm, tentative embrace.

“Happy birthday, Line,” she whispers in my ear. “I’m sorry. I’ll tell you everything, okay?”

I nod listlessly, still not entirely sure what’s going on—or, more accurately, entirely aware, but unable to process it. “This is…” My wide gaze flits from the cake covered with flickering candles, the flower-like streamers hanging from the ceiling, the huge bouquet in the middle of the kitchen table. “For me?”

“No,” Lux drawls, pinching my arm playfully. “It’s for the other birthday girl.”

My bottom lip quivers. “What about the emergency?”

With a groaning kind of a laugh, she wraps an arm around my shoulders. “Oh, my sweet summer child.”

I blink back tears. “There was no emergency?”

Lux isn’t the only one who chuckles this time, and I feel my mouth pucker with the effort of not crying. Talk about emotionalwhiplash—slapped with a reminder of my dad only to be sucker-punched by this. Agoodsucker-punch. A sweet, thoughtful, completely out-of-the-blue surprise.

When the big, scheming man I only parted ways with a couple of hours ago slopes towards me, I poke him in the gut, sniffling loudly. “Working, huh?”

Mirthful eyes twinkle as Hunter pulls me away from Lux. Settling his hands so slow on my back, they’re practically in my freaking pockets, he pats my ass lightly. “Told you I had to get back to the ranch,” he corrects, dipping to kiss my cheek. “Didn’t say what I was doin’.”

I roll my eyes, letting loose a laugh that gets lost in Hunter’s chest when he pulls me into a hug. I breathe him in greedily, hold him tightly, so busy feeling so good in his embrace, I don’t notice the silence until someone clears their throat.

Tensing, I slowly turn my head towards the audience I momentarily forgot was even there—a handful of smirking faces, and a few gaping ones.

“Did I miss something?”

Grace elbows her younger sister. “Wedefinitelymissed something.”

Hooking an arm around each of their shoulders, Jackson grins. “They’re dating.”

“I knew it!” Nova yells at the same time I choke out a screeched refusal.

Hunter—he laughs. He doesn’t correct them. While I shake my head and splutter, he just tucks me closer and he chuckles beneath his breath. When Lux approaches holding that beautiful cake—iced with orange frosting and pretty piped flowers, topped with twenty three lit candles—he maneuvers me in front of him, wrapping his arms around my middle while he drops his chin to my shoulder.

“Make a wish,” he whispers in my ear, and while I do stoop to blow out the candles, I don’t make a wish.

Right now, I can’t think of a single thing to ask for.

“Jesus Christ. Can you even breathe under there?”

As the bed dips beside me, the man that does actually, maybe just a little, impede my lungs’ capabilities rolls off me. A hand lingers on my lower back though, beneath the t-shirt I slept in, and as I prop myself up on my elbows, it takes a whole minute to realize I’m not wearing pants, there’s something very hard and very masculine digging into my hip, and Lux is in my bed.

Or inherbed, technically; the spare bed in her house where Hunter and I fell asleep last night.

With a squeal, I flop back down, face in my pillow as I reach behind me to yank up the blankets we must’ve kicked off in the night.

“Oh, please.” Snickering at my grasp at modesty, Lux smacks my ass. “Don’t pretend to be shy now. You know we share a wall, right?”

It’s an interesting dichotomy, my blood running cold while my cheeks flush hot. Into the pillow, I whisper, “Please tell me you’re joking.”

She pauses for a second. “I am. But good to know one of us is getting lucky.”

Dodging the pillow I throw her way, Lux rolls onto her back, cackling like the freaking witch she is. Hunter is no better, hiding his laughter in the crook of my neck. He kisses my shoulder before rolling out of bed, dressed and bending over me again before I have time to miss his presence. “Dinner,” he asks—requests, more accurately, in that sure, smooth way of his. “Tonight.”

I hum, leaning into the kiss he brushes against my cheek. “Your place? I can cook.”

“Thought we could go out.” He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, as gentle as the smile on his face. “Pick you up after work.”

I nod without thinking about it too hard, too busy grinning like a fool and unashamedly—okay,slightlyshamefully—watching that perfectly formed back profile leave the room. It’s not until Lux rips the pillow I’m hugging to my chest from my grip and thumps me with it do I snap back to reality, screeching as I ward off another attack. “What the hell?”

---