Page 76 of The Sweet Life

Gia looked at her phone. “Madonna santa!”

“Why are you showing me the picture of me and Flynn again?”

“Crap. That’s not what you’re supposed to be looking at.” She held up her phone, making sure Cami saw her delete the photo of her with Flynn. Then she tapped the screen. “Look at the date.”

Cami smiled. “It’s the first day of summer.”

“Come on.” Gia pulled her to her feet. “I’ll call Eva.”

An hour later, the three of them lay side by side in the sand, looking up at the stars, squabbling over who’d found the North Star first.

“Do you think we should have asked Mom to join us?” Eva asked from where she lay between Gia and Cami.

“No, tonight’s just for us,” Gia said, tapping a bottle of nonalcoholic craft beer to her sisters. “Drink up, beaches. It’s time for our traditional first skinny dip of the season.”

They finished off their drinks and then started stripping off their clothes to Eva’s rendition of Kelis’s “Milkshake” while shaking their booties, and it must be said that the Rosetti women were blessed with generous booties.

There was much laughing and shrieking as they tried to outperform one another. The shrieking and laughter only got louder when the three of them ran into the freezing-cold water, but Gia didn’t think they’d been loud enough for their neighbors to call the cops. She was wrong.

“Turn around, boys,” she ordered the officers, and then the three of them ran out of the water, grabbing their towels off the sand. “I can’t believe, after I painted Ted giving her a bouquet of flowers for her anniversary, that Liz called the police on…” She trailed off as her sisters turned to stare at her. “It might be best if you kept that little tidbit to yourself. United fronts and all that. We don’t need any more drama.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

You don’t have to come stay with me, Will. I’m fine on my own,” Sage said as she drove the narrow, winding road to the farm.

“You do know who you’re talking to, right? The person who knows you even better than Mom does. Besides, Aaron might come back.”

“Trust me, I can handle him.”

“But that’s the thing: You didn’t handle him, babe.” Her sister placed her hand over Sage’s on the steering wheel. “I get it. I remember how you used to talk about him when we were little. You talked about him like—”

“He was Flynn. It’s okay. You can say it. I think part of why I got so mad at you, aside from you being such a brat about Mom, is that I was jealous you got the good dad. I wanted him for me.”

“I wanted him for you too. A few days ago, I thought we were going to be sharing him. Do you think there’s a chance Mom will change her mind?”

“No.” She wasn’t about to tell her sister why she wouldn’t.She didn’t need to know. Sage still couldn’t believe it herself. She was sure there was a reasonable explanation why Flynn had been kissing Cami. But even if there was, she could tell her mom had made up her mind, and she was stubborn. Pot, kettle.

“What are you thinking about? You looked sad all of a sudden.”

“Jake. I really messed up, Will. He saw through Aaron right away. He was just trying to protect me from getting hurt, and then I hurt him.” She told her sister what Aaron said about Jake and his ex.

“He’s such a hateful man!” Willow said, then pulled a face. “Sorry. I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about him like that or not. You know, you can talk smack about a family member or friend, but no one else can.”

“Feel free. It’s kind of like you’re talking smack about your own father anyway.”

“Wow, I never thought about it like that but you’re right. Two years ago, I would have been right there beside you, as anxious to meet Aaron as you were. I’m really sorry. I didn’t realize until now how much it must have hurt when I talked about Flynn, August, and my other sisters.” She leaned over and hugged Sage. “I’ll always love you best, you know. You’re my favorite sister.”

“Thanks, I’m glad you feel that way, but can you let go of me now? I’m trying to… Will, what is that?”

“What is…” Her sister winced. “Okay, so you know how excited the Beaches were the night we were making the lavender body products?”

“Uh-huh,” she said, staring at the spotlights set up in the lavender field.

“Well,” her sister said, “they decided to feature the products on their Instagram channel.”

“Uh, yeah, so?”

“They’re doing a photo shoot.”

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