Page 75 of Into the Shadows

“But I don’t give a shit if people see the pictures. My skin has never felt softer.”

Levi throws his forefinger at Noah. “He’s got a point.”

“I enjoyed the hand massage Megan gave me with the lotion,” Todd says about his wife.

Cooper looks at all the guys. “Are we going?”

“We could always pretend to be annoyed they’re forcing us to join in,” I say. I have no qualms about putting on a face mask if it means I get to spend more time with Lottie. Plus, she’d get a kick out of making me do it.

“I knew I liked you,” Todd says.

“You were literally just saying you couldn’t wait to interrogate the guy,” Michael argues.

“Shh. I changed my mind.”

Michael shakes his head before looking at me. “You sure you wanna join this insanity? It’s not too late to back out.”

I grin. “Nah, I kind of like it. And even if I didn’t, leaving Lottie isn’t even a question. She’s about as necessary as breathing by now.” I catch the approving looks on the guys’ faces.

“Come on. Let’s go see our girls.” Cooper stands from the table. We walk out of Donna’s as a group. Noah, Carson, and Tucker walk in front of me and Cooper, the three of them goofing off with each other. I hope that one day, their relationships with each other won’t astound me. I want to join them. I want to be a part of the group without feeling like an outsider.

“We might give you shit, but we are glad to have you join our family,” Cooper says low enough for only me to hear. “I think you’ll be good for Lottie. She needs a sturdy presence in her life that won’t waver when she needs support.”

“She’s good for me. I worried about dragging her down to my level, but she’s been holding her hand out to help me up this whole time.”

“That’s what our women do. They’re much stronger than we give them credit for. It’s a hard lesson to learn when our instinct is to protect them, even if that means from ourselves.”

“Tell me about it.” We get to my car, but I don’t make a move to get in yet.

“Lottie’s got the patience of a saint. She learned it from her mother when I was at my worst. She’ll do the same for you as long as you give it in return.”

“Always. I’ll do anything to keep her.”

Cooper pats my shoulder. “Good. Let’s go interrupt a girls’ night. I’m in need of a good moisturizing.”

I snort. “I’ll see you over there.”

Chapter 42

Lottie

“Time to place your bets,” Carson’s mom, Natalie, calls out. She pulls out the pencil holding her red hair up to write on the notepad in her hand.

“Thirty minutes,” I guess.

Natalie nods her head. “I’ve got forty-five minutes. It’ll take them a bit to come up with a plan to make it look like they don’t want to join our pampering.”

Everyone laughs at Natalie’s explanation. She’s not wrong. The pictures Noah showed me of the last spa night made it pretty clear they enjoyed themselves.

The rest of the girls call out their guesses. Mom and Lilly say an hour. Gia and her mom, Lucy, guess two. Michael’s mom, Megan, guesses an hour and a half while Aunt Hope and her two girls say an hour and fifteen minutes.

We don’t win a prize for being right. It’s more for bragging rights than anything else. Girls’ night has always gotten crashed by the boys. It doesn’t seem to matter what we do, they eventually show up wherever we are.

Betting brings me a new emotion this time. Normally, it always felt silly to guess when the guys would crash our party.Now, I have a stake in the game. Teddy will be with them. I’ll have a guy who can’t stand to wait any longer than necessary to see me. And I have no doubt that Teddy will push to come here early, if not just to see me, to avoid the punishment he’s imagined my dad will dole out.

If I truly believed Dad would hurt Teddy, I’d never have encouraged him to go out with the guys. This evening is more about bringing Teddy into the fold, not pushing him out. They wouldn’t have invited him in the first place if they didn’t want him there.

I help Mom and Natalie lay out our spa supplies. We’ve got headbands, face masks, manicure tools, and even a special humidifier that’s pumping out essential oils into my parents’ basement.

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