Page 24 of Somehow You Knew

“What was the photo shoot?” Astrid asks as she grabs a cucumber from the veggie tray my mother set out, dunks it in the ranch dressing, and pops it into her mouth.

“A family. They schedule a shoot every year as their kids grow.”

Astrid turns to Penn, nudging him with her elbow. “We need to do one soon. Bentley and Lilly have changed so much over the past year.”

Bentley is thirteen now and Lilly is nine. I’ve known these two since they were babies, and Astrid is right, they’ve both grown a lot in the past year, especially Bentley.

“Well, your photographer is sitting right in front of you. Schedule something, babe.” Penn presses a kiss to Astrid’s temple and then heads toward the fridge.

“Remind me before you leave, and I’ll put you on my calendar,” I tell my sister-in-law just as Parker and Cashlynn stride through the door, looking tanner and more in love than ever.

“It’s the newly engaged again couple!” Astrid teases as she walks over to them, pulling Cashlynn in for a hug.

Parker and Cashlynn, his boss’s daughter, faked an engagement last year after she convinced him to go along with the ruse. But when the truth came out, so did their real feelings. They decided to take their time dating before making it official, and Parker finally proposed for real on their trip to Greece, celebrating the one-year anniversary of Cashlynn’s art gallery here in Carrington Cove.

Parker rolls his eyes but leans down to kiss his fiancée. “Yes, the ring is back on her finger, but it won’t be alone for long. The wedding is going to happen before the end of the summer.”

All of us whip our heads in his direction.

“Is that so?” my mother asks, arching a brow.

“Shotgun wedding?” Penn asks, smirking over the rim of his beer can.

Parker shrugs. “We can work on making it one between now and then.”

Cashlynn groans and swats at Parker. “No! Jesus, babe. We arenotadding a surprise pregnancy to the equation.”

I stand from the stool and walk over to hug my brother—and whack him on the back of the head at the same time.

“The fuck?” He jerks away, rubbing at the spot.

“Don’t piss off your fiancée now that she’s agreed to marry you for real, dummy.”

“Hey! No one asked for your advice, especially after the last advice you gave.”

I smirk, basking in my own brilliance. “Oh, you mean when I told Cashlynn to intentionally mess with you in your own home so you’d have an existential crisis and admit you had feelings for her?”

Parker glares. “Yes. That.”

Cashlynn leans into him, grinning. “To be fair, it worked.”

Parker mutters something under his breath about never being safe in his own home, and I beam like the evil genius I am.

“Just remember that payback is a bitch, little sister,” he grumbles.

I raise my hands in mock fear. “Ooooh… I’msoscared.”

Before Parker can retaliate, the front door swings open and Willow enters, with Dallas trailing behind her, carrying my sleeping nephew on his chest.

“Sorry we’re late,” Willow announces as everyone turns in their direction. “Did Hazel make her announcement yet?”

All eyes drift toward me. Shit. When we were texting earlier, Willow alluded to not coming because she wasn’t feeling well. I told her she kind of needed to be here since I had to tell the family something important. Now I’m regretting that decision as I can feel the inquisition beginning to brew.

“What announcement?” Dallas asks, his eyes bouncing back and forth between me and his wife.

Willow winces. “Sorry. I wasn’t sure—”

“It’s fine,” I cut in quickly. “And it’s not that big ofa deal, so…”

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