Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 78807 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78807 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
“I don’t want my baby to grow up speaking French.”
“How about German?”
I roll my eyes. “Ugliest language in the world.”
“Dutch then?”
“Sorry, German is second ugliest. Dutch would be first.”
She laughs and hugs me. “I’m worried, Dara. This isn’t like you.”
“It’s really not,” I agree, hugging her back. “But it’s happening.”
“I always thought I was the impulsive, crazy one.” She steps back, looking around the immaculate yard. “Then again, looking at all this, I’m wondering if he’s got a brother I could marry.”
“Three, actually.” Finn steps out the sliding door with Genna in tow. “Well, two really. Liam would rather cut off your toes and keep you in the freezer than marry you.”
Kathryn shoots me a look, eyes wide. Toe Killer, she mouths, and I wave her away as I walk up to greet Genna.
“Nice to meet you,” she says. “Well, again, sort of.”
“Finn’s talked about you. Well, sort of.”
She grins, glancing at him. “This is weird. I mean, we can all agree that it’s weird, right?”
A strange sense of relief floods me as I laugh. It’s only the four of us here celebrating this insane marriage, but Genna’s right, it’s extremely weird.
Finn glares at her. “Can you keep your opinions to yourself for once in your life?”
“Nope,” she says, turning back to me. “What do you want to know about your husband?”
“How long have you known him?”
“Oh, sweets, I’ve known him for much too long.” She steers me over to the outdoor seating area, gesturing for Kathryn to join us, and glances over her shoulder. “Darling, Finn, could you get us some refreshments? Wine for the ladies, please?”
“Water for me,” I say quickly. “On account of the pregnant.”
“You’re going to tell them stories about me,” Finn says, glaring at Genna. “I shouldn’t have invited you.”
“Finn, I am your oldest friend and business partner. It is my duty to embarrass you on your wedding day. Now, run along.”
“God fucking damn it,” he mutters, storming into the house.
I laugh, looking at Genna like she’s a goddess. “How did you just talk to him like that? And make him actually listen?”
“Years of conditioning.” She sighs, sitting back. “I met Finn when we were young. You should’ve seen him back then. All knees and elbows. I wasn’t much better, but still. We’ve been friends since grade school, and he hasn’t been able to shake me since.”
Genna proceeds to tell us some funny stories about Finn as a kid. Harmless stuff about school pranks, sports teams, rivalries, that sort of stuff. When he returns with drinks, he slides into the chair next to mine, his knee brushing up against my thigh.
Strangely, the stories humanize him. Before this, he was some mysterious gangster, but meeting Genna and hearing about the time he meant to dump water on his coach, but accidentally dumped it all over the principal of their prep school instead, makes him seem like a real person and now some mythical gangster asshole.
“You should’ve seen Dara back in the day,” Kathryn says, grinning viciously. I shake my head, trying to make her stop, but she barrels forward. “Total band geek. Big glasses, straight bangs—”
“Band geek?” Finn raises his eyebrows. “What did you play?”
“Clarinet. I was awful.”
“She was awful,” Kathryn confirms.
“Finn played guitar,” Genna says, eyes lighting up. “He wrote this song—”
“Okay, that’s enough,” Finn says, leaning forward. “I think you’ve told enough mortifying stories for one night.”
“You wrote a song?” I nudge him, grinning. “I want to hear it. Was it a love song?”
“Genna, I am going to strangle you,” he says, rubbing his forehead.
“I have a recording, I’ll send it to you later.” She winks at me, shrugging when Finn threatens to throw her off the roof.
Genna tells a few more stories, and Kathryn adds a few of her own, and although it’s meant to be embarrassing, I actually like hearing about the good old days a little bit, even though the good old days weren’t all that long ago.
Finn puts a stop to the reminiscing eventually.
“I’d like to propose a toast,” he says, holding up his glass of whiskey. “To marriage and a baby.”
“Here’s to that,” Genna says.
Kathryn shoots me a look, but she goes along with it. After, we sit and chat a little bit, Genna doing most of the talking while directing some questions toward me, we break up and head inside. I’m about to walk them to the door when the buzzer rings. Finn brushes past, checks the monitor, and curses.
“My brothers are here.” He looks back, directly at me. For a second, I think he’s going to tell me to hide, or he’s not going to let them inside.
Instead, Genna groans. “Great, the asshole twins are here. I guess the party’s over.”
“Are these the single ones?” Kathryn asks.
I nudge her. “Simmer down.”
“Just saying,” she says, shrugging.
Carson and Nolan come inside, both of them toting sour looks. Carson congratulates me and even kisses my cheek. “I suppose we’re family now,” he says. “I don’t hold it against you, you know.”