inner thigh, and he gave me a greedy squeeze. An invisible cord cinched around my chest, forcing out a quavering gasp in response. "I'm Ash's."
"Pardon this old man's memory and give me a second to catch up here, would you?" Carlo peered down the table at us. "What happened to Millie?"
"I cannot believe this," Magnolia muttered. "Do you not recall the conversation we had ten minutes ago, Dad? When I explained to you and Lin that everyone—but especially you two—was to be on their best behavior tonight because we don't want to traumatize Ash's new person the very first time she meets all of us? And how that would be an issue because I don't want her feeling uncomfortable at my wedding which is in"—she angled her wrist for the group to see her smartwatch—"six days?"
Carlo offered a sheepish head shake. "We had this conversation tonight?"
Rob, the fiancé I'd met before chasing Ash through the backyard, took hold of Magnolia's wrist and lowered it to her lap. "Take the loss. You can't win all of them."
Ash handed the bottle to Rob. "Have some wine," Ash said to his sister. "Have the whole bottle."
"That's funny," she quipped. "As if I'm not well into hip flask territory these days."
"Yes, Ash arrived first," Diana said, lacing her fingers together in front of her plate as if still caught up in the birth order discussion and oblivious to everything after. "He was in a big hurry to meet us and Magnolia was quick to follow but Linden would've been content to have the place to himself for a time."
"In my defense," Linden started, "it was very crowded in there. Anyone in my position would've enjoyed the solitude."
"Unless you were in my position," Diana said with a wistful laugh. "There's no modesty when you're birthing three babies over twenty-eight hours. No shortage of hands inside you either."
"I warned you about the childbirth stories, Mom," Magnolia said. "I told you to get into the habit of not talking about your uterus so it won't be so difficult next weekend. Remember that? Remember my wedding and the three hundred guests we have attending?"
Rob emptied the remaining contents of the bottle into her wineglass, holding it vertically while the final drops dripped out. "You gotta let some of these go or you're going to run out of steam before the evening's over."
Linden glanced up at me and gestured around the table. "You can see why I still prefer my solitude."
"At least half of them have already heard some version of that story," Ash said. "She'll only overshare to the other half."
"Yeah, that's the problem," Magnolia replied. "I'd like the other half to live in blissful ignorance."
"You need to stop hoping for impossible things," Linden added.
"Truth," Ash said. "When you look at it that way, this is entirely your fault."
"Zelda, did you know Ash built a library in his bedroom when he was a kid?" Magnolia asked, pointing a cheeky grin at her brother when she pushed away her empty plate. "He made little pockets and cards to go inside each book and hounded me and Linden for money when we didn't return them on time. He fined Lin nine hundred dollars for misplacing an R. L. Stine book."
"I don't believe I've paid that." Linden gave his beer a thoughtful frown. "Then again, Ash manages my money so what do I know?"
"That is delightful," I said, meeting Ash's gaze with the biggest heart eyes I could manage. "Do you still do that?"
He shook his head, saying, "No, I—"
"He has a stamp now," Magnolia interrupted. "Look inside any of the books on those shelves in the living room. All stamped. Most dated with when he read them too."
I pressed a hand to my chest. "That's even more exquisite than the library fines. I'm totally checking when we get home."
He shrugged this off with an eye roll but he didn't mean it. He was an adorable little nerd and I loved that shit.
Now that everyone else was finished eating, their plates and utensils tucked together and pushed aside, Linden pulled the serving dish of spicy shrimp toward him and dug into it, asking, "When did you move in—wait, never mind. I didn't say anything. It wasn't me. Blame someone else."
Diana folded her arms on the table as she leaned toward me with a conspiratorial glint in her eyes. "Is it official, then? You're living together?"