“Good,” Erin said. “And I’d do the same. No sugarcoating.”

They clinked their glasses together as if it were a sacred girl-promise.

“Damn, I’m happy for you,” Parker said into her glass.

Erin giggled and put aside her thoughts that she was missing an important undesirable personality trait. “I’m pretty happy for me, too. Is that bad?”

“I don’t know a woman more deserving. And the fact that you told Matt about your ex-husband tells me you’re really invested.”

Erin sipped her wine. “Not quite.”

“Not quite what? Invested?”

“No. I’m in when it comes to Matt. My ex . . . he’s not quite an ex.”

Parker lost her smile.

“The divorce isn’t final,” Erin admitted.

“Excuse me?”

“He refuses to sign the papers. My ex is an ass, Parker. He thinks he can prolong the inevitable forever. But he can’t. Eventually he has to let go.”

“My God, how long has it been?”

“I filed about three months before I moved in here.”

“That’s almost a year.”

“I know. My attorney assures me it won’t be long now.”

The phone inside the house rang twice. A signal from the gate that someone was there.

“You expecting anyone?” Erin asked.

Parker shook her head and went inside to answer the call. When she returned, she tossed the phone on the table. “It’s Grace.”

“Oh, good.”

“Maybe she can give us some dirt on her brothers.”

Erin laughed. “No comments about the ex, okay? The less people that know . . .”

“I get it. Don’t worry.”

They watched Grace’s car make it up the drive and park. She got out and waved a bottle of wine in the air. “I brought provisions.”

They greeted her at the top of the stairs. Scout slapped his tail on the deck and licked Grace as she walked by.

“I’m here . . . the party can start. But please, I really don’t want a picture painted of how my brothers have sex. I really can’t go there.”

God, she loved Grace. The woman was spitfire and energy.

“Who says I’m having sex with your brother?” Erin asked, half joking.

The three of them walked into the house, and Parker removed a wineglass from the cupboard.

Grace leaned on the edge of the kitchen island while she rolled her eyes. “He missed the game with my dad. The man lives for baseball. There is only one thing that would keep him away from a game and that’s sex. And since your lipstick was smeared all over his face at the engagement party, I put two and two together.”

“You sure you don’t want to hear about it?” Parker asked.

Grace frantically waved her hands in the air before taking the glass of wine Parker offered. “No! Please. It’s going to make the Game of Life difficult at Christmas.”

“How so?” Erin asked.

“Because I’ll know just how he managed to have a car full of pink and blue pegs.”

“Well, if you don’t want to hear about our sex lives, tell us about yours,” Parker said.

They moved back out on the porch and got comfortable. “I don’t have a sex life. I swear my vagina is going to shrivel up and fall out if I don’t meet someone soon.”

Erin laughed. “Where are you looking?”

Grace kicked off her shoes and tucked her feet under her bottom. “I’m back to online dating.”

Parker groaned. “That’s the worst.”

“Well, I’m not going to date anyone I work with, and I really don’t do the bar scene. So unless you know someone you wanna set me up with . . .”

Erin certainly didn’t. She glanced at Parker.

They both shrugged.

“What about Matt or Colin? They both work with men, certainly someone on their list is single and worthy.”

“I dated one of Colin’s work buddies early on and realized that when it doesn’t work out, it makes things uncomfortable for everyone. So I forced that train to leave the station a long time ago.”

“I’ve met some of Matt’s friends, and they’re a pretty good-looking group,” Erin said.

“And married, or recently divorced and looking for a replacement. Or already have kids . . . Yeah, I’ve met his friends, too. But no thanks. It’s okay. I actually have a couple guys I’ve been chatting with online. I’m meeting one for coffee next week.”

Parker set her wine down and scooted out of the chair she was sitting on. “Well, if it gets past the coffee stage, let us know.”

“I will.”

Parker stood and started for the door.

“Where are you going?”

“To grab my bridal magazines. Since you’re here and we’re done talking about sex, it’s time to look at flowers and stuff.”

Grace jumped up, too. “I have some in my car.”

“Wait.” Erin stopped them midstep.

Grace and Parker both turned around.

“What?” Grace asked.

“Are Colin and Matt perfect?”

Grace’s expression twisted several different ways as she contemplated her answer. “You mean outside of childhood pranks and blaming me for their parties and porn?”

That had Erin smiling. “Yeah.”

Grace rolled her eyes. “Yeah. And it’s annoying as hell.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“We need to talk.”

“That doesn’t sound good.” Erin had picked up the phone knowing it was Renee. They went through their normal code and then she was hit with . . . We need to talk. “Let me guess. Desmond figured out another way to delay the divorce.”

“In a manner . . . yes.”

Erin pushed her laptop aside and put her phone on speaker. “What’s he doing now?”

“First of all, he left the country.”

“He does that all the time. He’s never gone long.”

“This time he told his attorney he had a family emergency in Greece or someplace like that.”

“He doesn’t have family in Greece.”

Renee sighed. “I never thought he did. I told his counsel this tactic wasn’t going to work. That if I could represent you and you never show up in court, his counsel needed to do the same.”

“What happened?”

“The judge delayed based on personal hardship. The next day Desmond’s attorney called to tell me that your discovery was missing several components.”

“I thought we finalized this months ago,” Erin said. “There’s nothing to discover. I left with my clothes. I didn’t touch the bank account.”

“According to Desmond, he took your jewelry in for appraisal and found several pieces had been replaced with fakes.”

Erin’s jaw dropped. “I did not . . .”

“Maci, I need you to be honest with me. If you did this, I can work around it—”

“I wish I had thought of it, Renee. Then maybe I could buy a decent car. But I didn’t.”

Renee sighed, almost like she wasn’t convinced. “You did sell your shoes.”