“Yeah. Yeah. Sure.” I’ve taken two shuffly, unsteady steps down the walkway when the alarm goes off in the house. “Shit. Hold on.”

By the time I get the door unlocked, the alarm company is calling. I explain that I accidently hit the wrong code, give them all the personal details they require to ensure someone hasn’t broken into my house and taken me hostage, and lock up a second time.

I keep my eyes averted as I speed walk to Lily’s truck—well, technically it’s Randy’s truck, but she always drives it when he’s out of town—and throw myself into the backseat.

“I didn’t know you were a camper,” Sunny says from the front seat.

“I actually hate camping.”

“What’s with the camping trailer, then?” Lily asks.

“It’s her mom’s,” Violet supplies when all I do is sit there, dry mouthed and anxious.

“Oh, did you have a bad experience? When Lily and I went tree planting, it was awful.” Even Sunny’s frown is cute.

“I think it might’ve been the people we went with,” Lily replies. “But it can be fun. If you’re with the right people.”

I don’t say anything, because my experience with RVing is probably not like most people’s.

Less than two minutes after getting into the truck, my phone rings. I’m surprised to see it’s Darren. We don’t have a lot of phone conversations when he’s away. I bring the phone to my ear.

“Charlene? Is everything okay? Are you all right?”

His concern is even more surprising than the out-of-the-blue phone call. “I’m fine. Why?”

“Oh. Okay.” He exhales a long breath. “Okay. That’s good. I received a message from the alarm company that was . . . concerning. I wanted to make sure nothing happened and you were safe.”

I hadn’t realized Darren would be contacted if my house alarm went off.

“I’m fine. I put in the wrong code one too many times, and it went off. Sorry if I worried you.”

“As long as you’re safe, that’s all that matters. It sounds like you’re in a car. Are you driving?”

“I’m with the girls, and I’m not driving.”

“Ah. That’s good. Okay. Well, I won’t keep you, then. Maybe, uh, we could talk later? Or I’ll text if that isn’t convenient for you.”

My stomach flips. Darren doesn’t usually suggest phone calls unless we’re making a plan to see each other and texting will take too long. “I’d love to talk. I can message when I’m home and see if you’re around?”

“That would be perfect. Have a fun day with your friends.”

I finger my pearls, smiling at how formal and awkward he can be when he’s unsure how to approach a subject. It’s endearing. “Okay. I will.”

“But not as much fun as you’d have with me.”

I laugh. “Of course not.”

I end the call with a smile.

“Everything okay?” Violet asks.

“Oh yeah. Darren got the message from the alarm company and wanted to make sure I’m okay.”

“He gets alerts when your house alarm goes off?” Lily asks.

“He’s the one who had it installed, so yeah. I guess he wanted to make sure I’m safe.”

“That’s sweet, isn’t it?” Sunny smiles. “That he wants to make sure you’re taken care of when he can’t be with you.”

“Yeah.” I roll the pearls over my lips. “It is.”

It takes half an hour to get to the convention center, and another twenty minutes to find parking. Violet is absolutely shocked when Lily manages to back into a spot without hitting anything. Most of the time when we go out as a group we don’t allow Violet to drive because she’s so bad at it. She can manage to drive in a straight line, but parking, backing out, and turning all seem to be a challenge for her.

We hand our tickets over and head inside. I’ve been to plenty of sex shops to buy lingerie, and sometimes toys and fun stuff. But in the past I’ve tried to avoid these kinds of sex conventions because of my mom’s job, so it’s new, even for me.

Lily meanders from display to display, checking everything out. Poppy’s face is an interesting shade of perma-red, and Sunny, well, I think this whole experience is going to scar my poor friend for life. At least I tried to shield her from it, which is more than I can say for the rest of them.

Violet is . . . Violet. She stops at a table with strap-ons and picks one up. “Can I test this out?” she asks the guy manning the booth. He looks like he probably watches a lot of internet porn and doesn’t often see the light of day.

“Uh, test it out how?” he asks.

“Like, can I try it on? See if it fits?”

“Oh, yeah. For sure.” He nods at her boobs. Although to be fair, she is wearing a v-neck Chicago shirt with the logo stretched across her chest. On the back is Alex’s last name and jersey number. She has a lot of Alex-inspired gear.

She tosses one at me. “You should try this on, too.”

I snort and roll my eyes. “I’m good.”

“Oh come on! Aren’t we in your favorite playground right now? Have a little fun!”

Before I can protest, Lily grabs it from me.

I think the guy manning the booth is going to have a coronary watching the two of them fasten each other with strap-ons. In fact, pretty much every guy in the general vicinity has stopped what they’re doing to watch.

“You really can’t take Violet anywhere, can you?” Poppy asks with a smile on her still-red face.

“Not really, but she’s definitely entertaining.”

As soon as Violet has Lily’s strap-on in place, they have a dick sword fight, which draws more attention—the kind where people take pictures on the sly that are for sure going to end up on social media.

I drag Vi behind a display of dildos suctioned to the wall, and Poppy does the same with Lily.

“People are taking pictures,” I scold. “Take off your dongs and act normal for once.”

Violet’s face is red from laughing and exertion. “But I like my dong.”

“Pictures are probably going to be posted all over the place, and you’re wearing an Alex shirt. He’s going to get tagged, and then he’s going to see you and Lily having a strap-on sword fight.”

Her smile drops and she cringes, the red spots on her chest grow progressively blotchier. “Shitballs.” She tries to unharness herself, but she’s too frantic to manage it. “I can’t get my dong off!”

“Here, let me help.” I free her quickly while Lily unbuckles her own.

“You’re awfully good with the buckles and stuff,” Vi observes.

“Don’t even go there,” I tell her. “If it wasn’t for you and the rest of the girls, I wouldn’t be here.”

“It’s fun though, and it demystifies a lot of the stuff we read about in BDSM, right? Besides, this one is loving all the porny stuff.” She thumbs over her shoulder at Lily, who shrugs and grins.

We come back out from behind the wall of dildos, thank the guy who’s probably going to be blue balling it for the rest of the day, and go in search of Sunny. Which is when we run into Skye, Violet’s mom, and Daisy, who is Alex and Sunny’s mother.

“Shit!” Violet tries to pull me behind a display of latex-body-suit-wearing mannequins.

“Vi! Charlene! Girls!” Skye shouts.

Violet cringes and drops her head in defeat. “Hey, Mom. Daisy, what are you doing here?” She peeks inside the stroller Daisy’s pushing. “With Logan?”

Skye wraps her arm around Violet’s shoulder and gives her a big hug. “Sunny mentioned you were going to this ’palooza thing today, so Daisy and I looked it up and thought it would be fun if we came, too!”

“With a baby?” Violet asks.

“Logan is too little to remember any of it, so it’s fine. Isn’t that right, my favorite little chubbie-wubbie?” Daisy gets all up in little Logan’s face and tickles his feet. He giggles and swipes at her swinging hair.

“You should’ve told us about this! We could’ve made it a whole mother-daughter bonding experience!” Skye flails around excitedly.

“Yeah, ’cause shopping for sex toys with my mom is exactly what I want to do on a Saturday afternoon.”

“Oh, come on, Vi! We had so much fun when we went in Vegas, didn’t we?”

“I think they have a maternity sex section,” Daisy tells Sunny, who’s finally wandered over. She looks a little disturbed to find her mother here. At least hers is just shopping and not part of the event.

This day keeps getting better and better. Especially when we finally stumble upon my mom, performing a Dominatrix demonstration. There’s a different masked, assless chaps guy following her around on all fours wearing a leash. I know it’s a different guy because this one has a massive back tattoo, and the guy from yesterday did not.

Thankfully, we arrive at the tail end of the demonstration.

Skye does her dejected-four-year-old flaily thing. “Too bad we missed that. It looked like fun. I wonder if Sidney would like those kinds of pants.” She turns to Daisy. “I bet we’d look hot in that leather business. That woman looks to be about our age.” She gestures to my mom.