Page 41 of Fearlessly Us

“You too. God,” I say, studying her, “do you have, like, a deal with the devil or something? A holy grail skin care routine? You quite literally never age.”

Hannah shrugs. “I think it’s the books. Something about writing beautiful people falling in love all the time.” Hannah is a famous romance author with dozens of books in her backlist and readers all over the world. Sarcastic, skeptical, and way spicier than Jo or my mom, Hannah is the one of my many aunts I’ve always felt closest to.

“It’s not the books, Gorgeous.” Noah wraps his arms around Hannah’s waist and props his chin on her shoulder.

“Let me guess. It’s you and your magic, magic love?” Her tone is dry, but her eyes dance with amusement.

“Bet your ass.” He plants a kiss on her cheek with another grin, and my heart gives a little tug because Noah and Jordan love Hannah and Jo the same way my dad loves my mom, and seeing all of them together comes awfully close to upending the tenuous control I’ve had over my emotions lately.

“Presents!” Jo says, mercifully interrupting my imminent spiral. “Jordan might have gotten to see you first, but I have the present game wrapped up tight. And I swear I didn’t get you pink shoes again, even though I really, really wanted to.”

I laugh. “The two unworn pairs sitting in my closet thank you.”

Jo rolls her eyes. “We really need to get some color in your life, Cait.”

Shrugging, I think of the eighty-seven bottles of nail polish in my bathroom drawer, at least six of them pinker than Jo’s shoes, and how I reach for those pink Converse at least once a week, putting them on and taking them right off again, sure they could never be for me, even though I sometimes want them to be.

“Wait, did you start presents without me?” Sarah comes dashing up my parents’ front walk and flies up the stairs, flushed and a little out of breath, wrapping her arm around my waist and squeezing before reaching up to hug her dad and then her mom. “Lab ran long and then I forgot morning-me delegated getting gas to afternoon-me even though my tank was empty, and then afternoon-me cursed morning-me for at least ten minutes before dealing with that cluster and yeah,” she says in a rush, tossing her hair over her shoulders. “Anyway, I’m here.”

Digging into my bag, I toss Sarah the bag of Reese’s Pieces I stuck in there earlier, knowing there was a nonzero chance she would show up to dinner late and flustered about something. “Fill up when you’re at a quarter of a tank and you’ll never have to deal with afternoon-you cursing morning-you for putting it off.”

Sarah laughs, tearing open the candy. “Obviously you’re right, Cait, but could never be me.”

“Me either,” Jo says with a laugh, sliding an arm around Sarah’s waist. “Going to the gas station is a personal insult, best put off until you can’t avoid it anymore.”

“Right?” Sarah grins at her mom. “You get me.”

Jordan chuckles and wraps his arm around Sarah on the other side. “That’s because you are her, Sar.”

My mom laughs and stands from the swing, hugging Sarah and then looking at Jo. “It will never not be weird to me that you literally created your clone, Jo Jo. I never thought there could be anyone else like you.”

Jo just beams and bumps her hip against Sarah. “The only thing better than one of me is two of me. And we didn’t do presents yet. We were waiting for you, and Emmy isn’t even here yet.”

“Yes I am!” Emmy runs up the stairs, blonde hair flying as she flings herself at Jo and then Hannah. “Hi!” she practically squeals. “I missed you!”

“What about me?” Noah asks. “You didn’t miss me?”

“Nah,” Emmy says, laughing when Noah scoops her up in a bear hug and then Jordan takes his turn. “Thanks for letting me tag along on your trip home tomorrow. My dad has called me like a hundred times in the last few weeks since Brady decided he wanted his own apartment instead of living at home. If I have to listen to him complain about his empty nest for one more second, I’m going to lose it, so I figured I would go spend a few days there.”

Noah laughs, tossing an arm around Emmy’s shoulders. “Yeah, your brother is really on your dad’s shit list this month. Cooper will be thrilled, and your mom will love it since I’m pretty sure Cooper is driving her insane too.”

“Wait, you’re going to Boston?” I ask, my brain flipping through Emmy’s to-do list for the week.

Emmy snorts out a laugh, breaking away from Jordan to hug me. “The Miller trusts are already on your desk, and I did all the research on the elective share thing for the clients coming in next week and emailed you the cases I found.”

Pulling back, I stare at Emmy. “Seriously?”

Emmy rolls her eyes and kisses my cheek. “It’s not like I set out to drive you and your procrastination allergy insane. It’s just that I do my best work under pressure. I knew me leaving would stress you out, so against every instinct in my bones, I worked ahead.”

I turn Emmy’s words over and over in my head, and for some reason, for the second time since I got here, I have the strange urge to cry.

A couple minutes later, Jo pushes everyone inside for presents and I hang back to get my shit together—and also to do the thing I’ve resisted doing for the last twenty minutes. Reaching into my bag, I pull out my phone and immediately unlock it, Drew’s messages popping right up on the screen. Scanning them, I can’t help but laugh, all my shaky emotions forgotten as I read his words.

Drew

You still there?

Was the crawling thing too much? I mean, you did ask if I would crawl for you, and I’m not in the business of lying.