Page 27 of Born for Starlight

"Okay." I set down my glass. "What I'm about to tell you does not leave this room. I mean it. Not to Adam, not to Zarek, not to Jase, Bonnie. And not to the rest of your sisters, Zoe. This isn't my secret to have leaked."

Every woman in the room leaned in. Even Baby Josie looked interested.

"Grant isn't my boyfriend. He never has been. Grant is madly, stupidly in love with somebody else, somebody who can't be seen with him publicly yet for reasons that are his to tell, not mine. So, I'm his cover. The press follows me and him around, and his actual girlfriend gets to live her life without a photographer in her bushes while she plans their wedding." I shrugged. "That's it. That's the whole scandal. I'm a decoy."

The silence lasted about two seconds.

"That is the sweetest thing I have ever heard," Bonnie said.

"You're protecting his real relationship." Trenda put her hand over her heart. "Angelica."

"It's not that noble. It works for me too. Nobody digs into my personal life when they think they already know it." I pointed at each of them in turn. "Sworn to secrecy. Say it."

"Sworn," Trenda said.

"Sworn." Bonnie crossed her heart.

"Sworn," Chloe said, then looked down at Olivia. "She's sworn too. She can't talk, but her heart's in the right place."

"I've known for a year," Kit said serenely. "My lips have been sealed the whole time."

Zoe was staring at me. I watched her run the math and arrive at the answer, and I watched her entire face light up like a Roman candle.

"So, you're single."

"Zoe."

"You are single. You have been single this whole time. Which means there is absolutely nothing stopping you and Matthew from⁠—"

"And on that note." I stood up and grabbed a brownie, because a woman needed provisions for a deflection this big. "There's something else I need to tell you all. Right after the wedding, I'm going to Brazil."

That did it. The matchmaking energy drained out of the room and silence took its place.

"The trip is really happening," Bonnie said softly.

"It's really happening. I've got meetings set with two of the organizations I'm funding. I want to see the work. I want to meet the people, meet the children." I looked down at my brownie instead of their faces. "I know it’s going to sound crazy to some people. Going back to the country where everything almost went so wrong."

"It doesn't sound crazy," Chloe said quietly, her hand resting on Olivia's back.

I looked up.

"It sounds like closure," Kit said. "Or maybe not closure. Maybe just... standing in your own story. Even the parts you can't remember."

My throat went tight. This was why I loved these women.

"The boys are losing their minds about it," I managed.

"Of course they are. They carried you out of that building." Bonnie's voice was gentle. "In their heads, you're still that little girl." She paused, and I could see the wheels turning. "You know what you should do? Take Jase with you. He'd calm down the moment he had a job to do. Give that man a protection detail and he's a happy camper."

"That's actually smart," Trenda said. "He's trained, he's family, and he'd probably stop calling you every four hours."

"He’d just call Bonnie every four hours, instead,” I said.

"Six, if he's busy," Bonnie allowed.

Everybody laughed, and everybody nodded.

Then Zoe, looking down at her engagement ring, started to talk. “You know…” Then she stopped talking. It was obvious she wanted encouragement. I waited for someone else to give it to her.