AT FIRST, I’m not sure if what I’m hearing is someone knocking on my door because the booming thunder of the storm masks it. Then it comes again. Boom, boom, boom.
I slide my laptop onto the couch beside me and rush to the door.
“Hanna?” Liz calls.
“What are you doing out in this storm?” I hurry to the door and yank it open.
Liz steps in, soaking
wet but grinning. Maggie, Cally, and Nix pile in right behind her. “Impromptu girls’ night!” Liz announces.
“Sorry, I couldn’t hear the knocking over the thunder.”
The girls shed their shoes and jackets by the door, and I grab towels for them.
“It’s a mess out there,” my sister says. She wipes the rain from her face and shakes her curls, not unlike a dog coming in from the rain.
Cally goes into the kitchen and plugs her iPod into the radio, and Maggie hoists a couple of canvas shopping bags on the counter and starts pulling out cream, Godiva liqueur, and vodka—ingredients for chocolate martinis, if I’m not mistaken. Nix removes a box of truffles, cheese, and crackers from another bag.
“You guys,” I say. “I have a wedding dress to fit into in three and a half weeks.”
Liz opens cabinet doors until she finds my martini glasses and sets them on the island. “You’ve never had us over here.”
“We had to remedy that,” Cally says, grinning.
“And Asher and Nate are working like fiends, so I was bored,” Maggie explains.
“Where’s Will?” I ask Cally.
“He’s hanging with Max and Sam at Brady’s.”
I head to the island and pop a truffle in my mouth. “That is amazing!” I close my eyes and chew slowly.
“God, it’s good to see you eat!” Cally says as she chooses a chocolate. “You were losing weight so fast. I was worried about you.”
“She’s doing really well,” Nix says. She winks at me as she grabs a truffle for herself. “Oh, wow!”
“They’re orgasmic, aren’t they?” Maggie says. “Asher got them for me when he was in New York last month. There’s this shop in the city that I swear does voodoo to make their chocolate.”
“Let me try.” Lizzy abandons her half-made chocolate martinis to try the orgasmic treat for herself. “Holy shit! I didn’t know chocolate could be better.”
The speakers click as Cally’s iPod shuffles to a new song, and Nate Crane’s “Lost In Me” begins.
I gasp.
Lizzy reaches over and squeezes my hand, and I close my eyes.
“That’s it.” Maggie slaps her palm on the counter. “What is going on with Nate Crane?”
Lizzy puts on her innocent face. “What do you mean?”
“Something’s up with you two. You get all weird any time I mention Nate, and he gets all weird every time I say anything about my sisters.”
“Weird?” Lizzy says. “We’re just fans. That’s all.”
Maggie raises a disbelieving brow. “You are a shitty liar.”
My twin sighs dramatically. “Fine. You know how I feel about his hotness. You caught me. I’m sleeping with Nate Crane.”