Page 8 of Fly's Path

Garnet stops filling her glass and turns to Winnie. “Valen Linckester.”

Cordelia starts laughing.

Have these people gone nuts? Probably. That’s why they’re my friends.

“Valen Linckester,” Winnie sputters. “You’re dating a Linckester. Well…that was…unexpected.”

“He’s a very nice man.”

Cordelia stops laughing.

Winnie shakes her head. “There isn’t such a thing as a nice Linckester. They don’t exist. They haven’t existed for the hundreds of years that family has silently ruled part of the world.”

“Ruled the world?” Piper’s jaw drops right along with the rest of ours. “What do you mean by that? I know that he’s rich, and with wealth comes power, but…Valen is a good man.”

Winnie looks around the room at all of our faces, assessing us. “I never said anything about him being good. I said he wasn’t nice. That man doesn’t have a nice bone in his body.”

“Like my husband?” Dahlia whispers.

“No. Not like your husband. More like Fiona’s guy…except on steroids. But we aren’t here to talk about a billionaire and his peculiar family. We’re here to talk about Dylan’s wedding and maybe Greer’s. She kissed a biker, too.”

“Kissing a biker doesn’t mean they’re going to marry you.” Greer huffs even as she smiles down at her abdomen.

“I’m definitely going to kiss the first biker I run into.” Savie’s grin is positively wicked.

“I’m game for it.” Winnie winks. “Just in solidarity. I’m not looking for anything long-term. Anyone else in on the Kissing Pact?”

“What Kissing Pact?” Knight says from the door with Daria at his side.

Savie doesn’t miss a beat. “We’re planning on kissing a biker to see if we end up marrying them. I don’t know if they have any lady bikers, but if they do, are you in?”

Weis a generous term…there’s no way I want to marry a biker, or anyone for that matter.

Knight glances down at Daria, giving her hand a squeeze—that’s interesting—“I think I’ll pass on kissing a biker. But I’m so in on the wedding planning.”

“Exactly. We need to focus.” Fiona lifts up a notebook. “Kissing Pacts later, wedding stuff now.”

“I’ve got the cake.” Cordelia chimes in. “Just tell me the colors, flavors, and styles, and it’ll be there.”

“We need a group cake tasting!” Greer shouts.

“I definitely agree with the pregnant lady!” Dylan nods. “We could do it at the club to get to know some of the people.”

“And work on the Kissing Pact!!!” Savie won’t let that go.

“Here, here for the cake tasting.” Garnet raises her glass. “I vote for champagne-and-raspberry-flavored cake.”

Now that I can agree with.

“Red velvet…”

****

This might count as the weirdest night of my life. Somehow, I’m in Fiona’s billionaire boyfriend’s mansion, washing dishes after laughing harder than I have in a very long time.

We didn’t get anything decided except that the cake tasting needs to have all the flavors, but did anyone really expect to accomplish anything in all that chaos? Tomorrow morning, I’ll sit down with Dahlia and see how I can help get stuff done.

Not that I’m the most organized person, but I can get things done when I set my mind to it.