Page 61 of Love Expert

“No, he?—”

“Literally told the kids at school if his dad screws up and you’re still single in fifteen years, it’s all over for these other suckers in town.”

“He…” I lay my hand over my cartwheeling stomach. “You’re insane.”

“Ramone tried to toss Hudson at you, and Jeremy peed on your leg! And he didn’t even pee for himself. He peed for his dad. Girlfriend.” Fox’s lips firm into stern lines. “I don’t know what’s happening inyourbrain, but Billy Caster’s is screaming and running in circles, trying to figure out a way to ask you out without sounding like he’s suffering a stroke. Trust me.”

“The poor guy is way out of practice,” Eliza snickers. “He grew up with Aria, and eventually, she changed from ‘the chick who hung around the house a lot’ to ‘the chick he got to kiss and make a baby with’. He didn’t have to try. He didn’t even have to learn how to speak to women, because he only ever had to speak to her. Now he’s practically forty?—”

“He’s thirty-three, actually.”

“He was born in the nineteen-hundreds,” she counters. “Which makes all of you ancient as hell.”

“Calm down,” Alana growls. “You were born three minutes after the turn of the century, so don’t get too cocky over there, Gen Z.”

“Focus.” Fox snaps her fingers in my face. “You’re shopping for womenlikeyou, Magnolia. But you’re either too blind to realize he wantsyou, or you’re not blind at all, in which case, you’re setting him up with women you know he doesn’t actually have a future with. The first makes you kinda dumb, the second makes you devious and fun. Maybe the next chick you set him up with could be blonde and lesbian. That would be fun to watch.”

“I don’t?—”

“Maggie?”

Ramone’s close proximity catches me by surprise, and as I spin, his kind smile, not the raucous craziness I expect of him, makes my heart tumble. I look him up and down, concern washing through my veins due to how utterly serious he appears when he so often wears a grin instead, then I tilt to the right and find Billy exactly where I last saw him, his jaw clenched and his eyes burning.

He stares straight at me, as angry as he so often is.

So friggin’ angry all the time.

“I-is everything okay?” I bring my attention back to Ramone. “Did something happen?”

“No.” He offers me a beer, my second of the day, and extends his arm. “Grab on, Magnolia Sava. I wanna take you for a spin.”

“Um—”

“Go.” Eliza shoves my back until I crash into the unmovable Ramone Devereaux. “Talk some sense into her. We tried.”

“It’s sense you want?” He bounces his brows, smirking behind three-day-old stubble. “You’ve come to the right person, baby doll.” He loops his arm around mine. “Walk with me. Tell me about that time you slept in Billy’s bed.”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake.” I groan. “It’s not what you think it is.”

ROUND TWENTY-FOUR

BILLY

“I’m sorry I shouted that about you and Maggie in front of everyone.” Jeremy wrings his hands, ashamed and staring down at the ground, so all I get is a view of the top of his head. “Ramone tried to make Hudson and Maggie like each other, and I didn’t want him to take her away.”

“You’ve taken this a little too far, buddy.” I ignore Ramone and Maggie laughing by the barbecue. I ignore his hands—the way he touches her arm, her wrist, her elbows… her fucking collarbone. Instead, I lower onto a camp chair and rest my elbows on my knees. Folding my neck, I get low enough to peek up at my son’s ashen face. “Maggie is a grown woman. She has the right to talk to whoever she wants, whenever she wants, about anything she wants. If she’s interested in dating Hudson, or Ramone, or anyone else—”Fuckkkk. Just saying those words tastes like lemon on my tongue. “—she can.”

“But—”

“But nothing. She’s our neighbor, Jeremy. She’s not our possession to boss around. I get that you like her, and I get that you think she might go away if she dates someone else, but she’ll always be the Maggie she is, which means she’ll always find time for you, no matter what else is happening in her life.”

“But what about you?”

My breath comes to an aching stop as I search my brain for an answer. “W-what about me?”

“She’ll always be my friend, cos I’m cute, and she’snice to me.” For a single beat of my heart, his lips curl into a smug grin.Because he knows he’s cute. “If she dates someone else, I can still hang out in the garden and call her over to play with me. But you can’t.”

“Why can’t I?”