Page 102 of Holding On

“It was killing him, Cara, but I swear, I made the guys promise to let me tell you. How did The Spill even find out? What did the article say? I refuse to pull that site up on my phone.” I cross my arms over my chest, annoyed they stole any of my thunder.

“It actually didn’t say anything about the concert or center, it just said that venues were buzzing about potential dates next year and that you were expected to make a tour announcement soon, and I thought we would’ve heard that from you,” Savannah says with a shrug.

“Of course you would have, y’all are my friends. Well, at least that damn gossip site didn’t steal all my fun news, even though I was going to tell you today. And don’t worry about the suites, Jack and Wells already reserved three of them for friends and family of the Callahans and Sinclairs.”

“Is that enough? You guys have massive families.” Cara snickers. She’s not wrong.

“No! I said we would pay!” Vivian’s outcry is adorable.

“They did, I promise. Wells and Jack split the cost and paid out of their personal accounts; it was not expensed.” It was really sweet of them, but if I think about that, I’ll cry, and this is supposed to be a fun time with my girls. “We’ll have sixty tickets, but you guys have like fifty-eight siblings and babies, so we will be tight, but I think it will work out. If not, we’ll get another suite.”

But I already know my genius-brother made a mental list, and everyone will fit, even though it was easily forty people without adding in friends outside of significant others when considering all the Callahans, Bennetts, Smith-Harringtons, and Rileys. Wells and I may only have each other and Allie, and maybe one day her extended family, but we have found such an amazing family right here in Forrest Falls. I think this might be the first time I’ve ever known what home feels like, and it has nothing to do with the house—or guest house—where I live at the moment.

“Speaking of things we didn’t tell each other, I can’t hold this in anymore—I did it!” Savannah raises her one free arm in a celebratory pump. My eyebrows go up as I look around for a clue because I must’ve missed something.

“Honey, what are you talking about?” Cami is the one to ask, but clearly all of us—except Vivian—are clueless. Vivian is fighting a laugh, but I think that’s only because Henry just fell asleep on her shoulder.

“I’ve been trying to get back at Liam for months for something he did a while ago. He scared the crap out of me and thought he was so funny. But you know he is damn near impossible to prank!”

It’s true. That dude makes James Bond look clumsy.

“What did you do?” Cara tucks her hand under her chin and leans forward with her elbow on the table. The way she says it makes me realize I never did hear her whole story about how she sometimes says she’s from New York but isn’t actually. I feel like it would be a good one because Cara is big and loud and fabulous—I’m so glad she’s my friend.

Even if she has secrets—but apparently, we all do.

Savannah smirks. “Well, I was smart and I called in reinforcements, obviously.”

“Obviously.” I gesture with my coffee for her to continue.

“The other day, Liam left a black Audi SUV at Ryan’s when he went out of town, which is somewhat unusual, but you know he has everything locked down to the nth degree, right?”

“Unless you’re Sophia,” Cara adds with a devilish grin.

Savannah points at her. “Unless you’re Sophia … or you have Sophia’s phone number from book club, which I do!” I must look lost as Savannah turns back to me. “Sophia works with our brother Liam, you know super-secret stuff, whatever, but she’s their genius hacker and all things tech. She’s quite literally saved my life before, and then lo and behold, she loves to read romance books, so she joined our book club late last fall. She can never come in-person, but almost always video chats in, and we just prop her up on an iPad. Okay, so anyway, I tell Sophia that I’ve been trying to get Liam back and I had an idea, so of course…”

Cara gasps. “She offered to help you! That’s like the golden ticket!”

“That’s amazing!” Vivian’s jaw drops in awe.

Savannah nods. “I know! I didn’t even need that much help. I just needed her to unlock his car and then turn off the video surveillance for a little bit.”

Vivian giggles before adding, “He’s still salty about the glitter in the vents incident.”

“I know.” She nods proudly. “But before I came here, I popped over there and Ryan saw what I was doing, and being the good brother he is, he helped me.”

“But what did you do to his car?” I ask, still not following why this is such a big deal.

She giggles. “I filled it up … with five bags of those three-inch plastic balls that you’d find in a kid’s ball pit.”

I narrow my eyes at her because the devil is in the details here. “And how many balls were in each bag, Sav?”

“Oh, you know, I didn’t count each and every one, but the package said one thousand balls.” She shrugs and takes a drink of her coffee as the rest of us erupt in laughter.

Five thousand plastic balls?

“When does he get back?” Vivian says as she wipes away tears from laughing so hard.

“Sophia couldn’t tell me that, but she said she would triple check that all the cameras were up and functioning and may even have an extra drone or something around when he does arrive. Ryan helped me, but it was only tricky with the last bag.” Savannah preens.