“What if she didn’t break the rules?” Bri peered around the corner, and Julie was never so thankful to have her daughter interrupt.
“What do you mean? How didn’t she break the rules? She spoke to you about us.” Kat rubbed her hands free of any cookie crumbs over the plate.
“But I’m family.”
“Family doesn’t have any place in our group. Our bond is more powerful than family relations.” Trace tilted her head. “Unless…”
“Unless I can apply to join? To be a member of the Summer Island Book Club?” Bri wrung her hands. “I know this sounds strange, but I’ve always dreamed of being a part of your group. I never had friends like you amazing ladies.”
Julie had to hide her smile at Bri’s obvious use of compliments to get what she wanted.
“Depends. Does mama bear think you’re ready?” Kat asked. “If so, we’ll have to take a vote and decide if any new members are being accepted. In the meantime, you need to find the perfect book for the next meeting. That is the most important part of SIBCS—the careful choosing of books. We’ll let you know then if you’re invited into our book club or not.”
Bri lit up, and Julie realized her daughter was serious. She did want to join. “Thank you. I won’t let you down.” She disappeared from the room, leaving the girls looking to Julie.
“So?” Wind asked.
Julie thought about it for a moment. “You know, that girl has only cared about how I’ve been doing since the day her father passed. She’s the one who encouraged me to bring us all together, and when I didn’t, she made it happen anyway. If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t be here now, so I vote yes. I didn’t realize it until today, but I think she needs some friends right now, too.”
“What say the rest of you?” Kat asked, the way she always had for any group decisions. She wasn’t the president of their club or anything like that, but she’d been spouting laws and rules since childhood. A girl born to be the prominent attorney she became, and Julie was proud of her accomplishments.
“Yes,” Wind said without hesitation.
Trace nodded. “Yep.”
“I agree. So, depending on her book choice, we can officially invite her into the society. Of course, that will take having the book club meeting and inauguration on Friendship Beach or she won’t be able to be admitted,” Kat announced in her authoritative way.
Trace snagged her cell phone. “Guess we better get to work, then.”
Before Julie could stop them, they scattered to make calls and arrange things. Tomorrow morning, they’d be working on restoring their past, and for the first time in a long time, she didn’t mind looking at the years behind her because she could see a life ahead of her now. A life with the possibility of her best friends who had been absent for so long returning to her life. And a life that included getting to know Trevor Ashford. A man who had sucker-kissed her. And she couldn’t wait for him to do it again.
Chapter Seventeen
The morning sun rose, reminding Trevor of the way Julie looked when she was happy. He longed to make her life better, but how could he now that Marsha was the divorcée who kept on giving? Gifts he didn’t want. Not from her. How did this happen? They’d been together all that time with no issue, and now this?
The glass sliding door opened behind him. “She’s calling again,” Dustin said in an I’m-so-sorry tone.
“I don’t want to speak to her, not yet. I’m thinking.”
“Man, I feel for you. This is insane. How sure are you that it’s not your kid?” Dustin asked. “I’m not trying to be mean, but we both know how Marsha is when she wants something. If she’s even pregnant, do you think it could be yours?”
“Apparently she is.” Trevor removed the folded paper he’d printed last night as if he couldn’t see it clearly on the screen. “There’s a bump there. Trust me. I know how crazy she is about her waistline.”
Dustin took the paper and then collapsed in the lawn chair by his side. “Man, this is such bad timing. Believe it or not, I was rooting for you and Julie.”
“Sure you were.” Trevor gripped the plastic armrests.
“Okay, maybe not, but only because I didn’t want you hurt again and I knew Julie had a lot of baggage to deal with. But never, did I ever, want Marsha back around. If I could change anything now, I’d get in that little dinghy and take on the sharks to get you to Julie and far from Marsha.”
“Ha. You would never go on the ocean.”
“Okay, maybe not, but not because I don’t care. Just that I’m not getting in or on that ocean for anyone.” Dustin shook his head. “Sorry, man. What are you going to tell Julie?”
Trevor crumpled the piece of paper and shoved it back into his pocket. “I don’t know. If I knew for sure the child was mine, I’d tell her now. But I’m not willing to lose her over one of Marsha’s games. I’m going to demand a paternity test before I acknowledge any rights to this baby.” He sighed. “You want to know the most pathetic thing about this?”
“What’s that?”
Trevor dropped his elbows to his knees and looked down at the ants crawling around the pebbles and shells on the ground. “I didn’t even want to be with Marsha that night, but she said she wanted to try again, that she wanted to stop the divorce, that she’d grown so much and realized what was important. She was so insistent, but then the next day she received a phone call from the guy she’s with, or was with, and she was gone. Papers were delivered the next day, and that’s when I knew one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“That I had to get far from Marsha and her games. The woman has some power over men to make them
