Megan grinned at her old friend, closing the door behind her. There was a light bulb in the ceiling that illuminated that tidy interior, permeated with the smell of potting soil. “Is everything okay?”

Sophie blew out a shaky breath. “Have you ever wanted something you really, really shouldn’t want?”

Megan was struck by her friend’s honest question. There was no pretense with Sophie. There never had been. It was one of the things she’d always been drawn to in the other woman.

So although she was tempted to try and evade Sophie’s question, because she was hoping that they could make good on the budding friendship they’d started in college, especially living as close to each other in the city as they did, Megan nodded.

“I know exactly how that is,” she said, thinking about being in the backyard with Gabe, and the heat that had nothing to do with the fire jumping to life in the fire pit.

Only, her admission didn’t seem to make Sophie feel any better.

As the other woman looked at her hands, Megan followed her gaze to neatly trimmed nails with no polish. Sophie was wearing a simple navy knit dress that covered her arms and most of her legs. She had on no makeup, no jewelry, and yet where other women would have been plain, Sophie was undeniably beautiful. After having spent a good half-hour on her hair and makeup, not to mention trying on all of the new dresses she’d bought since the fire, Megan felt a little overdressed.

She found an empty pot and turned it upside down, sitting across from Sophie. “Do you want to talk about it?”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Sophie was upset over a man. Only, Megan was a little ashamed she couldn’t possibly have known who, since she’d barely been able to focus on anyone but Gabe all night.

Sophie shook her head and she looked around the small shed. “I’m sorry, Megan. I think I’m just about the worst friend in the world, inviting you to a party and then disappearing off into the potting shed to mope.”

Megan had to laugh at the funny expression on Sophie’s face. “I’ve always liked gardening.”

“Come on,” Sophie said, standing up and extending her hand to Megan. “Let’s go get a couple of glasses of bubbly and you can fill me in on the past seven years.”

Megan could see that Sophie wasn’t at all over what had sent her off to hide in the potting shed, but she clearly didn’t want to talk about it. Not yet, anyway. Maybe when they’d gotten closer, she’d open up.

Then again, Megan knew exactly what it was to have a secret crush on someone who was totally off limits. It didn’t matter how close she and Sophie grew as friends, Megan was never, ever going to admit that she got tingly and breathless whenever Gabe was near.

If anything, the short conversation they’d just had was more than long enough to reinforce what she already knew: that giving in to the sparks she felt with Gabe would only end up breaking her heart.

Or worse, her daughter’s heart.

Chapter Seven

As the Sullivan holiday party wound down, most of Gabe’s siblings gravitated toward each other in a tight group around the fire. Normally, Gabe would have been in there with them all, but Sophie had pulled Megan into the group and he didn’t have a good enough grip on himself around her yet.

Sure, there was nothing going on between them. And there wouldn’t be in the future. But every once in a while a guy needed a break from a half-dozen pairs of probing eyes that just might see what he didn’t want them to.

Gabe kept himself busy playing pirate ship with the kids in the tree fort, and then flashlight tag in the backyard, until his mother called out that she’d put a movie on for them in the basement.

By that point, Gabe had to face up to what he was doing. He figured he’d been called a lot of things over the years, but he could guarantee he’d never been called a coward.

Chloe was yawning when he walked up to the fire pit. “Sorry to leave right when you get here,” she said to him with a sleepy look as she and Chase got up. “I’m exhausted for some reason.”

After his brother and fiancée said their goodbyes and he took one of the open seats, their friend Jake McCann strolled over to take the other.

“Hey, Jake.” Lori Sullivan, Sophie’s twin, peered over his shoulder. “What happened to your date?”

Gabe watched Jake grin at the woman he’d treated like a little sister for the past twenty years he’d been hanging out at the Sullivan house. Zach had brought him in one day when they were in fifth grade and the joke was that he’d become the ninth Sullivan. He’d been out of state working on a new chain of Irish pubs for the past six months, so this was the first time any of them had seen him in a while.

“Had to pour her into a cab a little while ago.”

Lori rolled her eyes. “You have terrible taste in women,” she teased him, then said, “We were just about to play Truth or Dare. Come on, join us.”

It didn’t matter that they were all adults now; the games hadn’t changed. They still played a nasty game of touch football every Thanksgiving in which the girls got in harder hits every year on their brothers...and at Christmas everyone still wanted to know each other’s secrets.

Lori threw a marshmallow across the fire to her twin. “Why don’t you go first, Sophie?”

Sophie caught the white puff of sugar right before it nailed her in the face, glaring at Lori as she tossed it straight into the center of the fire. As the flames caught and jumped, she said, “Truth.”

His sisters’ relationship hadn’t been all that great for a while now. No one could figure out why, and even though their mother was clearly worried about it, neither Lori nor Sophie would say what had happened. Even when they were arguing, they were fierce in their solidarity to keep things between the two of them. They were a tight little unit that none of them had ever been able to penetrate, not even Gabe, who was the closest in age and had spent more time with both of them than anyone but Marcus, who had pretty much helped raise them from toddlers.

“Why were you sneaking around tonight?” Lori asked her twin.

Sophie’s eyes were big, worried, as she fixated on the flames. She’d never been good at hiding her feelings, which was why she was nicknamed Nice, whereas Lori, who loved causing trouble, was Naughty.

Finally, Sophie said in a tight voice, “I wasn’t sneaking around.”

Lori narrowed her eyes. “I saw you coming out of Mom’s potting shed.”