“Just hanging with Uncle Sage. Doin’ detective stuff.” She shrugs, like it’s no big deal, and I fight back my smile.

“That sounds fun.”

“It was only kind of fun, since we didn’t get any bad guys,” she huffs, and I laugh then look at Sage, who is smiling at her.

“Sage, this is Dillon’s brother’s wife, Cara. Cara, my cousin, Sage, and you already know Hope,” I say.

“Hello, Cara,” Hope breathes in little girl happiness. When we went panning for gold with the boys, we took Hope along with us, and she fell in love with my sister-in-law immediately and convinced herself that Cara is one of the Disney princesses.

“Nice to meet you.” Cara smiles at Sage before running her hand down Hope’s hair. “Hey, beautiful girl.”

“Hi.” She wiggles herself to be put down, and then looks between Cara and me. “Are you guys here to get ready for the ball?” she asks. Then she spins when Ellie yells, “Hope!” loud enough to make me jump.

“What ball?” I ask Ellie, and she rolls her eyes.

“Dinner tomorrow. Hope’s convinced herself it’s going to be a ball.” She shakes her head, giving me a side hug, before saying hello to Cara, who she also met last weekend when we picked her daughter up to go with us.

“I thought it was just a family dinner.” I raise a brow, seeing she has Hope’s mouth covered, and she drops her hand away quickly then spins Hope to face her.

“Why don’t you go pick a nail polish. We got some new colors in today.”

“Yay!” Hope shouts, shooting her arms in the air while running off.

Planting my hands on my hips, I glare at my brother’s wife. “What’s going on? First, Dillon tells me that he’s having dinner with my parents tonight, and now this. Something is up, and you better spill it.”

“There’s nothing to spill.” She shrugs, and I narrow my eyes, knowing she’s lying, since she is the worst liar ever. “Seriously, there is nothing to spill,” she repeats, then looks past me and smirks.

“No, I’m working right now,” Kim hisses behind me, and I pull my eyes from Ellie and turn to find Sage standing in Kim’s space, with his face dipped close to hers.

“We can talk now, or I can stop by your place tonight. You choose.”

“That’s not exactly a choice.” She glares at him, balling her hands into fists, and his lips twitch ever so slightly.

“Your choice, sweetheart. I’m good either way, but we both know what will happen if I have to come to your house,” he mutters, and her eyes widen.

“God, you are… you are… I don’t even know what you are,” she growls, then looks at me.

“I’m so sorry about this. I’ll be right back,”

“It’s fine,” I assure her, watching Sage open the door, allowing her to stomp out past him.

“See you tomorrow.” He smiles, looking at Cara, Ellie, and me.

“See you tomorrow,” I agree as he let’s the door go and walks toward Kim, who is now standing at the edge of the sidewalk with her arms crossed over her chest looking annoyed.

“What’s that about?” I question Ellie, who has moved closer to the front window.

“Last week, Sage found out Kim’s boyfriend isn’t exactly the kind of ‘boyfriend’ he thought he was. Since then, that”—she points her finger toward Kim and Sage, who are standing close together—“has been happening almost everyday.”

“So he finally figured it out?” I ask, staring at Ellie in disbelief, and she laughs.

“He didn’t exactly figure it out. He was out with Jax having a drink, and found Chris making out with a guy.”

“Oh no,” I whisper, and she smiles.

“Oh yeah. Then he punched Chris in the face and gave him a black eye.”

“Shut up?” I breathe, looking back out the front window just in time to see Sage grab Kim’s waist and tug her hips into his.

“Swear,” Ellie whispers while we watch Kim try to push him away, only to have him take her by the back of her neck with his free hand and hold her in place. I knew Kim’s plan was stupid when she told me what she did. I told her that claiming her gay best friend was her boyfriend was the wrong way to go about keeping Sage at bay, but she refused to listen to reason. Not that I can blame her. What my cousin did hurt her, and a woman who has been hurt will do whatever’s necessary to protect herself from it ever happening again.

“Jax said Sage hasn’t been with anyone since her,” Ellie says quietly, and I pull my eyes from the window, feeling like a voyeur all of a sudden, and look at her.

“Really?” My cousin was a bit of a manwhore, like my brother was before Ellie, so I find it hard to believe he hasn’t been with anyone since what happened between him and Kim went down a long time ago.

“Really,” she mutters, and then shrugs. “I hope they figure their stuff out. They would be good together, if they could just get past all the crap between them.”

“They would make some beautiful babies,” Cara adds, and I look at her, raising a brow. “What? They would.”

“They really would,” Ellie agrees, then studies me. “But then again, you and Dillon would also have some beautiful babies.”

“Yes, they would,” Cara puts in, smiling, and I shake my head at both of them then move my eyes to the door when it chimes and Kim stomps back in, looking flustered.