Parker’s jaw dropped. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“No way.”

Erin rolled her eyes. “Your family is all about oversharing.”

Grace turned to her with an inquisitive eye. “What makes you say that?”

Erin kept silent a beat too long, and Parker chimed in. “Erin’s miffed because Matt told Colin that he kissed her.”

“What?” Grace nearly screamed her question.

“Oh, please. Are you suggesting this is news to you?” Erin asked.

Jennifer waved her hand in the air. “I’m sorry. Is this a thing? Matt is your other brother, right? The firefighter?”

Parker, Grace, and Erin all nodded, helping Jennifer catch up.

“It is news.” Grace turned to Parker. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She waved her new ring in the air. “Little distracted.”

“When did this kiss happen?”

Oh, no. Erin felt the spotlight turn on her. Time to put the wine down and replace it with water, she chided herself. “Friday.”

Parker leaned forward, rested her elbows in her lap. “You told me I’d get the details later. Well, it’s later, missy. Spill.”

She needed to defuse this, stat. “It really wasn’t a big deal.”

Grace practically threw herself back on the couch with a dramatic roll of her eyes. “Oh, please. Matt has been crushin’ on you since Christmas. Don’t tell us it wasn’t a big deal.”

“Since Christmas? I only saw him once before then.”

“So?”

The news that Matt had been instantly attracted to her did all kinds of fun things to her belly.

Jennifer kicked her feet under her and dug a hand in a bag of chips. “Oh, this is good stuff.”

The three of them looked at her. Parker and Grace laughed.

Jennifer glanced at Erin. “I’ve been married forever. This crush, first kiss, and engagement stuff is better than a smutty novel.”

Erin unfolded from the couch to make good on replacing her wine with water. “It wasn’t a . . . it was just a kiss.”

Parker jumped up and headed her off when Erin reached for a water bottle. “Oh, no. I’ve been waiting to hear about this kiss since Cabo so just keep drinking the truth serum and sing, little canary.”

Erin let Parker push her back to the couch and accepted the wine Grace thrust into her hand.

“Okay, okay . . .” She took a sip of courage and continued. “The day Matt took you to the airport, he came back to return my sunglasses.”

“The ones you left at his house after you brought him brownies?” Grace asked.

“You guys really do know everything about each other,” Erin said.

Grace shrugged. “He said if you kissed as good as you baked, he was in trouble.”

Erin felt her face warming with all the attention.

“Baking for a man is like foreplay,” Jennifer added.

Parker giggled. Grace joined her.

The wine was having quite the effect on this crowd.

Grace waved her hand in the air. “Anyway, you made him a chocolate aphrodisiac, and he made up an excuse to come see you knowing no one was at the house.”

“Austin was here. We weren’t alone.”

Grace frowned. “Bummer.”

“Doesn’t matter. He didn’t kiss me that night. It was the next day.”

Parker squinted her eyes. “I thought he was working.”

Erin knew this slightly drunk group of women was going to have fun with what she said next. So instead of pulling the bandage off slowly, she did it fast.

“There was a fire, and I was worried. So I baked. And when I ran out of sugar and flour, I took everything over to the fire station thinking he’d get it when they got back. Only there were other women there. Two of the wives of the guys he works with. I was just going to drop the stuff and leave, but then Matt and his crew showed up. He saw me. I think he was surprised. He marched up to me as if he’d done so in the past and just kissed me. And that’s all there is to it.” Her entire disjointed monologue was said to her wineglass.

“What did you do?” Jennifer asked.

Somehow it was easier to look at Jennifer. Probably because Erin didn’t know the woman that well. “I stood there.” Then she closed her eyes. “And kissed him back.”

Parker screamed first, followed by Grace.

“It was only one kiss and in front of a bunch of strangers.”

“It’s the start of something good,” Parker told her.

Erin tilted her head. “I’m not ready to start anything. Good or otherwise.”

Grace stopped laughing and asked one simple question. “Why?”

Erin glanced up at Parker, who had also stopped laughing and kept her lips shut.

Keep it simple and as close to the truth without giving anything away. She put the wine down, determined to not take one more sip. “I’m coming off a bad relationship and I’m not ready to date.”

Her excuse didn’t pass with Grace. “The best part about getting out of a bad one is finding a good one. I’m biased, but Matt’s one of the good ones,” Grace told her.

“I’m sure he is. This is about me. I’m not ready.”

Grace lowered her chin and stared at her. “But you kissed him back.”

Parker laughed. “She didn’t say her libido wasn’t ready, she said she wasn’t ready. I totally get it. Sometimes these things take time. If I had met Colin right after my parents died, I don’t know if I would have been all that receptive.”

Erin wanted to hug her.

“I get it. But I’m not giving up hope. Maybe your libido will tell your brain what to do.”

“I’m not a guy. I try not to think with that part of my anatomy.”

Erin’s comment had them all laughing again.

And thankfully, Parker changed the subject to wedding dresses.

Without a doubt, Erin knew she’d dodged a bullet with the entire conversation.

And she owed Parker a batch of brownies.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Erin opened her laptop and clicked into her client’s manuscript she’d promised to have the first round of edits on within a week. Her calendar was booked through the month, which worked really well for her bank account, but didn’t leave a whole lot of room to mess around. She scheduled herself so tight on purpose. Being super busy with work was supposed to keep her focused on books and not what her soon-to-be ex-husband was doing.

Yet there she sat early in the morning after talking with the women the night before and drinking enough to leave her mouth pasty in the morning, thinking about him. Well, her thoughts were focused on Renee and what she was doing. What the judge was saying.

And there was nothing Erin could do or say to keep the restraining order in place.

She read the first page of the manuscript five times and still couldn’t tell you what was going on in the story. Giving up, she shut the laptop down and walked into her small kitchen. The compulsive need to move was crawling up the back of her neck. She opened several cupboards and realized that she hadn’t replaced most of her provisions after her last baking frenzy that resulted in baking a storefront number of goodies she left with Matt.