But I hung back.

Because I wanted to chat with Margot.

“Don’t you have a party to get ready for, darlin’?” she asked.

Translation from Margot Speak: My firstborn is going to be here soon, my second born is showing later tonight, and my last born is driving up first thing in the morning so I have a million things to do. Hit the road.

“Just wanna make sure you’re all good. Lots of folks hitting your place, you need anything?” I asked.

“I had everything sorted last week, Adeline, but thank you for offering.”

I studied her face.

She looked no different.

But she was a dab hand with makeup and never had a hair out of place, so that didn’t mean anything.

I didn’t know how to say it seemed Dave and she were sniping at each other, that I’d never heard Dave speak to her in the tone he’d used earlier, or even thought he was capable of it due to the fact he worshiped the ground she walked on, and that there was something off about this required-attendance wedding meeting the day before Christmas Eve.

Especially when the date was set, the church was scheduled, the reception venue was booked, Macy and the bakery had preliminary deposits to save the date for whatever Eliza chose, and come January, we had nearly seven and a half months to sort out the rest.

“Are you and Tobias all right?”

Her question made me focus on her.

Her question also made me smile at her.

“Yeah, Margot, we’re great.”

She smiled back at me, reached out and took my hand.

“I knew he’d choose someone like you,” she said softly. “Full of vim and vigor and vivacity and audacity. Just like Eliza with Johnny, you not only match his spirit, you complement his soul.”

I stood in her foyer with her, my fingers curled around hers, and stared in her eyes, warmth rushing through me.

“I love that you think that,” I whispered.

“I like to think that God had a hand, linking me to your mother. He did this so she raised you girls to suit my boys, and I raised my boys to suit her girls.”

Oh hell.

I was going to cry.

“None of that, Adeline,” she gently chided, shaking our hands. “Everyone is happy. Smiles. Just smiles. Yes, my beautiful girl?”

Was she happy?

I didn’t ask.

And I didn’t ask even if I didn’t see that normal Margot Light warming her eyes.

I smiled at her again and said the only thing I could.

“Yes, Margot.”

“Now,” she guided me to their door, “you enjoy tonight. And remember, once my brood leaves, Dave and I are always happy to take Brooks. In the first blush of love, getting to know each other, it’s good to have times like tonight. Don’t ever hesitate. I feel thirty years younger, having a baby in the house.”

“You have my boy in your house a lot now, Margot,” I reminded her.

She shook my hand again, this time once, firmly. “And I’m grateful for it. Adeline, you’ve had cause to know me well. And with what you know, do you think I’d ever say something I didn’t mean, especially about something as important as Brooks?”

She would not.

“Toby and me kinda like having him around,” I replied. “But I also love having nights like this with Toby, so I’ll take you up on that, and you promise to share if it ever gets too much.”

She put her free hand over her heart. “I promise.”

I shook our hands then, after kissing her cheek before letting her go, grabbed my coat that was on a hook by her door, put it on and blew her another kiss on my way out the door.

She stood in the doorway and we both waved at each other until I was coasting away.

I drove to Toby’s and hit the garage door opener he gave me the morning after the night I’d spent at his house, my phone beginning to ring before I shut the car down.

I took it out, saw I didn’t know the number, but since I’d put in a few applications the last couple of weeks, and interviewed last week at the law firm, I took the call.

“Hello?”

“Adeline?”

“Yes.”

“This is Marlon Martin. At Martin, Sandberg and Deats.”

Oh God.

This could be good.

Or it could suck.

“Hello, Mr. Martin.”

“Please, call me Marlon, and I’m happy to be making this call as my partners and I would like to offer you the receptionist position here at the firm.”

I banged my fist with glee against the ceiling of my car, but my voice was cool when I replied, “That’s great news, Marlon. I’m thrilled.”

“Excellent, I’ll email you the offer. Have a look, take the holiday, but if you could get back to us on Monday with your decision. Our current receptionist will be leaving us the third week in January, so we need to move swiftly.”

“I can do that, Marlon. And thank you. You’ve made my day.”

“Delighted to hear that, Adeline. My secretary is sending the offer just now. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas to you too.”

We hung up. I hauled ass out of my car, grabbed my bag from the passenger seat, then scooted into the house, hitting the garage door button.

I dropped the bag right there and phoned Toby.

“So you survived the mandatory wedding meeting,” he said in greeting. “Or is this an SOS call?”

“I got the job at the law firm!” I yelled.

“No shit?” he asked, a smile in his voice.

“Yes!” I confirmed. “They’re sending an offer letter just now.”

“Brilliant, baby,” he murmured.

“This is great. This is amazing,” I chanted, doing a little jig. “I mean, I know how to use a computer and a phone, but I don’t have any office experience, except that time I worked for six months in patient billing at a doctor’s office. But that bummed me out since it was oncology, so I didn’t stay. Toby! I can’t believe it!”

“Cool, baby. Told him to give you a shot. Glad he’s doin’ that.”

I was about to do another jig.

I didn’t.

“Sorry?”

“I know Marlon. He was a couple of years before Johnny in school, but he played football since he was a kid, and Dad was involved in Pop Warner, and he and Johnny played on the same team in high school. So I’ve known him a long time. He was getting some gas at the garage last week, saw him, walked out, had a chat.”

“You . . .” I swallowed hard, “had a chat.”

“Babe—”

“So I didn’t earn that job? I got it because I’m fucking a Gamble brother?”

“Addie—”

“No, unh-unh. No.”

Toby went silent.

I stared at his kickass great room.

All wood and windows with comfy, macho-man leather furniture, a big kitchen (that was a lot more wood, but with stainless steel appliances) that was totally open to the space, running flat against the back wall with a long island in between.

It looked like a dude purchased it four months ago. A dude who had been a drifter before that, and hadn’t gotten down to roosting, so there wasn’t a lot of personality.

But even me, the minimal decorator, saw the potential.