“Good luck with that,” Cassia said with a laugh.
Amanda leaned closer. “My van has an extra built-in car seat if you want a ride back with us. It’s no trouble.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “That wouldn’t be a problem?”
“Not at all,” she said, waving it off. “Braden’s in a booster now, so I can just move him to the back.”
“That would be amazing,” I said, relieved.
There was a brief lull as we all glanced back toward the playground, tracking small bodies in motion.
“So,” Cassia said a moment later, “how was the party last night?”
“It was good, but we definitely missed having you,” Lia said.
“I was so bummed we couldn’t make it,” Cassia said. “I thought about coming even though Drake had to work late, but Aspen was justnotin a place to socialize.”
“We’ll definitely have to do it again,” Lia said.
“Maybe with fewer bugs next time, okay?” Amanda said with a smirk.
“Bugs?” Cassia blinked. “Were the mosquitoes really bad or something?”
“No worse than usual.” Lia laughed. “But I might’ve made everyone do a competition that involved eating salted crickets.”
Cassia gasped. “Why would you do that?”
“For fun,” Lia said with a shrug.
“You have a strange definition of fun.” I shook my head. “My mouth is still recovering from that ghost pepper.”
“I do feel a little bad about making Theo eat the crickets and you eating the pepper,” Lia said. “But it was a night you’ll never forget, right?” She smiled. “Plus, you get a date with a sexy football player, and Amanda gets a night out with a sexy single dad. So it wasn’t all bad, right?”
“Adoubledate,” Amanda corrected. “But yeah, it should be fun. Theo seems sweet.”
“He is,” Lia said, nodding. “And I’m pretty sure I saw him checking you out while you were building that tower.”
“He kind of had to.” Amanda rolled her eyes, brushing the idea off. “Since he was literally telling me where to stack the blocks.”
“Whatever.” Lia grinned. “He was smitten. I could tell.”
A twinge of jealousy shot through my chest. Which was ridiculous, since I myself was paired with Miles, who was extremely attractive and confident in his own right.
If notquiteas gentlemanly as Theo.
But chivalry could be learned, right?
Not that we were going on a real date. More like a VIP group hangout.
“I guess I’ll have to see for myself,” Amanda said. Then she turned to me. “Speaking of our night out, I still need to text the group, but I called all the places this morning. The massages and dinner are booked for Sunday. The hot-air balloon company was already full, though, so we’ll have to save that for another time.”
“Will there be time between the massage and dinner?” I asked, already thinking about hair and makeup. Massages had a way of undoing both.
“Yes,” Amanda said. “Massages are from three to four-thirty, and dinner is at six-thirty, so we’ll have time to get ready for our hot double date.”
“Perfect.”
I was filling out a few more job applications during Charlotte’s quiet time on Wednesday afternoon when my phone buzzed beside me on the couch.