“And what else do you like about him? About his personality?” I tried to stress the word personality. Not bed. Personality.

“He’s sexy. I mean, the way he thinks about me, about us, how he kisses me and holds me. And I like how creative he is. Always thinking of different things we can do in bed. He brought home these fun sex toys the other day. We have enough for, like, a month now.”

I’d try to ask things in a different way. “Is he generous? Is he kind? Is he thoughtful? Is he protective?”

“Yes. Absolutely generous. When we’re in bed he always lets me have my woo-woo first. He says he’s a gentleman and it’s always ladies first. When I need to have another one, he’s very welcoming about it. And he’s kind and thoughtful.” She was breathing, calming down. “He knows that I don’t like sex first thing in the morning, so he always lets me get showered and have my coffee first, and he’s protective because he always makes sure that all the curtains are closed before we have sex on the kitchen table or the island in the kitchen. He says he doesn’t want any of the neighbors seeing his beautiful fiancée.”

I gave up on the personality questions. “You sound better now, Jules.”

“What? I am.” She breathed deep. “Wow. Way freakin’ better. I’m so happy. I can’t wait to get married and be Mrs. Jules. It’s going to be the best day of my life. Mack says the day we’re married is going to be the best day of his life, too. We decided how many kids we’re going to have over Chinese food last night. Know how we did it? We were eating naked in bed, and we broke the chopsticks up and sat knee to knee and threw the pieces up in the air. All the pieces that landed in the little triangle you make when you’ve got your legs crossed, that’s how many kids we agreed we would have.”

“And what was that number?”

“Eight.” She sighed. “I can’t wait ’til we’re married. Hang on, I’m going to show you my wedding shoes! I can’t keep it a surprise any longer!”

She texted me a photo of her wedding shoes. No satin heels for her. No white ballet shoes. She was going to rock it in a biker way.

“You’re going to be the sexiest bride ever.”

“I know, right?! Wait ’til I get in bed with Mack in these. He’ll lose his mind.”

Well, Mack might lose his mind, but, even better, my sister had lost her panic attack.

Chapter 8

“Serafina spent her days with her four brothers and four sisters.”

“What did they do?”

“They explored the ocean. They swam through ancient sailing ships. They found treasure chests buried deep beneath the waves. They explored coral reefs. They jumped with the dolphins in parts of the ocean that no humans go to. They swam through caves to lagoons.”