Bryce took a sip of her wine knowing Vashti had deliberately changed the subject, but she was fine with her doing so. “A person who comes from their honeymoon pregnant is someone who’d intended to get pregnant. According to Ashley, they spent the entire time trying and it was all about a promise Ray had made her. They’ve been through a lot, and I’m happy for them.”

A friend of theirs, Ray Sullivan, had married Ashley Ryan six months ago. Last month the couple shared the news they were having twins. A boy and a girl. They’d even selected the names. The boy would be named Devon and the girl Ryan.

A smile touched Vashti’s lips. “I’m happy for them, as well. I love happy endings.”

Bryce rolled her eyes. “You also love torturing your two best friends. Why do you put me and Kaegan through this every time he gives a party? I don’t have to be here and we both know that he doesn’t want me here. The only reason he invites me and the only reason I come is because neither of us want to hear you bitch about it.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault that my two best friends fell in love behind my back.”

Bryce rolled her eyes again. “That’s what you get for leaving us alone for those six months.”

“Like I had a choice.”

Bryce knew at the time her best friend hadn’t had a choice. Vashti had gotten pregnant at sixteen. Her parents had sent her away. While she was gone Bryce and Kaegan had grown closer, and all the love Bryce had secretly felt for Kaegan suddenly blossomed.

She tried to recall a time when Kaegan hadn’t been a part of Bryce’s and Vashti’s lives and couldn’t. Neither could she recall a time she hadn’t loved him. K-Gee was what everyone called him. The descendants of the Pointe-au-Chien tribe mostly made their home on the west side of the bayou. Kaegan’s family’s ties to the cove and the bayou went back generations, even before the first American settlers. A few of the simpleminded townsfolk of Catalina Cove had never recognized the tribe, except when it was time to pay city taxes.

Although Kaegan was two years older than her and Vashti, the three of them had hung together while growing up since Kaegan hadn’t officially started school until he was almost nine. Dempsey Chambray felt his only son was more useful working in the family seafood business and for years had claimed Kaegan was being homeschooled. When the Catalina Cove school board discovered otherwise, they presented the Chambrays with a court order that stated Kaegan was to be put in public school immediately.

Kaegan was a supersmart and intelligent kid, and it didn’t take him long to catch up with the rest of the class. However, he couldn’t be put in his right grade because he began missing a lot of days from school to help his father on the boat. It was Mr. Chambray’s way of showing the school board that although they may have ordered that his son attend school, Kaegan was entitled to sick days. Most people knew that the days Mr. Chambray claimed Kaegan couldn’t come to school because he was ill, Kaegan was out on the water working in the family business. It was only when the school board threatened to file a lawsuit against Mr. Chambray’s business that he allowed his son to attend school without any further interruptions.