Anyway, the gyno appointment run-in had been horrifying. Since Julio believed that I had to be a virgin, he hadn’t understood why I would be at the gynecologist. As if women didn’t have any other reasons for visiting the gynecologist outside of having sex.

I loved my uncle, but he was an idiot sometimes.

He’d promptly called my father and insisted that I must be sexually active, and when I’d gotten home that day, it was like A&E had showed up and an intervention was about to go down.

So, yeah, I knew if I went to where Katie worked, I’d probably end up sitting next to an uncle or a cousin while boobs were jiggling in my face, and that would lead to therapy.

Abby lingered by the driver’s side of my used Camry, watching Katie fly out of the parking lot in a new Mustang. “She’s nuts and she’s an acquired taste.” Abby turned to me, squinting. “But I love her.”

Smiling, I leaned back against my car as I brushed my heavy bangs to the side. I really needed to let them grow out, because I was getting so sick of them, especially in the summer. Something I’d been telling myself since I was, oh, about fourteen. But I always cut them, the same way I’d always cut them. Straight and thick, brushing my eyebrows.

Maybe I’d let them grow out this time.

Maybe.

Or maybe I’d cut my hair like Abby’s. It was dark and brushed her shoulders. Mine was the color of milk chocolate and long, all the way down past my bra strap. I never wore it down though. Not anymore. It was always up in a bun. So why keep it long, especially when it was such a pain to dry and style?

“Jillian?”

Realizing I was staring at the road, I turned my attention back to Abby. She smiled at me again. Abby was a pretty woman, but when she smiled, she was stunning, and she smiled a lot more since reconnecting with Colton. “Yes?”

She studied me closely. “You know Katie meant well, right?”

My shoulders tensed. “I know.”

“She can just be a little . . . brash at times,” she continued, stepping closer. “But it comes from a good place. She worries about you. So do I. So does Stephanie.”

I frowned as I shifted my weight from one foot to the next. “Why would any of you worry about me? I’m a hundred percent fine.”

Abby tilted her head to the side and the smile slipped a little. The look that crossed her face was full of doubt and then she exhaled slowly as she nodded. “Okay,” she said after a moment, and then hugged me, giving me a quick squeeze before kissing my cheek. “We’re still on for lunch tomorrow with Stephanie?”