“Damn right.You’re disqualified,” she said when Laurel started to speak again. “Conflict of interest. I give you sixteen days, not because of willpower but stubbornness—in case that might influence you to help me add to my wedding fund.”

“Unfair, unfair,” Emma caroled.

“How much is in the pool?”

“We kicked in a hundred each.”

“Five hundred? Seriously?”

“Six, counting Mrs. G.”

“Man.”

“We started at ten dollars each.” Emma shrugged and chose a strawberry to nibble on. “But then Mac and Jack kept challenging each other. I had to make them stop when we hit a hundred. Parker’s keeping the bank.”

Laurel cocked a challenging eyebrow. “What if we have sex and don’t tell anyone?”

“Please.” Mac just rolled her eyes. “First, you’d never be able to keep it to yourself, and second, even if you did, we’d know.”

“I hate when you’re right. And nobody gave us the full thirty?”

“No one.”

“Okay, here’s the deal—and I should get some say since it’s my sex, potentially. I will not be disqualified. I put in a hundred, and if we get to the thirty, pot’s mine.”

Objections broke out, but Parker waved them off. “You know, that’s fair.”

“You know how competitive she is,” Mac complained. “She’ll hold out just to win the bet.”

“Then she’d have earned it. Get me the hundred, and I’ll add your bet.”

“You’re on.” Gleefully Laurel rubbed her hands together. “At long, long last, the sexual moratorium pays off. I’ve got a cake to frost.” She did a quick boogie at the door. “See you later, suckers.”

“We’ll see who’s the sucker,” Parker said after Laurel danced out. “Okay, ladies, let’s get to work.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER EIGHT

IT WAS STRANGE AND INTERESTING TO GO OUT WITH DEL AS A DATE rather than one of the group. Comfortable on many levels, Laurel discovered, which was probably good. Neither of them had to listen to the other’s life story, because they already knew each other’s life story.

Not the whole cake, she thought, but most of the layers. Which made it all the more fun to take samples of the filling.

She knew he’d served on the Law Review at Yale, and played baseball as an undergraduate, just as she knew that law and sports were two of his passions. But she hadn’t known he’d made a deliberate choice over which to pursue as a career.

“I didn’t know you were serious about professional baseball.” The things you learned, Laurel reflected, on a third date.

“Deadly. And serious enough I kept it to myself, mostly.”

They strolled the park eating ice cream cones while the summer moonlight silvered the pond—an activity she believed to be the perfect cap to a casual dinner date.

“What was the tipping point?” she asked him.

“I wasn’t good enough.”