“I want whatever I create here to be all me,” I replied carefully, not wanting to hurt her feelings and also not sharing that I had no idea who that me would turn out to be.

She tipped her head to the side as her lips curved up. “Then that’s what it’ll be.”

Alyssa threw her hands in the air shouting, “Girlie home décor shopping trip!”

More like fifty of them. I had a big house, and except for the kids’ rooms that were still untouched, it was now a clean slate.

On this thought, while Alyssa still had hands in the air and was celebrating, Josie turned concerned eyes to her friend. “Amelia will not want her home to look like a bordello.”

I sucked in an audible breath at what this might mean but more, how Alyssa might take it.

I let it out when Alyssa dropped her arms, burst out laughing, allowing herself to do that with abandon for a few moments before pushing out words while still doing it, “Are you sayin’ my place looks like a whorehouse?”

“I’m saying you decorate heavily in scarves,” Josie replied.

“Every girl knows lighting is everything,” Alyssa returned.

“Agreed. Thus those who have that ability provide light bulbs of a multitude of different wattages and finishes in order to offer us a variety of lighting opportunities,” Josie retorted.

Alyssa turned to me and jerked a thumb at Josie. “Ain’t this bitch a kick?”

She was.

However, I wasn’t sure Josie knew how she was and thus shared in the amusement making it okay to be amused so I decided to say nothing.

“Babe!”

I stiffened then turned at hearing Mickey’s voice.

With the women as well as kids that were female in my house, there were currently eight “babes” he could be speaking to.

Upon catching his eyes, eyes that were aimed my way, I found this particular “babe” was me.

“Two o’clock tomorrow good for you?” he asked when he got my attention.

“Sorry?” I asked back.

“Brats, chicken, you kickin’ back,” he reminded me.

Oh…shit.

I’d totally forgotten.

“Uh…well…”

“Two,” he stated firmly. “And don’t even think of offerin’ to bring anything. Just come over. We’ll have you covered.” Before I could come up with a suitable way to decline his invitation, he looked to his daughter and called, “Ash, baby, you ready?”

“Yeah, Dad,” she called back quietly and I looked her way to see her eyes come to me. “It went awesome, Miz Hathaway.”

“Partially thanks to you, blossom,” I told her.

She lifted her shoulders, dropped them, tipped her head to the side, looked to the ground and made no reply, doing all of this while heading toward the door.

I watched, feeling my eyes narrow, not certain why those brief, subtle movements made by Aisling troubled me, just certain that they did.

“Two.”

I jumped and looked at Mickey who’d repeated himself and again did it firmly.

How to get out of this?