“Oh yeah? Going to see dick and the boys?” Dixie smirked.

“Only if he’s lucky,” Izzy said.

“Are those your brothers?” Roni asked.

Dixie and Izzy cracked up.

“It’s code for sex. It took me a while to catch on to their lingo, too. Jared is Jace’s younger brother, and word around the bar is that Izzy and Jared have been hooking up,” Finlay said as Izzy walked away. “I’d better go check the buffet.” She pushed to her feet and pointed to Penny. “I’ll call you later.”

“Okeydokey, sis,” Penny said.

Roni leaned forward and said, “I really am sorry for outing you, Penny.”

“It’s not a big deal. Secrets never stay hidden for long around this crew,” Penny said. “Which is why it’s your turn to spill. How did Quincy finally convince you to go out with him?”

Roni glanced across the room at Quincy at the same moment he looked over. Her pulse quickened, remembering when she’d seen him through the glass door Wednesday night. Quincy winked, and then Bones, who was holding Lila, said something, stealing his attention. When Quincy took that little girl into his arms, Roni’s entire body went soft.

“Aaand we lost her,” Dixie said.

Roni looked at the girls, knowing she was blushing, but she couldn’t care less. Quincy was worth the embarrassment. It took her a second to remember what Penny had asked, and she said, “He showed up at my work with my favorite flowers, which he’d picked from a field, and a picnic set up in the back of his truck, with lights and a small fire pit, and it was the most magical night of my life.”

The girls swooned as she told them the rest of the story. They peppered her with questions, which she enjoyed answering. It felt good to gush about Quincy. They talked about all the months they’d been texting and how he’d checked in with her more often after her grandmother had died. But talking about him made her long to be by his side again.

Maggie Rose woke up, and when Sarah went to change her, the conversation circled back to the scavenger hunt. Roni showed them the picture of Quincy’s waxed leg, and they laughed when she told them about how he’d hollered when she pulled the wax strip off. That led to a conversation about how much waxing hurt and who waxed and who didn’t, which turned into a chat about how their significant others felt about it. Roni was startled by their openness. This was so new to her, sharing private parts of her life with other women. She and Angela talked about personal things, but not like this. Roni liked how honest and caring these new friends were. She asked about how they’d met their significant others and loved hearing their stories, which were all very different. She’d cracked up when Crystal described the ways in which Bear had pursued her, and her heart ached when Tracey told her about her abusive past and Josie shared a little bit about Scott and Sarah having suffered abuse at the hands of their parents. Roni felt like she was gathering bits and pieces about each of them as if she were collecting berries for a friendship pie.