Chapter One – Nia

“When was the last time you had sex? I mean actual sex, involving another person and not one of those fancy-ass vibrators you constantly send me links to check out. Real sex. Where you start clothed and end up naked with your legs behind your head and an orgasm that makes it so you can’t walk for an hour after because you can’t stand up.”

Intentionally ignoring the annoying voice in my ear that refuses to shut up about the lack of sex in my life, I suck down most of the juice pouch I’m holding in one gulp, relishing the burn of the hidden adult beverage as it hits my stomach.

The only good thing about being stuck in the over-the-top and ridiculous roller rink in the middle of the day for my niece is the vodka and cranberry juice that I smuggled in after I cut open some juice pouches, poured the mixed drink in, and then sealed them with my hair straightener.

Yeah, I knew what I was doing so that I wouldn’t get caught or kicked out for refusing to spend money on overpriced alcohol.

If it wasn’t for that, I would have ditched my annoying sister and my niece and run for the hills. Or back to Birch Harbor. Whichever option popped up first.

At least I don’t have to drive myself home.

“Virginia Davidson,” the irate voice snaps from in front of me. “Are you listening to me?”

I open my eyes, tiny yellow straw in my mouth, and blink innocently at my sister. “Nope.” I go back to slurping my almost-empty juice pouch. “What do you want? Or what were you talking about?”

My older sister, Ella, the devil who convinced me to go with her and my niece, Lyla, to a party where I’m stuck sitting around a table surrounded by the other adults present, stares at me expectantly. With a dramatic sigh, I put down the drink and wait for her to repeat whatever it is that she said in the first place.

“I asked if you wanted me to set you up with the new guy at work and then gave you shit because you were ignoring me and asked when the last time you got laid was.” She raises one blond eyebrow and waits for an answer.

When I don’t immediately give her one, she huffs and then flips the curls she probably spent all morning on over her shoulder.

“You know you’re not getting any younger. If you want to have a family, you should start on it sooner rather than later, at least that’s what Mom would say if she were here right now.” She rolls her eyes. “I think you just need to loosen up and maybe let someone tickle your itch. You don’t need forever, maybe just a ‘for now’ type of thing. Clear out the cobwebs.”

I haven’t had enough to drink to deal with her nosiness, and I sure as hell don’t want to talk about it in the middle of a public space. Where my niece or any number of random people can hear what we’re talking about.

With narrowed eyes, I study her and the way she fidgets under my scrutiny.

“You asshole,” I finally say. “You really fell into Mom and Dad’s whole narrow view of wanting to marry me off, didn’t you?”

She flushes, and I know I’ve caught her. Even if she tried to cover it up, I see straight through her.

Just like our parents, she’s ready for me to settle down. Never mind the fact that I’m not ready. I haven’t even lived. I’m not ready to settle down and live a domestic life.

“I’m not old,” I snap. Then, just for good measure, I grab my drink pouch and finish it off with a little slurp and burp. “I’m not even twenty-five yet. I literally just finished my degree and started my job. I’m not you, Cinderella. I didn’t find the love of my life at eighteen and have a baby girl at twenty. And it’s not a bad thing that you did. I’m just not you. I want to live my life and enjoy the freedom that I have. I want to explore a little bit.”

“Try telling that to our parents.” She props her head up with her hand, resting her elbow on the table we’ve been sitting at for an hour. “They equate happiness with marriage and babies. I don’t even think you should settle down, personally. You’re wild and free and like a hurricane about to hit land. You’d wither up and die like a rose bush in winter if you had to force yourself into this life.”

“I’m just not ready,” I tell her, agreeing with her sentiment. “I’ll handle our parents. Again. But I need my big sister to have my back. Because this…” I trail off and motion around us. “This isn’t my every day.”

“You’ve got it.” Ella winks. “Now that the requisite guilt trip has been repaid and you’ve got a plan to get our parents off your back, we can move on.”

Reaching into my purse, I pull out two more drink pouches. “Want one?”

She holds out her hand, suspiciously staring at the watermelon-flavored container. “Why does this look different than it should?”

I pop my straw into mine and slurp loudly before answering her. “Because I found this video online to make adult ones with a hack. Just try it.”

She follows suit and then gasps, choking after taking too big of a gulp. “Nia, what the hell?”

“I told you.” Snickering, I set my drink on the table. “Adult drinks.”

“I didn’t think you meant vodka,” she hisses. “I have to drive. I can’t have this.”

“More for me.” I hold out my hand. “You said this would be fun. Not us sitting here for hours while Lyla ditched us for her friends.”

At nine, Lyla is just getting to the point that she doesn’t want anything to do with her parents, or any other adult for that matter. Which means Ella is constantly dragging me to the ends of the earth with her to different activities. Last month, we had to go all the way down to Portland for a gymnastics competition, three hours from home. And next week, I know that Ella is going to ask me to go with them to some martial arts thing so that Lyla can get her next belt level. Which will be awesome as shit, because my girl is almost a brown belt or something like that.

“What’s going on with Rich?” I take her drink and set it on the table, waiting for her to wrap her mind around my intrusive-as-fuck question.

Technically, I only put about one shot worth of vodka in each pouch, so if I’m careful and don’t drink them all at once, I’ll be okay by the time the party is over and Ella drives us back to the hotel.

“He’s working,” she hedges. But I see the way she starts to pick at her cuticles with one hand and the way her fingers clench and press against the table with the other hand.

“Liar,” I whisper, right as a breathless Lyla pops up at the table.

Without even looking at her mom or me, she bursts into laughter and clutches the chair we saved for her. “You guys have to get on skates.” Her breath is coming in short gasps, and Ella is already reaching into her bag for Lyla’s rescue inhaler. “Seriously.” She gasps again. “It’s so much fun.”

Instead of panicking like I want to at the rush of air and the way her chest is practically heaving, I reach over and brush the loose blond hair from her face, revealing her hazel eyes, tucking it behind her ear. “How long have you been struggling?”

“Just now.” Her face has already started to turn bright red. “Came. Right. Over.”

Ella holds out the inhaler, without the familiar spacer that I’ve seen Lyla use since her asthma diagnosis when she was six months old.

“Here, baby girl. You know what to do.” Ella’s fingers tremble while we both watch Lyla grab the inhaler and use it like a pro.

Puff. Then a deep breath to make sure she gets enough of it.

Another puff. Another deep breath.

The longest thirty seconds of my life drags by.

At least the longest thirty seconds since Lyla’s last time needing her rescue inhaler in my presence.

When Lyla’s cheeks turn back to normal a minute later and her chest stops rising so dramatically, I take a deep breath, but the sense of calm that settles over me has nothing on the utter relief that seems to fall from Ella’s shoulders in waves.

“I hate this,” she mutters when Lyla starts chattering to herself and reaches for a snack, oblivious to our panic at the situation.

I take my sister’s hand and squeeze, offering her the silent support I know she needs from me. After all, she doesn’t just ask me to go to everything under the sun for Lyla just to watch her. Ella needs the help. She needs a second set of eyes on our girl.

“Mom, seriously.” Lyla turns on us suddenly. “It’s just asthma. I’m not dying.”

Her hazel eyes flash with annoyance when Ella opens her mouth to argue, so I step in.

“You know, I’m pretty exhausted and your mom has been keeping me company.” I raise an eyebrow. “After all, she’s been my sister forever. You’re just her daughter, and you’ve only been around like five years.”

Lyla huffs and then leans forward and hugs her mom. “But she likes me more than you. So you can suck it, Auntie Nia. And you know darn well that I’m nine.” And while her mom is distracted by her hug, Lyla sticks her tongue out at me.

I ignore her sass and sip on my drink.

“Are you almost ready to go?” Ella is hesitant to let her go, and it’s almost comical how Lyla tries.

“I’m not done skating yet, Mom.” She finally pulls away. “Can we stay for a little bit longer?”

When a man in a familiar blue uniform walks right by our table, I choke on my drink and stuff it back in my purse like it is a giant bottle of vodka. Then I turn to watch the Maine State police officer walk by, smiling at the way his ass hugs his uniform.

“We should stay,” I tell Ella, interrupting whatever they are saying. “Just for a little bit.” I turn back to Lyla with a wink.

Taking her chance, Lyla skates off before Ella can tell her to stop.

“What’s that all about?” Ella spears me with a suspicious glare. “You never volunteer to stay for longer when I’m ready to go. Not only that, but there’s a whole conversation to be had about drinking in the rink.”

“Because.” I scoot my chair over slightly so I can watch the hot cop take a seat with another guy a dozen or so feet away. “I think she deserves a little space. And you didn’t tell me what’s going on with you and your husband. Do you guys have big plans for your ten-year anniversary?”

“No.” Ella freezes up immediately. “We don’t have any plans.”

“That doesn’t sound right.” My words come out as a murmur, while I reach back into my purse for my contraband. “You always do something big for your anniversary.”

Ella rubs her forehead with one hand and with the other, she taps the table with Lyla’s rescue inhaler. “I don’t know what to tell you. We don’t have plans.”

“Cinderella.” I use her nickname again, only this time not with annoyance. “You gotta come clean. Might as well be with your baby sister. I can help you get through whatever it is, just tell me. No judgment, remember?”

Since the day she met Rich Prince, her very own Prince Charming, I started calling her Cinderella. And since that day, she has rolled her eyes and told me that I annoy the shit out of her.

“Things haven’t been right since Royal did what he did.”

I shudder at the mention of Rich’s brother, a monster if I’ve ever known one. He’d been arrested for stalking and trying to murder a girl I went to high school with.

“Poor Kennedy,” I mutter. Her story has been all over the news for weeks, and it is heartbreaking what she had to deal with at Rich’s brother’s hands.

“I know,” Ella whispers brokenly. “Rich has really had the weight of the world fall on his shoulders. And his parents think that Royal can’t do any wrong, you know. It’s just been hard.”

I watch her, ignoring the noise of other conversations around us, and focus on the tiny details I hadn’t picked up on before. The bags under her eyes. The tense way her lips press together. Even the way she clenches her jaw together, and I find myself inspecting her skin to make sure she isn’t wearing too much makeup.

“He’s not taking it out on you, is he?” My question hangs in the air as the song playing for the skaters shifts, and I watch the flare in Ella’s eyes. “If he is, I’ll gut him and feed him to some lobsters down in the harbor. I’m sure I can buy a lobster trap big enough for his body. Either that, or I’ll drop his corpse in a bear plot somewhere up north. No one will find him.”

Her laugh catches me off guard. “Oh,” she wheezes. “No. Rich would never hurt me, Nia. He’s dealing with the added stress of people thinking he’s just like his brother, and that’s following him home. Not only that, but his parents want him to defend Royal in court.” She picks up her drink, not the adult one I gave her earlier, but the massive bottle of water she’s been sipping on all day. “He said no, and now there’s a huge rift in their family. But he’s the best man I know, and how could he decide to defend a complete monster?”

Relieved, my eyes drift away from my sister and over to the cop again, who is staring with clear disdain at a group of people having a party. Then our eyes lock for a second before he turns back to the man across the table from him. He runs his left hand up to his head and I’m not ashamed to admit that I notice the complete lack of a wedding ring.

He laughs at whatever the man next to him says, and I think my panties start melting at that moment. He has dimples. Perfect dimples that I can see clear as day. Combine that with the short and messy light-brown hair, and dark-brown eyes, and I’m a goner.

“Earth to Nia.” Ella snaps her fingers in front of my face. “What are you looking at?”

She follows my line of sight and snickers. “I thought you were done dating uniforms.”

“Just cops,” I answer with a smile. “Eddie Stryker ruined that for me. That asshole had the audacity to get upset with me when one of his friends hit on me, not knowing we were together. Like that’s my fault.” I roll my eyes. “But I can still check out a hot guy, can’t I?”

It is a good thing I don’t date cops. And that I’m there with my sister and niece. Because he is just hot enough to make me change my mind. At least for one night.