“Mia, nothing you say is stupid. Tell me.”

“Alyssa asked me if I was steady with any guy. I told her the only love of my life right now was my work. And at that point you and I connected visually and I could swear you were shooting daggers at me, like you heard what I was saying and you were mad.”

He laughed. “Why would I be mad at you about that? We aren’t in love, Mia. We’re just having some fun. Right?”

“Right.” She laughed, too.

He swept his hands down her arms. “Relax. This is supposed to be light and easy between us. So don’t stress about it.”

“I won’t.”

But later, she played their conversation over in her head.

We aren’t in love, Mia. We’re just having some fun.

It was exactly what she’d wanted to hear. What she’d needed from him. She should have been relieved.

So why, when he’d said the words, did her stomach tighten and her heart feel crushed?

Dammit. She was not falling in love with Nathan. She would not allow that to happen.

TWENTY-FOUR

MIA LOVED WEDDING DAYS. SHE’D GOTTEN UP THIS morning totally refreshed, chalking up the disappointment over her conversation with Nathan last night to exhaustion.

They were exactly where she wanted them to be. Where he wanted them to be, too. Having sex and having fun with it, with no emotional entanglements. She wasn’t falling in love with him. He was her best friend and they were slowly building on their relationship by dating. She needed to just have fun and go with it and not stress over every little thing. Nathan certainly wasn’t taking it all so seriously, and neither should she.

More certain than ever of where they stood, she dismissed last night’s weird emotional state, determined to soak in all the love from Barrett and Harmony’s day.

The guys had all taken off for Austin to go play golf, which left the women alone to enjoy the day. The wedding was scheduled for six p.m., so they had massages scheduled, followed by manicures and pedicures. They also had hair and makeup artists coming in. It was going to be a fun spa day.

Mia was looking forward to being pampered.

First they all gathered in the kitchen to make breakfast. It was a free-for-all of women chatting while peeling potatoes, breaking eggs and slicing fruit. Mia sipped on her coffee while talking with Katrina about her last photo shoot.

“It was beautiful. We were off the Amalfi Coast. Not only was the scenery breathtaking, but I could spend a week just wandering through the history of the place. I told Grant we have to vacation there during the off-season.”

“I’ve looked at pictures,” Mia said. “It’s lush and breathtaking, and I agree with you about the history alone. Maybe I’ll hide in your luggage.”

Katrina laughed. “As work goes, it didn’t suck. But of course I didn’t get nearly enough time to play tourist. I want to take the kids with me. I think Leo would love it for the history and Anya would enjoy it for the food.”

“I’m down with any place that has amazing food,” Anya said from across the kitchen island.

Amelia put her arm around Anya. “I love this girl.”

Mia smiled.

Breakfast ended up being quite a feast, from the croissants Anya made to the eggs Benedict Amelia had put together. Then there were fried potatoes and fruit salad and sausages along with freshly squeezed orange juice they used to make mimosas. Mia sat at the table and thought about what an amazing family she had, only enriched by these incredible women who’d fallen in love with her brothers.

She was very lucky.

“Who’s minding your interior design business while you’re busy getting married and taking a short honeymoon, Harmony?” Amelia asked.

“I have an incredible assistant who’s scary good at what she does,” Harmony said. “Rosalie has it all under control.”

“So you won’t worry something will fall through the cracks while you’re gone?” Mia asked.

“You mean like you are right now?” Mia’s mom asked.

“Maybe.” She wouldn’t mention how many calls she’d made already, or how many times she’d e-mailed everyone at the office. She had the utmost trust in her staff, but MHC was her baby.

“Oh, I was totally like you when my business first started out,” Harmony said. “It was hard for me to even leave for an hour to go to a dental appointment without freaking out that the whole place would go under while I was gone.”

Mia nodded.

“After a while, you start to realize that you hired awesome staff for a reason,” Harmony said. “Because they are awesome, and because they can do the job. And then you start to relax knowing your company is in good hands.”

“I know you’re right and I have the best people at MHC. But still, it is hard to be away from our babies.”

Her mother patted her hand. “You know that right now Monique is cracking the whip on your amazing staff. She has it all under control.”

“I know. She’s sending me regular updates and all is as it should be. It’s still hard to let go.”

Harmony smiled. “It’ll get easier with every month. I promise.”

Mia hoped so. She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life worrying about her company every time she had to leave town. But they were in the middle of negotiating some very big deals at the moment, and she felt like she needed to be there. But she also knew there were going to be times like this, and her team could handle it.

“I’m wondering if we could just all live together here on the ranch and do this every morning,” Alyssa said. “I mean, I get that some of you have husbands that you might miss and all, but this is pretty awesome.”

Mia swirled her mimosa around in the champagne glass. “I could get used to it.”

“I don’t know,” Aubry said. “I’d miss the sex.”

Aubry looked over at Mia’s mom. “Sorry, Lydia.”

Mia’s mom laughed. “It’s okay, Aubry. I already knew you two were having sex.”

Aubry laughed.

“I mean, the men are great and all,” Katrina said, “and you can’t deny the sex is outstanding. But sisterhood? No one is going to understand you as well as another woman can.”

Anya held up her glass. “I’ll drink to that.”

Katrina frowned. “Who put champagne in her glass?”

Mia grinned. “I did. She’s close enough to twenty-one and she’s not driving anywhere today. She’s entitled to one mimosa.”

Anya cracked a smile. “It hardly has any champagne in it, and you let me have wine in Paris, Katrina.”

“I did. But that was Paris. And that’s all you get today.”

Anya rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay, Sis.”

It must be totally fun to have a sister. But Mia realized she had several now, and she couldn’t be happier about that.

After breakfast, they cleaned up the dishes. The massage and mani-pedi staff arrived with all their equipment. Mom had them set up in the dining room, living room and several of the bedrooms.

Mia had her manicure and pedicure first. She sat side by side with Aubry. The two of them were alone in her mom’s bedroom since it had a lot of space. And now her feet were relaxing in a warm bubbly spa while she was getting her nails done.

“So,” Aubry said. “Want to tell me what’s going on with you and Nathan?”

She knew Aubry would eventually bring that up. “Nothing’s going on. We’re just having some fun.”

“You two have known each other a long time. Were you friends all through college?”

Mia nodded. “Yes. But nothing was going on back then, either. We’re just friends.”

Aubry raised a brow. “I had guy friends in college and medical school. I never had sex with any of them.”

“Maybe you missed out, then.” She gave Aubry a grin.

Aubry laughed. “Ew. No, I did not. Trust me.”

“You’re only saying that because you’re married and totally in love with my brother. Back then, some of your guy friends were probably hot.”

“Okay, maybe they were. But I think we were all so stressed about medical school and grades and just trying to keep our sanity that was all we could think about.”