“Oh, God. This is so embarrassing.”

“I don’t see why. Just because I haven’t been screaming it doesn’t mean that I haven’t been your biggest cheerleader when it comes to you ending up with Cohen. Go get changed and come fill your mom in. I think we have about an hour before the men come looking for food.”

I make my way up to my room and think about everything she just said. Obviously, the girls didn’t know or they would have said something today. I can’t believe she and Melissa went through all of this trouble. Especially knowing that Daddy is going to hit the fucking roof when he comes home to find I’ve moved out.

This should be fun. Maybe I can talk the camera crew from work into following me home. You know, for video evidence if he snaps and starts to go all Hulk-raging mad.

“Start from the beginning, Dani. I’m having a hard time following here. Lyn said what now?” Mom asks and hands me the spoon to stir the sauce.

“Okay, so we might have had too much wine, but she had some brilliant idea that all I need to do is work on my confidence when it comes to my . . . sexual side, and then the rest of it will fall into place with Cohen.”

“And she said this because why? Because you’ve been a little shy with him lately?”

“Mom! Yes. It’s been terrible. Ever since he was here with me when I was sick, things have just been weird. It’s like my body is hyperaware of him when he comes around. Then boom, I turn into a mute freak.”

She laughs, stirs the noodles and moves over to work on the salad. “Sweetheart, that—everything you’re feeling—is completely normal. You and Cohen have been traveling two different roads on the way to this point for so long that it only makes sense that there will be a head-on crash when you finally connect. You should listen to her. She’s right.”

“I am listening to her. That’s why we went to the pole dancing class,” I mumble.

“You did what?” she asks, shocked.

“We went to a pole dancing and sensual empowerment class at the gym. It was a lot of fun, but it really worked. And . . . uh, Cohen was there when we left.”

“Oh wow. And how did that go?”

“I think my heart is still about to beat out of my chest.”

She laughs and reaches over to pull me toward her body. “That, my sweet girl, is the calm before the storm. If you think that is powerful, just wait until you’re hit with it full force.”

I shiver and she laughs.

“What are my girls in here gossiping about?” Daddy says, coming into the room and around the island to give me a kiss on the forehead and one to Mom that has me looking away.

“You two really need to remember that some things can’t be unseen,” I gripe.

“Little princess, just how do you think you got into this world?” he asks and then booms out a laugh when I cringe.

I look over at Mom, who gives me a wink, and shake my head when Daddy continues to laugh.

I watch them both for a little while and pray, not for the first time, that one day I’ll have what they have.

Hopefully one day soon.

“DAD IS GOING TO KICK your ass,” Nate grumbles under the weight of my favorite reading chair that he and Liam are carrying up to my new bedroom.

The townhouse that Mom and Melissa picked out for the twins, Maddi, and me is a lot more than just that. It’s a freaking townhouse on crack. It’s a five-bedroom, three-story, huge-ass house located in one of the best gated communities around. She clearly downplayed it. I expected them to have put the house in their name, which I would have had a huge problem with, but Thursday morning, I had a call from the realtor asking me to meet him in his office on my lunch break. Seems my mom and Melissa had gone above and beyond. They had put first and last months’ rent as a down payment and wouldn’t even entertain the arguing. Emmy had been there with them. Three against four should have given us good odds—but then they brought out the big guns and started to talk about ‘the dads’ finding out and what would they say if we weren’t in the best of the best.

Whatever.

We signed the lease, all four of us, and in less than thirty minutes, we were handed the keys.

It was amazing!

It’s been two days since Mom took Dad up to the mountains, and I’ve enlisted Nate and Liam to help me get the heavy stuff out of my room. Mom told me to take all the furniture, but I felt too bad about it knowing that, if Daddy came home to an empty room, he very well might have heart failure. My new bedroom suite is being delivered tomorrow. Maddi and I went in on the living room stuff and entertainment systems. Lyn and Lila picked up the kitchen and patio furniture.