Natalie shrugs with a what-can-you-do smile. “Guess that’s why cats have no collarbones. So it’s easier for them to get out of the bag.”

And for one brief moment, it’s just me and my almost ex-wife, whose sense of humor makes me want to join her in the kitchen, kiss the hell out of her, then help her make the rest of the meal. Hell, I’d happily do dishes with her, too.

“Is this true?” Josie’s green eyes are wide as she directs her question to Natalie. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“Thanks, Chase, for sharing that little tidbit,” I mutter at the same time.

But before Natalie can answer, Spencer’s laughter booms. “Oh yes. I’ll second that.” He raises his margarita glass. “I can’t thank you enough, Chase. You have just given me fodder for the next several years.” Spencer stares at me with a cat-eating-the-canary smile. “Now, I believe we all want to hear the lovely story of how Wyatt proposed to my wife’s sister.”

Nick smirks at me and shakes his head. “Dude. I told you Vegas was a recipe for trouble. I knew you were up to something.”

Josie whacks my elbow. “I asked you if you said something stupid to her in Vegas. I was right.”

“I said ‘let’s get married.’ Okay? There. Are you all happy?” I gesture to the crew, and all seven of them are having a big fat laugh at my expense.

“Wait.” Natalie’s firm voice cuts across the apartment. Everyone turns to the blue-eyed blonde in the kitchen doorway. “Why is no one getting on my case? Why is everyone on Wyatt’s case? Do you think I wasn’t involved? That it was just one of his big, crazy ideas? I did play a part, people. I did say yes. A lot of yeses, as a matter of fact,” she says, and Josie’s eyebrows shoot into her hairline at that barely veiled innuendo. “Then I said the big yes.”

Harper shakes her head, her long sheet of red hair moving with her. “Is this you guys pranking us?”

“I assure you, there’s no pranking.” Natalie marches over to me, parks herself on my lap, holds my face, and plants a kiss on my lips. Once more, all my thoughts fade to just the two of us. Her soft lips. Her sweet breath. Her intoxicating taste. My eyes float closed, and even though this is the shortest kiss in the history of time, it still knocks the air from my lungs. When she pulls away, I feel dizzy.

Everyone else is speechless. They’re just staring at us.

Natalie ends the silence. “You’ll all just have to accept that Wyatt Hammer kisses me like it’s the only thing he wants to do in the whole world, and I couldn’t resist him. But don’t worry. We’re getting a divorce, and that’s that. Now can we please eat?”

“Wait,” Spencer says, clearing his throat. He gestures from her to me and back. “You’re not together now? Because it sure seemed like you were.”

Then he flinches and drops a hand to his thigh where Charlotte’s squeezing his leg. “I mean,” Spencer says, correcting himself, “let’s eat.”

When it registers what just happened—Charlotte pinched him to shut him up—I can’t help but wonder what Natalie has been telling her sister.

Because Charlotte clearly knows everything I do, and maybe even more.

Josie’s coconut layer cake is divine.

Chase rolls his eyes for the twentieth time. “I just want to get in a tub and bathe in this cake.”

I arch an eyebrow. “A cake tub?”

Chase nods. “Absolutely. Just fill it up to the top.”

Josie laughs then asks, “Should we fill it with cake batter or finished cake?”

“Finished cake. Then frosting,” he answers.

She sets down her fork. “Does that mean you want to be frosted in this cake tub, too, Chase?”

He takes another bite. “With this cake, yes please.” He tilts his head to the side, looking at her across the table. “By the way, I like the new ’do,” he says, gesturing to her hair. Josie’s a brunette, but she’s dyed several strands pink.

She twirls a pink streak. “Thank you. I did it while you were gone.”

“Because you missed me?”

She wriggles an eyebrow. “Ha. Yes, when I think of you, I think pink.”

Soon, it’s time to clear our plates, and as we clean, Natalie and I wind up alone in the kitchen at the sink. “That was . . . weird,” I say.

“The way Chase flirts with your sister?”

I laugh. “Well, yeah. But the whole thing with us, too.”

“Did you feel like they were staring at us all through dinner?” she asks as she rinses a dessert plate.

“Like we were in the zoo.”

“I think they wanted us to kiss again.”

“They weren’t the only ones,” I say softly, then take the plate from her hand and slide it into the dish rack.

She meets my gaze as the water runs. Her voice is soft, just for me. “They definitely weren’t the only ones.”

I run a fingertip gently along her neck, from her earlobe down to her collarbone. “Right here. I want to kiss you right here.”

I demonstrate, dusting my lips ever so faintly against the delicious skin of her neck, breathing her in.

She shudders. “When you kiss me like that, it makes me forget to breathe,” she whispers, then turns her face so our lips brush lightly.

And I’m the one to shudder.

When we leave, we crowd in the elevator together, Spencer with his arm around Charlotte, Nick holding hands with Harper, Chase telling Josie a story of the marble he removed yesterday from a kid’s nose, and Natalie next to me. She’s so close, I could hold her hand, drape an arm over her shoulder, kiss her hair.