She shrugged. “You’ve hated him ever since senior year soccer tryouts.”
“Damn straight. It was a timed two-mile run. He cut it short one lap. It was the honor system. I never trusted him after that.”
I’d set the record that year for the fastest two-mile run on our soccer team, and that bastard cuts a lap and tries to say he beat me? I led the whole goddamn race. It took a lot to piss me off, but the fact that he was a cheat and dating my best friend—I’d never forgotten it.
It’s all about integrity, man.
And Carl Barley didn’t have any.
He might be a doctor now, but the man would always be the guy who not only cut the run short but also said that he’d set the record for the fastest time. He’d tried to double down. Thankfully, Coach Dugger was paying attention. Carl then pretended it was an oversight.
Oversight my ass, you cheating bastard.
She chuckled before letting her teeth sink into her bottom lip. “It’s good to see you.”
“Yeah? So, you’ll come home with me?”
She closed her eyes, leaning back in her chair. She hadn’t had more than two bites of her burger and a few french fries. “I’m a mess. I have no plan now.”
“Bullshit. You’ll live with me. I was hiring you anyway to decorate the house. The renovations are done, and now I need to finish furnishing the place, get window coverings, and all of that. You’ll be living there while you get it put together. It’s a perfect plan. And I’ll be the first client at your new business, so get ready for everyone in town to be knocking down your door.”
“Okay,” she whispered. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“It’s all coming together.”
“It’s a start. I’ll just do what I can to avoid them. I’m not ready to see him with her, you know?” I heard the hurt in her voice, and rage coursed my veins. I’d always been protective of Reese, and that would never change.
“I’ve got you. Don’t worry about a thing.”
“I’d be lost without you, Chewy.”
“Well, you’ll never be without me. And I’d be the one who’d be lost. It’s been the best year of my life professionally, and I felt really—off. I didn’t like you being gone. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m proud as hell of you, but I missed you like crazy, Miney.”
She smiled. The first real smile I’d seen since I arrived.
“That’s because we’re peas and carrots, right?” she teased. It’s what our mothers had always said since we were young.
And damn, had they been right.
Because this girl had always completed me in a way I’d never understood.
“Damn straight. Eat up. No more of this pouting shit. Starting today, you hold your head high. No more grieving over a dude who doesn’t deserve your time or your tears.”
She sighed as she reached for her burger. “Easier said than done. This is one area that you don’t understand because you don’t want the same things as me. You don’t want marriage and kids. And I found the person I thought I’d do all those things with, and it hurts like hell to think of him with someone else.”
“I never said I don’t want to get married and have kids. Hell, I love kids. I just never met anyone I wanted to keep going out with. But who knows? It could happen. The difference between you and me is that I don’t worry about shit like that. If it’s supposed to happen, then I’ll get knocked on my ass. You’re trying to force it.”
She shook her head. “I’m hardly trying to force it. I said yes to marrying him. But I changed the plan and left. That wasn’t fair to him. So, I’m trying to fix what I broke.”
I shrugged. We could agree to disagree. That shit was already broken; she just didn’t want to see it.
We spent the next few hours catching up after we headed back to her place. Reese showed me her portfolio of the projects she’d been working on, and I was in awe of her. She had an eye for design, always had.
My phone continued to blow up with texts, as apparently, the driver’s post had gone fucking viral.
Angelique was thrilled.
It was the first time in several months that the attention I was receiving wasn’t about Jessica Carson.
The problem was that everyone thought I had a girlfriend now.
And it wouldn’t take any sort of detective skills to realize that my best friend was the girl who lived in London.
But at the moment, I didn’t give a shit.