Laura was staring off toward the ocean, her jaw locked in place, and I knew I wasn’t the only one. When I looked at Andy, his lips were still red from the kiss, his eyes locked on Brad. Though he appeared lost in thought, there was something in his expression that led me to believe he was thinking the same thing I was. What the hell was that about?
Chapter Thirteen
Andy
We changed into shorts and tennis shoes and headed to breakfast, and then later to the gym within the hour. I purposefully lagged behind, trying to catch Nick’s attention, when Brad and Jaren walked onto the basketball court.
“You doing okay, man?” I asked, keeping my voice low as he knelt over the bench in the locker room, tying the lace on his tennis shoes.
He glanced up, his dark hair hanging in his eyes. “Yeah…” He paused, obviously confused. “You?”
I inhaled, running a palm over my face. “Yeah, yeah… Megan seems great.”
“She is,” he said. “Emily seems great, too. I’m sorry everyone’s bustin’ your chops about her. You know they’re just messin’ with you.”
I scratched the back of my neck. “Thanks. Listen, I wanted to check in about the whole…Laura,” I lowered my voice as I said her name, “thing. I haven’t been able to talk to you alone since you told me, and then the next thing I knew, you were engaged.”
His expression went stiff, and then one side of his mouth upturned. He exhaled through his nose and rested a hand on my shoulder. “I’m fine, man, honestly. The night I told you about Laura, we’d been drinking too much. It was stupid. I honestly don’t even remember most of what I said. Whatever I felt for her is in the past. It’s nothing to worry about.” His eyes darted toward where Jaren and Brad waited for us in the distance. “You haven’t said anything to him, have you?”
“No,” I assured him, shaking my head, “no. Of course not. I wouldn’t. I mean…if you were having an affair that would be one thing, but feelings? Especially ones that were in the past? Never.” He lifted his hand from my shoulder. “I just wanted to be sure you weren’t rushing things with Megan. I mean, I know I’m the king of not rushing things, but it’s for a reason. I mean, you’ve seen Jaren and Natasha.” I chuckled, stopping our footsteps and lowering my voice again. “I love them separately, but together, it’s a nightmare. I’d never want that for myself, and I wouldn’t for you, either.”
He looked across the room, where I could hear the thud of the basketball being dribbled in the airy gym. “Thanks, man. Honestly, I appreciate it. But you don’t have to worry about me, okay? Megan is the one. She’s perfect.” He raised a brow, laughing with an obvious intent to change the subject. “But can we talk about Emily?”
While she was my favorite subject, there was something in his expression that told me I needed to push harder. My friend was suffering… He was in love with a woman who’d never want him back, and I was torn between my loyalty to my best friend and the desire to comfort my equally good friend in his time of need. Still, there was nothing left to say. If he didn’t want to open up, I couldn’t force it.
“She’s perfect,” I said after a pause, my default response when anyone asked. “So hot. And funny. She’s super smart, too.”
“She seems great.”
“She is.” It was all I could say. Mostly because it was true, she was great, but also because, in truth, I didn’t know that much about her.
She was still very much a stranger to me.
A gorgeous stranger who was making me rethink everything I believed about dating and relationships and…life.
The kind of stranger I never wanted to let go.
Chapter Fourteen
Natasha
Emily was cool.
Honestly.
Spending the day with her, I was realizing that maybe I had it all wrong. Sure, she was self-obsessed and vain, but she was young and beautiful, and that came with the territory. She reminded me of Nolan, except that she actually seemed to have her eyes on the future, and she’d built quite a nice future for herself after all.
“Seriously, though,” she said through her laughter, “what’s the deal with you and Jaren, Natasha? You’re not old enough to hate each other yet.” We were sitting in the spa, all dressed in white robes, green mud caked on our faces and our feet soaking in something that felt strangely similar to those Pop Rocks candies Nolan had loved as a kid.
I shook my head, my lips thinning, though I couldn’t resist the smile that played at the edges of my mouth. “We don’t hate each other,” I said, and Laura’s brows drew down. “We don’t. At least, I don’t hate him. But… I don’t know. It’s just time, right? We’ve been together… God, nearly twenty-five years. We got married straight out of college, had Nolan shortly after.” I blinked, realizing how long ago that was as I said it. “We’ve been together longer than we were ever apart. And, at this point, we’ve found every way possible to get on each other’s nerves.” I took a gulp of the mojito in my hand. “I love him. He gave me my child. He has worked all his life. He is a good man…but life has beaten us up, I guess. And it was our marriage that took the brunt of the force.”
Emily looked as though she may cry, her dark eyes locked on mine. “I’m so sorry.”
“No need to be sorry,” I said. “We’re adults. We’ve made our bed. Once our son turns eighteen in a few weeks, we’re going to file for divorce and get on with our lives. Before we really do end up hating each other.”
Laura gasped at my
