It was best to forget all about her.
I wondered why it was so damn hard to do.
FOUR
LUCY
No one answered the front door when I knocked, but Kelsey and I had been friends for long enough that I felt comfortable letting myself in. Besides, we were having a barbecue, which meant that everyone was probably out in the backyard already. I was running late, having got stuck in traffic.
Sure enough, the backyard was packed. I spotted Kelsey immediately, though, recognizing her wild laugh. I grinned as I made my way over.
“Hey, good to see you!” I said, giving her a quick hug. “How was the honeymoon?”
Kelsey laughed. “Amazing, of course,” she said. She smiled over towards the grill, where her new husband, Nick, was getting things going. “I mean, not that I ever had any doubts in my mind that Nick was the one, but Nick is the one, you know?”
I giggled. “Good to hear it,” I told her. “You’re stuck with him forever now…”
“No one I’d rather be stuck with,” Kelsey replied with a dreamy smile.
“The wedding was beautiful, by the way,” I added. “I didn’t get the chance to tell you that before you guys drove off into the proverbial sunset.”
“Thanks!” Kelsey said. “I’m glad you were able to come. And oh my god, that wine rack that you got us is beautiful. Where did you even find it?”
“Antiquing in Maine,” I said with a nonchalant shrug. It had taken me forever to find the perfect thing for the two of them. They’d been together for going on seven years now and had been living together for most of that time. They already had everything that they needed.
I spent most of my time down in Boston, but my family had a lake house up in Maine, which Bobby had inherited. I drove up there every so often for a little peace and quiet. I had gone into the nearby town of Belford to get groceries one day and had found a little antiques store. The second I laid eyes on the wine rack, I knew that I had found the perfect gift for Kelsey and Nick—especially since their honeymoon was to Italy. I knew they’d bring back a couple of bottles with them.
“What about you?” Kelsey asked me. “Anything… or anyone… new in your life?”
I laughed. “Nah, just enjoying a nice single summer,” I told her. “It’s been really nice, actually. I do a lot of reading out on the balcony with a drink in hand.”
“Sounds nice,” Kelsey said, but I could tell from the way that her gaze drifted back towards Nick, and the small smile on her face, that she wouldn’t have traded her current position for singlehood, no matter what.
I was happy for her. I wasn’t ruling out the possibility that maybe I too would find something like that, but I certainly hadn’t found it yet. Nor was I really looking. I enjoyed my freedom, and I liked going out and having fun, without having to worry about anyone else or other commitments.
In any case, I was still trying to finish up college, having taken the extended route to do so—starting with business, then moving on to criminal justice and now psychology. It had taken me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, and I was only just starting to feel like I knew myself well enough that I could be in a serious relationship.
If the extended time spent in college had taught me anything, it was that there was no hurry in life. I wanted to make sure that things were right, in order to set myself up for success in the future. The same would go for any relationship I would get involved in: I wasn’t going to jump into the deep end unless I knew that it was right.
Kelsey had other guests to greet, so I moved away, grabbing some veggies from the snack table and wandering from friend to friend. I knew most of the people here, although some of them were Nick’s friends.
I stopped and stared as I recognized someone who was definitely not one of Kelsey’s friends. “He wasn’t at the wedding,” I whispered stupidly to Kelsey’s sister.
Kerry followed my gaze. “Wow. No, he most certainly wasn’t,” she said, her tone flirtatious.
I eyed Dylan again, trying to see what she was seeing while forgetting about the way he had come onto me up at the ring the first time. It was hard to forget that he was just some boxer, since everything about him screamed it, from his broad shoulders, to the tattoos covering up his muscular arms, to the way he kept balancing on the balls of his feet, just waiting for the next strike.
“He must be one of Nick’s friends,” Kerry said.
“Yeah, maybe,” I said doubtfully. Nick might have been on the football team in college, but he was all wholesome. Dylan seemed more the bad boy type than anything else.
But no one was accusing him of crashing the party, so he had to know someone here. Even if it started to seem as if he was stalking me. Why was it that we kept running into one another like this, when I had never seen him before in my life? I didn’t believe in coincidences.
I stared at Dylan for a beat too long and he turned his head to glance in my direction. I had been caught. Was it just me or did he look amused to see me standing there? I found myself blushing as I turned away from him.
“Whoa, do you know the guy or what?” Kerry asked. “Can I get an introduction?”
“I don’t know him that well,” I told her. “He’s
