Breaking Even (Sterling Shore 5)

“Did you know I was pregnant?” Ash asks Rye, ambushing him.

He doesn’t even act affected by that question.

“I knew about the condom breaking. Shit happens. He didn’t know if you were pregnant,” Rye says with a shrug. “It’s not like he can pee on a stick for you.”

“But he knew I could be pregnant,” she growls, taking her anger out on the only man in view.

He comes to sit as close to me as he can get and as far away from Ash as he can manage. I’d laugh, but now is not the time.

He picks up his beer just as I take a sip of mine, and then he swaps the bottles and takes my beer instead. I’d ask why, but I already know the answer. Instead of reacting at all, I just start drinking the new beer.

“Someone else talk,” Ash mumbles, burying her head in the crook of her arm as she rests it on the table. “I’m tired of being the only one with issues.”

Raya sighs hard while staring at her engagement ring, twisting it absently while remaining lost in thought. “Kade won’t let me in. He refuses to let me help him through anything, and since Thomas died... He just keeps pushing me away. He won’t even look at me right now. I’ve tried to be patient—give him time to grieve—but I think he’s only growing farther away from me with every passing day.

“I left the vineyard three days ago, turned off my phone, and I’ve been staying in a hotel. We’ve already moved back the wedding date twice—even though we’re weren’t even planning the wedding until spring. I’m starting to think he regrets proposing. It’s hard to love someone if you can’t let them in. And he just keeps shutting me out.”

“Have you tried talking to him?” Rye asks, and he’s met with a glare I didn’t know Raya was capable of.

“No. Why didn’t I think about talking to him?” she asks, sarcasm dripping from her tone. “I love the jackass, but he’s... Well, I’m pissed.”

“Why are men so damn stupid?” Tria growls.

“Men suck,” Rain says for the hundredth time.

“I can’t believe he didn’t tell me I was pregnant,” Ash groans.

Tria decides to take her turn after a long, deep breath. “Kode has gotten a little more aggressive lately than usual. He punched a guy last night because the guy’s hand might have groped my ass. But I had warned him the guy was a sleaze-ball photographer, and had asked him to keep his cool since he insisted on joining me at my meeting. I needed that guy to use Beauty Graffiti on his shoots. He sure as hell won’t now.”

“He grabbed your ass in front of Kode?” Rain asks in shock. “I’m surprised Kode let him walk away.”

“I love Kode for who he is, but there’s a line. My business is the line. The guy was inappropriate, but I was handling it. Kode can’t just swoop and give me that reputation. No one will work with me otherwise. I can handle things myself from time to time.”

“Sounds like Kode had justifiable reaction to me,” Rye whispers, leaning down to my ear.

I have no idea how to respond to her problem. I’ve never had a guy react that way over me. Twisted as it sounds, I’m actually a little jealous. John would have let a man grab my ass and give it a massage, and he wouldn’t have done a thing about it.

I lean over to Rye and tug him down to me so that I can whisper in his ear, as they all go on and on about men being stupid.

“They’re leaving them? They’re all breaking up at once? Is that what this is?” I ask, confused by the madness going on around me.

“You aren’t really leaving them, are you?” Rye asks, suddenly looking worried.

They all stop talking and stare at him as though he has sprouted a second head. “Don’t be so dramatic,” Raya scoffs, rolling her eyes.

They all say something about him being ridiculous and make fun of him for being a drama queen, and I bite back a grin. “Yeah,” I say, adding to the bash-Rye fun by echoing Raya’s words, “don’t be so dramatic.”

He glares at me, and I snicker quietly to myself. Rain hides her smile behind her hand, and I tilt my head. She still hasn’t said what Dane has done to piss her off. All she has said is that men suck.

“Why do men have to be idiots all the time?” Tria asks Rye, narrowing her eyes at him, and all the girls stare at him expectantly.

Rye mutters something like hell and high heels under his breath just as the front door opens and Maggie walks in.

“Oh,” she says, feeling a little startled. “I didn’t see any cars.”

“They rode with me. I thought you were already gone on your date,” I say by way of explaining.

Very quickly, I go through the motions of introducing Maggie to the girls she doesn’t know, and she waves awkwardly, considering they all sound and look miserable. Magg