Fated Hearts (Southern Bride 8)

I rolled my eyes.

Elizabeth took a sip of her coffee. “Now, spill the beans. I want to know everything!”

“Oh, no. You’ve already admitted you’re a gossip.”

With a dramatic gasp, she looked at me in mock horror. “I said I was in the know, and I am. I listen, darlin’. I don’t talk. That’s my number-one rule. I don’t mind hearing the juicy stuff, but I’m not a gossip spreader. Whatever you tell me stays with me.”

I bit my lower lip, trying to decide if I should tell her the whole story of how Roger and I first met. It would be nice to talk to someone about it other than my sister, Meg.

“Fine,” I said with a sigh. “But if you tell anyone, I’ll never share anything with you ever again.”

She lifted her finger and crossed her heart. “I swear to keep what you say to myself. I mean, I may tell my boyfriend, but men don’t gossip.”

I gave her another roll of my eyes before clearing my throat. I decided I needed someone else to analyze this whole thing. “The hotel accidentally booked Roger and me in the same room.”

“What do you mean, the same room?” she asked. “How is that even possible?”

With a shake of my head, I told her the whole story, then laughed as I said, “The first time I ever laid eyes on Roger Carter, he was…”

My cheeks flamed with embarrassment.

“He was what?!” Elizabeth asked as she bounced in her chair. “Tell me!”

“You swear you won’t tell anyone else this?”

“I already did the whole cross-my-heart thing. Sheesh, is that not good enough anymore?”

I opened my mouth to say something, then closed it and shook my head slightly. With a breath in, I word-vomited everything. “He was naked. I scared him, and he jumped out of bed, which scared me, then the light came on, and he was…completely nude.”

“Whaaat? Naked!” Elizabeth shrieked, and I quickly looked around. “I bet that was a sight to see! Is he big?”

“Shhh!” I whisper-shouted. “Gah, I knew I shouldn’t have told you.”

“Did you jump on him? I mean, I love my boyfriend and all, but Roger Carter naked in a hotel room. I don’t know any woman who wouldn’t jump on him right then and there.”

I jerked my head back and stared at her. “No! Of course not. We actually started to argue.”

She blinked rapidly before she found her voice. “Let me get this straight: Roger was naked, and you started to argue with him?”

“He was in my room!”

“It sounds like you were in his room.”

I glared at her. “It was my room.”

She gave me a look that said she was right, and I was wrong. “Okay, whatever. Who cares whose room it was. What did y’all argue about?”

I sighed. “I wanted to know why he was in my room, and he wanted to know why I was in his.”

She nodded and pulled her brows in as if deep in thought. “When did the sex come into play?”

“You are direct, aren’t you?”

With a no-nonsense smile, she motioned for me to keep talking.

“I’m not exactly sure how it happened. We agreed we wouldn’t ask each other anything personal, it would be a no-strings-attached kind of thing.” I swallowed hard as I looked down at my teacup and whispered, “A fling.”

“Wait, you didn’t know he was from Boerne that whole time?”

I shook my head. “I had no idea where he was from. We didn’t share any information with each other. Then, when the day came for us to leave, we said goodbye, and I got on the plane for Texas.”

A burst of laughter came from her. “Then how was it he dropped you off here?”

I sighed. “It’s a long story, but to get straight to it, I didn’t have a rental car, he did, and he offered to drop me off where I needed to go.”

“If this story is written in a book, sign me up to read it!”

I rolled my eyes. “It would be a crazy story, that’s for sure.”

“So, Roger ended up giving you a ride. When did y’all figure out you were going to the same place?”

“At the rental car counter. He asked where I was going, and I told him. His reaction now, of course, makes sense. Back then, he just seemed shocked or distracted.”

She sat up and clapped her hands in excitement. “He didn’t say anything when you told him Boerne?”

I slowly shook my head. “Nope. Nothing. He didn’t tell me until he pulled up in front of the hotel, and then he dropped the bomb on me.”

Elizabeth dropped back in her seat again and slowly shook her head. “Wow. What are the odds of that?”

Laughing, I replied, “I have no idea. Now, we both live in the same town and…well…I honestly don’t know where things will go from here, but I think I can say I’m hopeful.”