Heartburn (Love By Design 3)

“What are you doing with that?” I leaned into him to see the pictorial evidence displayed in both panoramic and video. Poor Damien had a look of horror on his face while his legs simply skidded out from under him in a blur that lasted at least ten yards before hitting the boards.

“Documenting.”

“Uh huh.” I didn’t believing a word of it.

“Send one to me.” Hunter added passing around the box of greasy food from the concession stand they came back with.

“Group text?” Grabbing a cheese fry, Whit tinkered with his phone typing away.

Hunter nodded between bites of a hot dog and chili. “Make sure Chase and Evan are on it.”

Whit snickered a little too proud of himself. “Especially Evan.”

“Video?” Hunter asked.

“Oh boy, it’s a doozy. He practically drags his leg like he’s been mortally wounded.” Whit finished with his phone putting it away in his pocket.

Hunter clutched his chest making a mockery of Damien laughing as he stuffed his face with food.

“Hunter, be nice.” Taylor chastised hugging him. Hunter nuzzled her neck whispering something private that made her duck and smile. Pretty sure whatever he said wasn’t nice at all.

“Oh come on, what’s the deal.” I poked Whit wanting to know why picking on Damien was a thing between all of them. I didn’t want to feel like I was coming into the movie at the best part halfway through without a frame of reference.

“Because those two hate each other and Kristen is in the middle of it. Its old news, or it should have been ten years ago.” Hunter shared as he wiped chili grease from his mouth pecking Taylor with an unexpected kiss.

“Ugh, Hunter. No. Chili breath gross.” Her face scrunched as she chugged her hot chocolate probably to get rid of the chili dog taste.

“Woman.” Hunter growled even though she kissed him back clamping her mouth closed. I didn’t blame her, second hand chili dogs were not my thing either.

I had no idea who Evan was or why he needed to see Damien scrambling on the ice with his girlfriend. “Do we like this Evan person?”

“We do.” Whit waved his hand around including everyone present. “Damien, not so much.” Whit didn’t elaborate and I didn’t think I’d get the answer right then. It made me curious how everyone present had this history together that I was barely a part of. I might not have fit in with Ryder’s crowd, but at least these guys didn’t make me feel like I’d walked into Outlander shifting in time without the cliff notes to get by. I moved to the edge of the rink to watch them skate.

Taylor joined me watching her friends skate and explained. “Evan is on the police department.”

Damien almost toppled a second, maybe third time nearly taking a smiling Kristen down. She held him up by some miracle and we clapped our hands approvingly. Despite his goofy demeanor and her shrew attitude that rivaled any Shakespearean heroine they really were an adorable couple.

“And they don’t like each other because…” I queried still confused, and they said my generation was hopeless.

Taylor picked up on the prompt right away filling in the basic gaps, “Evan got together with Kristen briefly during a break from Damien, except none of us knew they were dating at the time. When everything came out it blew up in their faces and they still haven’t fully disclosed to all of us what the heck went down back then.”

“But, you’re her best friend, shouldn’t you know?” I mused.

“You would think. We’ve been close, nearly sisters since I moved in next door, but there’s some things that Kristen keeps mum on. Not even her brother Chase knows the full story and he was willing to kick Damien’s ass. Since he hasn’t in all these years…I have a feeling he knows that at least some of this is her fault too.” Taylor sipped her hot chocolate.

“Sounds very high schoolish.” I murmured and felt mortified I was judging them. Taylor shook her head and put her hand on my arm reassuringly.

“Oh it was, still is to some degree. Evan would totally let it go. He’s a good guy, but Damien can’t wrap his head around the fact that Kristen is her own person and makes equally bad decisions as he does.” Taylor said.

Hunter handed me a hot chocolate that had a mini mountain of whip cream on top adding to our conversation. “Nope, that boy is as hard headed as the day is long.”

“Aren’t they all?” Taylor giggled and they went in for more PDA that made me uncomfortable enough to turn away and escape the love fest. Warmth filled my cheeks while the hot cup felt good on my hands despite the thin gloves I wore. The sip I took scorched the entire way down my throat burning my tongue. The pain felt good radiating warmth into my chest. Whit caught me and wagged his brows promising our own private PDA later.

I started to feel like nothing bad could happen.

16

Whit