Every Sweet Regret (Orchid Valley 2)

“Friends who don’t talk about sex.”

She frowns. “Are you okay?”

It’s her new favorite question for me. Are you okay? For a long time, I wasn’t. She was the one who wanted the divorce. I was the one who thought we had something worth fighting for. It hasn’t been easy to bury my resentment, but I did. For my daughter and for Amy. I did the impossible for the two women I love most in this world. “I’m okay. I’m happy.”

Her frown deepens as she studies me. “Have you tried dating yet?”

The answer to that question is hell no, but considering she had her first date the night she moved out, I know how she’d feel about that, so I shrug. “I’m busy.” I take a long pull off my beer. I’m in a good mood and don’t want to ruin it.

“Kace.” Her eyes widen in horror as she studies me. “I moved out a year ago. Please tell me you’ve screwed someone since then.”

I cough. Again. She’s going to kill me before this conversation’s over. “Excuse me?”

“Sex is healthy.” She nudges me with her elbow. “And your hand doesn’t count.”

“I’m not looking to hook up.”

“Why not? You’re kid-free every other weekend.”

I roll my eyes. “Kind of busy.”

She scoffs. “Yet here you sit at a bar on a Friday night. You could be on a date. You know, you’re allowed to see people casually. Not everyone is looking for happily-ever-after. Some people just want to get off.” Her expression softens, and she clenches her eyes shut for a beat. “Just because our marriage lacked passion doesn’t mean—”

“Don’t. Please? Just don’t.” Rather than meet her knowing gaze, I watch a couple of guys in Lamda Chi T-shirts pretend to play pool while they check out Stella for the hundredth time tonight. Fuckers had better keep to their side of the bar.

“I just want you to be happy,” Amy says. “There are hundreds of women out there who’d die to be with you, but you’ll never know, because you won’t even go on a stupid date.”

“I don’t need the complication in my life.”

Amy reaches around me and grabs my phone out of my back pocket. She enters in my passcode—I should probably change that—and starts tapping on the screen. “Other divorced women complain about all the ass their exes are chasing, and here I am, your only hope of getting laid.”

I wince. “That’s fucked up, Ames. Give it back.”

She spins away before I can grab it from her hands. “What do you want your username to be?”

“My username for what?”

“Random.”

“Random what? Wait—the hookup app? You can’t be serious.”

“GoodHands69,” she says, winking.

“Oh, yeah. That’s a great username,” I deadpan, “for a fifteen-year-old boy.”

She ignores this, thumbs tapping on the screen. “Recently divorced. Looking for companionship, not love. Good with my hands.” She flashes me a wink.

I’m gonna be sick. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me right now.”

Her blue eyes widen, pure innocence. “Am I lying?”

I drain my beer, but it doesn’t do anything to diminish this twilight zone feeling. My ex-wife is setting up my account on a hookup app.

“When I made you promise we’d still be friends, this is not what I meant.” I sigh.

She waggles her brows then drops her attention back to the app. “Let’s see who’s online now and is within . . .” She taps her chin thoughtfully. “Let’s go with thirty miles. Don’t want your booty call to be on the other side of Atlanta traffic.”

I wave to Smithy and point to my empty glass to let him know I need another beer, though if she keeps this up, I should probably switch to something stronger. “You’re mental.”

“Oh!” She studies the screen, her smile growing. “This could be fun.”

Really, once Amy sets her mind to something, there’s no point in interfering, so all I can do is wait until she’s done and then try to minimize the damage.

“I’m going to tap ‘interested’ on this one.” She turns the screen to me for a beat, and I see a flash of cleavage. “Nice rack, huh?”

There isn’t enough alcohol in the world. “Is that her profile pic?”

She shrugs. “Yeah. That’s the way Random works. This isn’t about finding a pretty face.”

“Whatever,” I mutter. I take the fresh glass from Smithy and force myself to sip when I want to chug.

“And . . . that was fast. She’s interested back.” The woman I vowed to love till death is not only trying to get me laid, she’s downright giddy about it. “What should I type?”

“How about, This is Kace’s ex-wife, and I’m acting like a creep right now. He’ll apologize as soon as I give him his phone back.”

She lifts her gaze to mine, as if considering this. “Nah.” She returns the phone. “My work here’s done.”

“Save me,” I mutter. “What did you do? You know what?” I slide my phone into my back pocket. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”