“Arabella and Charlotte are finally both asleep.”
Glancing up, I smiled. “Meg, you’re such an amazing mom.”
“I’m a tired one that’s for sure,” Meagan said as she sank down in the chair next to me. “It’s getting colder out here. The front must be moving in earlier than they thought.”
I nodded and looked back out to the orange and pink sky. “I can’t believe Christmas is in a few days.”
“Yeah, I know. I think we might have gone overboard with presents for the twins. Gray especially.”
I giggled and shook my head. “They’ll never know.”
“So, are we going to make small talk or are you going to tell me what is bothering you. You’ve been in such a funk the last few weeks and I don’t know why.”
“I’m sorry I’m not much company.”
“Tay, if you really think I’m worried about you entertaining me then you are very wrong. I’m worried. The last two days you’ve been walking around like you’ve lost everything.”
My eyes closed as I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I have, Meg.”
“Bullshit. Lauren told me she offered you a job. Why haven’t you taken her up on it, or at the very least gone and talked to her and Scott?”
Inhaling a slow breath through my nose, I opened my eyes. “I told her tonight I’d stop by tomorrow and talk to them.”
“Good. You need to stop pouting. So you quit your job and slept with a guy. It’s not like you cheated on anyone. You think you’re the first person to ever have sex and regret it? My God, I could fill your head with tales.”
Her words slowly started to fade as I got lost in the memory of Jase’s eyes as he said goodbye to me. Every time I’d tried to think of Paris an image of Clark would pop into my mind.
“Are you even listening to me?”
“Yep.”
With a sigh, Meagan asked, “What did I say then?”
“I’m not the only person to have meaningless sex and I need to get over it.”
With a wide smile, she stared at me. “I said a lot more than that. Have you called him? Tried to text him?”
Shrugging, I asked, “What good would it do me? I told him to leave and then I slept with another guy. I’m no better than what I accused him of.”
“Oh, for the love of Pete.” Meagan stood up and glared at me. “Taylor, I never in my life thought I would see the day when you would be sitting around feeling sorry for yourself. You had a brief moment of standing up for yourself and having the balls to live life and now you regret it. Well tough shit. You told him to leave, you sought out another man, fucked him, and woke up the next morning regretting it. Welcome to the real world. Daddy is no longer sheltering you, so get the fuck over it. Now, it’s time to pull those big girl panties up again and stop sulking. You’re either going to call him or you’re going to move on with your life. Either way, you better snap the hell out of it by the time Christmas comes.”
And just like that, she stormed off into the house . . . leaving me sitting there with her words screaming in my head. Turning my attention to the red sky, I slowly shook my head. “Damn her,” I whispered. Knowing she was right.
After taking a horseback ride around the ranch with Lauren, Colt, and Scott, we headed back to the house. Lauren and Colt hadn’t shared their news with anyone yet and I knew they were bursting at the seams to do so.
Walking into the house, Jessie greeted us with a buffet spread of food. “Y’all are back just in time.”
Inhaling the heavenly scent, I moaned. “My goodness that smells good.”
“Take the job and you’ll eat like this every day,” Lauren whispered in my ear.
With a smirk, I looked over to Colt who was totally lost in the sea of food.
“Colt, why don’t you open a bottle of wine and pour each of us a glass,” Jessie said.
I froze, alongside Colt and Lauren. Jessie glanced up and looked at each of us. “Is something wrong?”
Lauren stumbled over her words. “Um . . . well . . . I um . . .”