And Kate.
Even Patrick had called from Boston.
Damn it, Riley.
Still, he supposed that was a good sign. They’d still called him instead of showing up at his door with torture devices.
And nobody had threatened death, so that was a positive.
Except … none of them had been Liam, so she hadn’t told him.
She’d left that to him.
He didn’t know if he was incredibly grateful or disappointed.
“So what did the article say?” Sam hated himself for asking, but maybe it was better that he hear about it here and now, where Liam’s fist would prevent him from doing what he wanted more than anything.
Which was going to her.
“Honestly?” Liam asked, flipping through the pages. “It’s got kind of a man-hating thing going on. Apparently this guy stomped on her heart, but Riley, being Riley, isn’t heartbroken. She’s pissed. And she let the entire Stiletto readership base know it.”
Sam tossed back the rest of his drink.
Her heart wasn’t broken?
His chest felt like it was splitting further and further apart every day.
Sam flicked his finger toward the bartender. Another.
“Give me the magazine.”
“What?”
“Give. Me. The. Magazine.”
Liam slid the glossy pages in front of him, and Sam’s eyes went first to the tiny picture of Riley next to her name, his eyes taking in her perfect, familiar features. She was smiling here. She hadn’t been smiling when she’d called him on his bullshit and walked away.
He hadn’t been smiling when he’d let her.
His eyes finally moved up to the bolded headline.
CAUGHT IN A BAD ROMANCE
The anger in the headline surprised him a bit.
Well then. At least she was finally getting it. Good.
But the ache in his throat didn’t feel good. Especially when his eyes skimmed over the bolded highlights of the article’s content.
“… I fell in love with a boy—but it took me more than ten years to realize the boy never grew into a man.”
Ouch.
“I thought if I just said the right things and did all the right girlfriend things, that he’d love me back. But listen up, ladies: No tips and tricks between these pages can fix a broken soul. Don’t break yourself trying.”
Broken? He was only broken when he wasn’t with her.
“For a long time I mourned the loneliness of not being in a relationship, but I’d rather have no romance than be caught in a bad one …”