“You have friends?”
“Hah.” I sit on the floor and take off my heels. “I might have one or two left in this town.”
Libby hands me a doll. “Play birthday party with me!”
“For a few minutes,” I tell her, taking the Barbie.
“Was this friend tall, handsome, and has a name rhyming with Smowen?”
“Smowen? Really?”
“That’s not a word, Mommy,” Libby says pointedly. “Did you have a sleepover with that man with the ducks?”
Carly snorts a laugh. “Ducks, right. That’s what you were doing wasn’t it, sis. Looking at his ducks.”
“They are geese and yes, I did stay there. But mostly so Tulip could get some peace and quiet and also because it was storming and you know how I’m still scared of storms.”
“You don’t have to be scared of storms.” Libby pats my hand. “Thunder is just God bowling.”
“Right.” I smile and nod. “I’ll remember that next time.”
“Honey, do you want a snack?” Carly asks Libby, who nods. Waving me into the kitchen, Carly grabs my arm and pulls me around the fridge. “You slept with Owen! What? I mean, not that I blame you, but what?”
“I didn’t sleep with him,” I press. “He invited me over for dinner and by the time I went to leave, it was pretty late and storming. He offered up the guest room for me, and I was more or less alone the whole night.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means, he came in and sat with me when the storm was at its worst. He knows I’m scared of storms.”
“And he didn’t try to make a move?”
“Nope. He was a perfect gentleman.” My heart swells a little when I say the words out loud.
“That’s pretty sweet, actually.”
“I suppose.”
“It’s irrefutable evidence or whatever you lawyers would call it. Are you going back tonight?”
“Tulip is there, so I am, but I’ll probably come back home.”
“Wait, he’s babysitting your cat too?”
“Yeah. He doesn’t have any pets and said it’s not a big deal.”
“Sounds like he’s really trying.” She opens the fridge and takes out a bowl of grapes.
“He tried before.” I pick a grape off of the bunch and pop it in my mouth. “Do you remember how I barely survived our breakup?”
“I do. You kind of went all Bella Swan and didn’t eat or sleep or shower.”
“I was not that bad, but I’ll admit, I felt like my heart had been literally ripped out of my chest. But what hurt even worse was coming home later that year, still just barely surviving, and hearing about how Owen had slept with half of Eastwood.”
“I remember that too. You drank all the wine I’d been saving for Easter dinner.”
“I still don’t like Merlot because of that.” Letting out a deep breath, I break off a few more grapes, watching Carly cut a few in half to give to Libby. “That hurt cut deep, though, knowing how easily he was able to move on. I didn’t so much as look at another guy for over a year.”
“Did you ever think that was his coping mechanism?”
I look at my sister incredulously. “You’re defending him?”
“No, not at all, and if it was his coping mechanism, it’s kind of piggish, but that was a long time ago.”
“People don’t change.”
“No, not really. But they grow. Just look at you.”
“I’m pretty much the same person I was in high school.”
Carly laughs. “Physically, you really haven’t aged much, which is totally unfair. I mean, look at how perky your boobs are and you have no stretch marks.”
“I haven’t had three kids, either.”
“But what I’m saying is, look at how far you’ve come. You moved to New York, Char. That’s huge!”
“But now I’m back.”
“Right, because you were mature enough to put your pride aside and admit the city life wasn’t what you wanted. I know how hard quitting your job and coming back home was. And we both know you could have moved to a new part of the city, gotten another fancy job, and lived your life fairly confident you’d never run into Todd again.”
What she’s saying is true. You can blend in like the best of them in the city, and I’d already been approached by another firm about joining them.
“All I’m saying,” she goes on, “is that I like having you back in Eastwood, and part of me wants you to get back together with Owen so you have a reason to stay. And I want you to be happy too. He made you happy once.”
He did. But he also broke my heart into a million tiny pieces.Chapter 23OwenThere’s no way Charlie is going to be at the house. I pull into the neighborhood with my heart beating faster and faster the closer I get to home. I want to hold her again, to see her pretty smile and sparkling eyes.
The garage lights illuminate the front of the house, and to my surprise, that old Mustang is parked in the driveway. My heart leaps and I have to talk down my dick. It’s late and I’m sure she’s sleeping. She’ll be up and gone by the time I wake in the morning, and it’ll be like she wasn’t even there.