Juicy Rebound (IceCats 1)

“Well, since he doesn’t talk to you, I don’t know how he could have.”

Nico beams. “I love her,” he whispers, and I nod.

“I talk to him daily,” Lana insists.

“No, you don’t. He changed his number.”

“Well, he gave the new one to me!” she yells, and Sadie barks. “You know he’s selfish, right? Won’t do anything for you.”

“I know no such thing. Chandler is very selfless and kind.”

“You’re lying. You’re just trying to save face in front of these people.”

“I’m not,” Amelia says, her voice smooth but stern. “You know, my dad always said, ‘The person who yells and gets upset is the person who’s more than likely wrong.’”

“I’m not wrong. Chandler was awful to me. Didn’t do anything for me, and he’ll do the same to you. He doesn’t love you.”

Now would be the perfect time to say I do, but I refrain. Again, I refuse to have an ex taint what Amelia and I have. “I don’t agree with you.”

“Well, I’m pregnant.”

I actually laugh. So does Nico. Amelia scoffs, and poor Sadie is still growling. “Not with Chandler’s child. I know for a fact he’s only had sex without a condom with me.”

Nico’s eyes widen, and I shrug. “I was cautious,” I whisper, and he chuckles.

“Loser.”

“Fuck off,” I throw back at him.

Another very frustrated noise leaves my ex-wife’s mouth. “How would you know that? We never used condoms.”

“Yes, you did. He told me, and I believe him. Also, when you feel a man come as hard as Chandler did the first time we were together, you’d know he’s never done it without a condom.”

Man, my girl is ruthless.

“But that’s neither here nor there. What did you need?”

“I wanted to see who was stealing my husband. Just some stupid whore he’ll blow through quick enough.”

I hate Lana. I do.

Amelia slowly takes in a deep breath and blows it out just as gradually. “So, nothing important? For someone who left him, you sure are obsessed with him.”

“I’m not obsessed. I just didn’t believe he’d actually moved on when my girl Gwen told me about you. So I had to see it for myself and warn you.”

I glare at the bathroom door where Kurri is taking a shower. Asshole.

Nico shakes his head. “I never did like Gwen.”

“Me either.”

With her voice strong and steady, Amelia says, “Well, no thanks. Don’t need your warnings. Chandler is wonderful. So toodle-oo.”

When I hear the door shut, I take the phone off speaker and stand as I put it to my ear. “Toodle-oo?”

Amelia laughs. “Pissed me off when Shelli said it. Figured it’d work on her.”

“I’m really sorry. She’s a fucking crazy person,” I say just as Nico starts singing the Psycho tune. “You know she was lying, right?”

“Can I call you back?”

“What? Why? Amelia—”

“I need to do something. I’ll call you back.”

When the line goes dead, I look to Nico. “She hung up on me. You think she believes Lana?”

“Surely not,” Nico says as the bathroom door opens and Kurri comes out.

He looks at me and then Nico as we glare back at him. “What?”

“Gwen told Lana about Amelia.”

He makes a face, his nose wrinkling. “Why’d she do that?”

“I don’t know!” I yell, holding out my hands. “Lana just went to my house and told Amelia a whole bunch of lies, and now Amelia hung up on me.”

Kurri lets out a whistle. “Well, that sucks.”

“It does!” I fall back onto my bed, covering my face. “Ugh. I hate people.”

Nico pats my chest. “I hear you. Let’s go eat. Food makes everyone happy.”

“No, I’m gonna stay here and order room service. I gotta clear my head before the game.”

“You sure? It’s not a big deal. Amelia is a smart girl. She’ll know Lana is an idiot.”

But will she? My biggest fear with Amelia is that Drew was mentally abusive to her. That kind of shit is hard to recover from, and it’s a huge blow to your confidence. I know. I watched my aunt go through it with her ex-husband. Amelia reminds me so much of my aunt with how she apologizes and gets worried about whether I’m mad. I don’t want that for her; I want her to know that I am with her one hundred percent and that I love her.

But fucking Lana may have ruined that.

I hate her.

I shake my head, covering my face with my hands. “No. I’m good. Go ahead.”

Nico groans. “Want me to stay?”

“No. I’m okay.”

“Fine,” he says, and when the door shuts behind them, I let out a heavy sigh. I’m half tempted to call my mom, but what would she do? There is really nothing I can do but wait for Amelia to call. I can only pray she didn’t believe Lana. But if that were the case, why didn’t she want to speak to me? I consider calling her back, but I don’t want to crowd her. She will call me back.