Wright Rival (Wright)

I handed him the keys to his truck. I considered hugging him one last time, but I couldn’t make myself do it. I didn’t want him to think it was encouragement. So, I swallowed hard and walked away.

Blaire pulled up beside me on the road. She rolled the window down. “That was faster than I thought it would be.”

I got into the passenger seat. “Longer than I wanted it to take.”

“He didn’t take it well?”

I shook my head and stared out the window. “I found an engagement ring.”

“What?” Blaire gasped.

Blaire had been my best friend since college. Even though she was three years younger than me, we’d hit it off and never looked back. I’d been there to help her get her business, Blaire Blush, off the ground. And watch her cross a million followers on Instagram. I’d seen her recently hit three and a half million on TikTok. She was infectious and incredible and empowering for all women everywhere. I loved that about her. And that she’d never told me to ditch Bradley long ago when I was still trying to figure out what the hell we were doing.

“Yeah. That’s why I was outside so long and why I took Hollin’s shirt. Because Bradley was going to propose.”

“Talk about a curveball,” Blaire said as she parked her silver Lexus in the garage beside my blue Jeep Wrangler.

“Yeah. Hollin asked if Bradley was going to propose, and I freaked out.”

“Wait,” Blaire said as we entered my house, “Hollin saw the engagement ring?”

“He did.”

“Ah.” She blew out a breath. “No wonder.”

“What?”

“He was in rare form tonight.”

“He was the same asshole as always.”

Blaire flipped her long black hair off her shoulder. “If you say so.”

“I don’t want to talk about Hollin.”

“Fine. Tell me about Bradley.”

“I don’t want to talk about him either.”

Blaire laughed. “I bet I have some ice cream in the freezer.”

She went to look, and I went into my bedroom to change out of these clothes. I chucked the tight jeans onto my bed and slowly unbuttoned Hollin’s shirt. I brought the fabric up to my nose and inhaled. It smelled like him. I didn’t know what cologne he used, but it made my mouth water. It was so heady. As if I could fall back into a forever dream at the mere scent of it.

I hastily stripped out of the shirt and threw it on top of my jeans. I needed to get this under control. It didn’t matter that Hollin’s cologne turned me on. Or that I’d worn the shirt all night. Or that Blaire had been right…that he’d been in rare form. He’d pressed every single button and not backed off all night. He’d wanted a reaction from me, and I’d given them all to him.

“Okay,” Blaire called from the kitchen. “Looks like Jennifer killed the cookie dough.”

I tugged on sweats and a Texas Tech sweatshirt. “Strawberry?”

“Yes. There’s a pint of strawberry and chocolate, cherry, pecan.”

“A scoop of both?”

“You got it.”

She doled out ice cream into fancy martini glasses and brought them over to the couch. She positioned them just this way, snapping a few shots.

She guiltily looked up at me. “Sorry, work…”

“I’m used to you taking pictures of everything before we can enjoy it.”

She laughed. “Yeah. Well, after a breakup is different. I should be in the moment.”

“You’re here. You have ice cream. Good enough for me.”

No matter how laid-back Blaire was, she always worried that her carefully curated life interfered too much in real life. But I didn’t care. It never changed anything about our time together.

My mind snagged on one thing that Blaire had said. “What do you mean, no wonder about Hollin? That he was in rare form?”

“Well, he’s into you,” Blaire said with an unapologetic shrug. “Like…he was acting like that because the ring freaked him out.”

I dug my spoon into the ice cream. “Hollin is just pissed that I’m one of the few girls who won’t give him the time of day.”

“He doesn’t act like that around me,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, but it’s different.”

“Not to play the minor celebrity card”—she gestured to herself—“but after a few million followers, I have discovered that guys and girls find me attractive. I could be dating right now. But Hollin Abbey doesn’t even look at me. He’s into you.”

“So? I’m not into him,” I insisted.

Blaire pointed her spoon at me. “You think he’s hot.”

“He is.”

“You like the way he smells.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. I hated that I’d told Blaire that once. “And? It doesn’t change what he did.”

Before Blaire and I lived together, I’d lived with these two girls, Quinn and Khloe. When Quinn asked me about Hollin, I told her what I knew about him. He was a year older than me in school. We’d never associated before the Wright cousins moved here, but I’d heard that he was a good guy. He hadn’t had his sleeve tattoo. He was still so tall but less muscular. I told her to go for it.