Crazy (The Gibson Boys 4)

“I’m not. I just expected …” She wiggles her brows. “You know. A little more of what I saw at the bar with a lot fewer clothes.” She waits for me to respond. When I don’t, she sighs. “Talk to me.”

“I thought talking disappointed you.”

I walk over to a settee next to an ad for handbags and take a seat. Navie wastes no time plopping down next to me.

Setting my potential purchases next to me, I ignore my friend for a moment. This conversation is not going where she thinks it is, and a part of me is a little embarrassed by that. She thinks I’m going to tell her that Peck and I talked about dancing together or … anything to do with us.

“We talked about Molly,” I say without looking at her.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Nope.” I twist my lips together and peer at her. “It’s just as well. I mean, she’s the elephant in the room with him, right?”

Navie rolls her eyes. “So what did he say? And if you tell me he said he loves her and all that shit, I’ll go kill him right now.”

“Not exactly.”

“Not good enough.” She starts to stand. “He’s dead.”

“Navie, stop,” I say, laughing.

“Why would he talk about Molly McCarter when he’s got you with him? Alone. In his house?” She shakes her head. “I don’t get it.”

“It’s my fault. I brought her up.”

Navie blinks. “Why?”

“She came up to us before I left the bar, and … it was a painful interaction. She’s … a lot.”

“She’s a whore.”

I focus on the lines in the tile on the floor.

She might be right. I don’t know Molly well enough to know if that’s true. But when I open my mouth to say something negative about her, I hear Peck’s voice telling me Molly’s history in the soft sensitivity he used last night. And I can’t do it.

Maybe I can’t do it because it feels like a betrayal to Peck and his opening up to me. And maybe I can’t because I kind of feel bad for her. Either way, I can’t.

“I don’t know what she is,” I say. “But Peck likes her, and that’s that.”

“I’ve never been fully convinced he actually does like her. For the record.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure he does.” I look up at Navie. “At least in certain ways. I don’t know. I just know I don’t need that negligee tonight. Or ever.”

My spirits sink as I speak the truth. Because it’s the truth.

“You don’t know that,” Navie insists. “Maybe seeing you in that would break the Molly spell.”

I lift the shirts I’m going to buy and lay them on my lap.

As Navie said, I was alone with Peck in his house with no other distractions. Except that’s not true. Because even though he clarified why Molly means so much to him, it didn’t mean her presence disappeared.

It’s so much a part of him. She’s so much a part of him. He could’ve kissed me. I wanted that kiss. But it’s not mine and probably never will be. And I can’t fault Peck for that. In fact, that loyalty, that … honor, it makes me like him even more.

“I wish there wasn’t a Molly spell,” I admit. “If there wasn’t, I’d be all over that. He’s … like sunshine. He makes you feel good.”

She snorts. “I bet he’d make you feel real damn good.”

I hit her with my shoulder.

“You need to take a chance,” she says.

“You’re right. I do. I deserve to be happy and in love. Or just to screw around if that’s what I decide to do. But … I owe it to myself to do that with someone who’s safe to do it with.”

She cocks a brow. “Define safe.”

“Do you know why Charlie left me?”

“Yup. Because he’s a narcissistic asshole.”

“Maybe, but he’s also a decent guy. And while I’m angry that he betrayed me to do it, he really just did what he thought was right for him. And I give him kudos, quietly,” I joke, “for doing it when he did and not dragging it out.”

She scoffs. “Your logic is irritating.”

I grin. “So the answer to my original question about why Charlie left me is that he went back to his first love.” My smile falters. “How do you really argue that?”

A flash of understanding billows through Navie’s eyes. She nods, her lips parting.

I stand. Tossing the clothes I want to purchase for my new job over my arm, I look down at my best friend.

“If I start a new relationship, I want to do it with a man who’s free and clear. One who doesn’t have some deep connection with someone else that I have to worry they’ll rekindle. I just want it to be easy. I don’t want to have to fight for a position.”