Page 21 of Should Have Been Me

“Yeah. For sure. Of course not.”

“I’m glad you’ve put yourself out there again. Barrett wasn’t worth your time, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried when I heard he’d gotten engaged to someone else.”

And that someone else just so happened to be my new fake boyfriend’s half-sister. How was that the world I was living in?

“You deserve to be happy, sweetie. That’s all I want for you.”

My stomach dropped to the floor while my heart lodged itself in my throat. “You know, I don’t have to be in a relationship to be happy, right? I mean, I’ve got a lot of other good things in my life. My happiness isn’t dependent upon a man.”

“Oh, honey. Of course not. I know you don’t need to be in a relationship to be happy. But I also know my girl is a romantic at heart. You watched Pretty Woman and that How to Lose a Guy movie so many times when you were younger, you could quote them from memory.”

“That’s because those are awesome movies,” I defended, knowing in my gut she was right. I watched movies like that because I wanted a man to love me the way the heroes in those movies loved their women. I wanted the big grand gesture. I wanted to be the girl walking down the street that someone noticed and couldn’t get out of his head.

Ugh.

“Anyway, whether this man is the one or not, I only want to make sure he treats you right. That nut-less bastard never deserved you.”

“Mom!” I sputtered, my jaw dropping in shock at the way she spoke about my ex. She wasn’t wrong, of course, but Lorene Prescott was known for being sweet as sugar.

“Do I lie?” she asked in that stern mother voice of hers.

I let out a sigh. “No,” I relented. “You don’t lie.”

“Exactly. Now, I’ll expect you to bring your new man to dinner this week. Jean from Bunko was all too happy to rub my face in my lack of knowledge, so I expect to be able to pay her back next game night.”

My back shot straight, my foot falling back to the floor with a thud. “Uh. I-I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. I mean, we’re still so new. I don’t think we’re at the meet the parent phase of things yet.”

“Don’t be silly. Any man who kisses you in public the way he did is more than ready to meet your mom and dad. I’ll make my famous lasagna. Talk to him about it and get back to me.”

“But, Mom?—”

“Oh, gotta go! Doris from book club is calling on the other line. I need to let her know I’m well aware of my daughter’s new boyfriend before that Jean gets to her. Talk soon, sweetheart. Love you!”

After blowing a quick kiss through the line, she hung up, leaving me wondering how the hell I was going to track down my fake boyfriend and pay him back for screwing up my life.

11

VAUGHN

The room we were sitting in wasn’t so much a room as it was a small curtained off section of the third floor, tucked back into a corner, but at least Hershel had privacy. And his own television that he could watch while he sat in a leather recliner that looked about as comfortable as a folding camp chair, getting poison pumped into his veins for the next three hours.

Some reality baking competition played at a low volume on the TV as my fingers flew over the keys on my laptop, using the spells where my father dozed off to get some work done. I hadn’t realized just how much these chemo sessions took out of him. I’d spent the first hour after he’d been hooked up to the IV trying to swallow down the lump of cement that had formed in my throat at the sight of him in that goddamn chair, a blanket draped over his lap because he couldn’t seem to stay warm as the drugs worked their way through his body.

It was hard to look at him. He just seemed so fragile.

“You know, you work too much.”

My head came up, my eyes colliding with Hershel’s. If I had a dollar for every time I heard that, my status as a millionaire would have been catapulted to billionaire by now.

I shook off the comment, knowing he hadn’t meant anything by it. “Hey. Sorry.” I quickly saved the draft of the email I’d been working on and folded the top of the laptop down. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

He adjusted in the chair, letting out a frustrated grunt as he tried to get comfortable. “You didn’t. It’s impossible to conk out for too long. Damn chair is hard enough to make my ass fall asleep.”

I slid the computer into my bag and started to stand. “Do you want me to get an extra pillow? Or maybe they have a more comfortable chair somewhere. Give me a minute and I’ll take care of it.” It would have given me something to do, to make me feel useful. I wasn’t used to feeling helpless, but that was how I felt, sitting in my father’s little room, watching him receive his treatment.

He chuckled and waved me back down into my own uncomfortable chair. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine, really. You don’t need to go harassing the nurses.”

“Who said anything about harassing them?”

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