Page 30 of My Almost Ex

I’m on my way to meet Alicia for breakfast the next morning when Nikki’s segment “Scandals of Sunrise” comes on the radio. I’m tempted to change the station, but I want to hear firsthand what she tells the town.

“Hey, Sunrise Bayers, it’s your host, Nikki Greene, with my co-host, Chip. Say hi, Chip.”

“Hi,” he says in that grumpy tone I think all the listeners love.

“How was your night?”

“Fine.”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on, Chip. You had to have done something. Watch television or anything?”

“Nope.”

“You’re telling me you didn’t even check out The Bachelorette last night? I thought that was your fave.” She laughs. Chip doesn’t. But she’s used to it—these are the roles they’ve perfected. “Well, I have some news for everyone that I need to share.”

“Do tell,” Chip says as if he’s thumbing through a newspaper and barely paying attention to her.

“Lucy Greene, aka Lucy Davis, is back in town. I know. I know. Most of you already saw her a few nights ago. As you all know, I’m Adam’s stepsister, so I was nice enough to let the excitement from her arrival die down so I could figure out what’s really going on before I reported on it. Exactly why did she greet Adam like nothing had happened when in fact she left him, causing him to spiral down into despair?”

“His new girl is a looker,” Chip says.

I chuckle for the first time. Alicia is hot, can’t argue that.

But she’s not Lucy.

I curse my subconscious and go back to listening.

“Alicia is pretty. But rumor has it that Lucy lost her memory after an accident and she’s here in Sunrise Bay to try to recover it. It’s no secret that Lucy’s family and my family don’t see eye to eye.”

“She hates your family’s guts,” Chip chimes in.

“Yes, but the wicked witch has left Oz after a fight outside SunBay Inn.”

“Tell Mandi that the fish fry on Friday was excellent.”

“Chip, let’s stay on task.” Nikki pauses. “But yeah, I agree about the fish fry.”

“Told you so.”

“Anyway, back to Sunrise Bay’s own Cory and Topanga. I love my stepbrother, but he’s been cold to Lucy the last few days.”

“A broken heart is hard to overcome.”

I shake my head at the fact he’s actually contributing to this.

“True. But I heard a juicy piece of information last night.”

“Just spit it out,” Chip says.

“Adam was seen going up to Lucy’s room at the inn after her mom left. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.”

My hands tighten on the steering wheel.

“You’re purposely stirring up gossip.”

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