Page 32 of The Bridges I've Burned

I bit into my bottom lip. “Well, not exactly. He asked me to leave with him, and in a moment of weakness, I said yes.”

Her eyes perked up. “I knew it! Man ban be damned!”

“I ditched him.” I grimaced. “When he was paying for our food, I wrote a note, apologizing, and ran out before he could come back.”

Marin stared at me, speechless.

“I know. I’m horrible. But I freaked, okay? All I could think about was all the horrible dates I’d been on recently, and then the last conversation with my mom about how frivolous I was came roaring back and?—”

Her face softened as she placed a mug in front of me. I’d finally gotten the courage to tell her about my true parentage six months ago. I’d been carrying the secret for years, unwilling to burden her with anything more. She’d taken it better than I’d expected, although I worried that I’d caused an even bigger rift between her and my parents with the revelation.

“It’s okay. Honestly, it was probably for the best,” she said.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Well, if you’d met some awesome guy and started a passionate affair, who the hell would help me with this seating chart?” She grinned, and at that moment, I couldn’t love her more.

“All right. Let’s do this thing,” I said just as the doorbell rang.

“Why did he call you Louie?” Marin asked as our order was called, and we walked to the counter to grab our food and coffee.

I held up my bag, and she laughed.

“Miss Louboutin,” I explained. “Stupid nickname he picked up when I wouldn’t give him my name.”

“That’s adorable,” she said with a familiar gleam in her eye.

“Don’t you even think about it,” I warned.

“I knew Ocracoke was small, but, damn, running into Macon’s brother the night he arrives in town? That’s?—”

“Awkward?” I offered as I swiped the drinks off the counter.

Marin grabbed the giant bag of pastries, and I tried not to roll my eyes. I knew we had vacated the house to give the men time to talk, but did she have to buy out the entire store? A few bear claws would have sufficed.

“No,” she argued. “Awkward would have been if you’d slept with him and then found him standing at our front door this morning.”

At least I would have gotten a good orgasm out of it.

’Cause that guy looked like he knew his way around a?—

Nope, not going there.

He was Macon’s brother and Marin’s future brother-in-law.

As if that wasn’t complicated enough, his words from last night kept coming back over and over.

“I’m not here to mend fences.”

I chewed on my bottom lip as we headed back toward Marin’s car, my mind a minefield of emotions.

“So, what are you going to do?” Marin asked.

“Me?” I asked as we both hopped in.

She placed the big bag of pastries in the back seat as I held the drink carrier in my lap, hoping and praying nothing sloshed on my expensive linen pants.

“Nothing,” I answered. “I’m going to do absolutely nothing. He’s only here for the next day, right? That’s less than twenty-four hours. I can act like an adult for that long.”

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