Page 122 of Unexpected

Margarita could have come out of my nose with the way I gasped when she added the final confession. “What?” I asked between coughs and gasps.

She nodded slowly; an unamused smile perched on her lips. “Yup, all three of us together, and it wasfucking amazing.”

My jaw was slack, and I honestly had no words. For once in my life, I was fucking speechless. “Wait, so what happened afterward?”

“Afterward, we didn’t really talk about it. It hasn’t really come up since then, and I’m hoping it won’t. Friendsgiving was the first time either of them has said anything about it, really.”

“You mean Reed hasn’t said anything? Josh seemed to insinuate pretty heavily that he wants something, right? That’s what he meant by a second chance.”

She rolled her eyes and paused the story as the waiter dropped off our steaming plates of food and grunted after we thanked him.

“I’m guessing so. Reed has stayed quiet, but there’s been a change there. I haven’t wanted to ask, though, because if anything happens, it’ll fuck up our entire dynamic and everyone will be pissed. I thought it was an unspoken rule between the three of us—we weren’t going to talk about that one time at the lake.”

I shrugged and blew on a bite of the creamy cheese enchiladas that my mouth was watering for.

“If you weren’t worried about how it would impact your group, what would you want to do?”

Amanda stopped chewing midbite and gave me a quizzical look. She set her fork back down and the furrow in her brow deepened further.

“I seriously haven’t even thought about it because there’s no point. It doesn’t matter what I would want; it would ruin everything.”

“I really don’t think it would ruin everything. Everyone seemed pretty accepting and you all genuinely care about each other. If you wanted to be with either of them, then I’m sure they’d accept it and support you.”

Her shoulders slumped and she put her head in her hands, leaning over her plate. “I don’t know, Hazel. If they both pursued me, I don’t know if I’d be able to choose. And choosing one over the other could mean breaking one of their hearts.”

My enchilada had finally cooled off enough that I could take a bite, and I moaned when the gravy and cheese hit my tongue.

“I think it would be worth it if you feel like one of them could be your person.”

“Yeah, one of them…” she murmured around another bite of food before looking off to the side. Even though I didn’t know Amanda all that well, I did know the look in her eye well enough. There was something she wasn’t telling me, and it seemed like it had everything to do with choosing between the two men.

Changing the subject abruptly, Amanda turned back to me and asked, “So you’re staying here for Thanksgiving this year? Not going home?”

Home, that was a loaded word. I hadn’t lived in my parents’ house for nearly ten years, so that felt less like home and more like their house. And then, moving to Austin, I figured the house Michael bought for us would be our home, but it never felt that way. The closest I’d gotten in the last ten years to feeling like I was at home was my college dorm and then my new one-bedroom apartment.

“No, I’m staying here. Since I just moved in, I didn’t want to travel right now, and I don’t want to even think about running into Michael.”

Amanda nodded in understanding. I’d given her the CliffsNotes version of the story between Michael and me and how Luke and I had transitioned from neighbor enemies to whatever the hell we were. In the middle of a dressing room, with clothes strewn everywhere, she quietly listened to everything I had to say. She’d been open and genuinely concerned for me and how I was doing after the fact. And there was something about Amanda that made me want to be open and share my story with her.

“That makes sense. So, you’ll be with Josh and Luke then?”

“Yeah, it’ll just be the three of us. It’s the first Thanksgiving in almost ten years that I’m not going up to Nashville, but I just can’t manage it. Even thinking about going up there and seeing all the places where Michael and I have so many memories, along with the possibility of seeinghim, it’s too much. My family was going to come down, but that changed.”

“You know, with everything Luke’s been through, it doesn’t surprise me that he was drawn to you. Don’t get me wrong, you’re an absolute catch, and I’m not sure there is a person better suited for him than you. But I think people who are similar are drawn to one another, especially when your experience almost mirrors someone else's.”

“You mean with everything he went through with Valerie,” I said, remembering that I’d had the same thought not too long after he told me about her.

“Absolutely, yes. Once we really got to know her, none of us liked Valerie all that much. She ended up being controlling, manipulative, and selfish, along with a million other nasty words. Even Blakely, who was honestly the closest to her, took Luke’s side seeing who Valerietrulywas. What he went through was horrible and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, but there is also everything with his parents. That can really fuck a kid up, you know?”

For a split second, I paused before continuing to take a sip of my drink. She’d mentioned the infernal question I’d had spinning around in my head—the reason why Luke sought out fighting and told me he was a messed-up kid.The one topic he refused to broach.

The need to know vibrated inside of me, and I was sure that if I played it right, Amanda would tell me. But that also seemed like I was going behind Luke’s back. I knew he should be the one to tell me and he probably had a reason for not doing so, but I heard the words, “Right, his parents,” come out of my mouth before I knew what I was doing.

My voice was confident, and Amanda didn’t suspect the actual question my words held.

“Everything with Valerie was just the icing on top of the cake, really. Growing up in a house like he and Josh did with a constantly pissed-off father who beat their mother had to wear on them both. Luke really protected Josh from a lot of it, though, even after he found his parents in their bedroom.”

All the background noise in the restaurant went silent as I replayed each of Amanda’s words over again in my head. He found his parents? I’m assuming she means that he found them dead, but how did they die?

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