Page 109 of Driven Daddy

The smell would have dragged me over regardless. “Goddess.”

She took a sip from her glass of red. “Yes, I am.” She grinned. “So, I hear congratulations are in order.”

“Tentative congratulations.” I ripped open the one labeled for me. “We hope that Asher can make it work.”

“I have every confidence. Asher is one of those men who loves to innovate. Using the old printing presses for more than a weekly paper is probably making him salivate.”

“I hope so.”

She wandered over to where Larsen was in the living room. I came up behind Rita at the sink and wrapped my arms around her middle. “I kinda love that you get along so well with my best friend.” I glanced over to the two of them. “And our best friends get along too.”

“She’s not my?—”

I lowered my mouth to her neck. “She’s the first person you wanted to tell about today.”

She slipped out of my arms. “It’s not a big deal.”

I caught her hand and pulled her back to me. I kept my voice low. “It’s okay to have a best friend.”

She wouldn’t look at me, just stared at the dragon on my shirt. “I’m not made for friends like that.”

“You are.” I lowered to meet her gaze as I linked my hands at the base of her spine. “You are allowed to find a new friend. And you’re allowed to be giddy to tell her about your badass moment today.”

“It wasn’t anything.”

“It was. I bet six months ago you wouldn’t even contemplate sticking it to Jenelle.”

She sighed. “No. I probably wouldn’t have. I wanted it to be an amicable split.”

“Why? She didn’t deserve one.”

She lifted her gaze to mine, her green eyes so full of sorrow. “My therapist asked the same thing.”

“And what did you say?”

“It’s not about her, it’s about our readers.”

“Which is amazing and altruistic, but you matter. You matter more than anything.”

She stiffened in my arms.

“It’ll take awhile for you to believe it again.”

“I never believe,” she whispered.

“Then I’ll just keep telling you until you do.” I lifted her off her toes and kissed her. “Now go get a pair of those hot yoga pants on, and we’ll go hang with our friends.”

I got a smile this time, but it was still tentative. But she nodded and took off up the stairs.

When I turned around, I found Colette staring right at me.

“What?”

“You’re so sunk, pal.” She’d hunkered down on the end of the sectional with a TV tray she must have found.

“You’re probably right.” I shrugged. I was starting to enjoy the idea of us more and more every day.

I looked around and located the stack of tray tables, then grabbed one and my sandwich and sat down on a middle cushion.

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