Page 87 of A Lesson for Laurel

“If you wash my back in the shower. I’m sweaty and need to get out of these clothes.”

He was pulling his shirt over his head. “I’ll beat you in there.”

29

SOMETHING SO MUCH BETTER

“Easton?”

He turned his head four days later at the sound of Rachelle’s voice.

Seriously!

He’d run out of laundry detergent and ran to the store. It was seven at night and he only needed a few things. He would have put it off, but he was going to be gone this weekend and there was no way he could wait to do laundry when he got back on Sunday.

“Hi, Rachelle,” he said.

His ex looked at his cart. There were a few things besides the box of Tide Pods.

“Waited till the last minute again, didn’t you?”

He lifted one eyebrow at her. “That’s why you called my name in the store? To chastise me about running out of something and not having a backup in place already?”

It was an annoying pet peeve of hers. She took care of most of the groceries, but if he used something of hers and didn’t tell her it was out or low and she had to run out on a day that wasn’t her normal day to go, it would start a fight.

He’d normally walk out and go buy it and come back and put it away without saying a word.

The stupid shit they had issues with.

“No,” Rachelle said. “But you always waited until you were out of something before you bought it.”

“It’s not your concern anymore,” he said, his eyes dropping to her left hand and seeing the diamond there. It was a simple solitaire. He held back the grin. She had hinted more than once about the big diamond she expected him to buy her.

Flashy and expensive. Something to show off.

She didn’t get what she wanted.

“I guess,” Rachelle said.

“Hey, honey. I didn’t know where you went.”

The fiancé moved over and put his arm around Rachelle. A man much smaller than him. The two of them sized each other up.

“Sorry,” Rachelle said. “I was just coming.”

“I’m Connor Finch,” his ex’s fiancé said, holding his hand out. “And you are?”

He snorted. “Easton Cooke. The man that was with Rachelle when you two started to get close.”

He wouldn’t say an affair. He wanted to believe she didn’t cheat on him, but emotionally Rachelle did. Physical meant nothing at this point.

“Oh,” Connor said. He was frowning. “You don’t look anything like the picture that was on her desk.”

He wanted to laugh at this asinine conversation.

He knew the picture that had been on Rachelle’s desk. It was of them at a coworker's wedding, both of them dressed in black tie attire. He was cleanly shaven that day too. Unlike now. He had a nice trim beard going. He was getting close to shaving it off with the weather getting warmer, but Laurel had made more than one comment about how sexy she found it.

Maybe he’d keep it a bit longer.

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