Page 24 of Trust Me With Forever

Every time I walked into Starry Eyes Bakery, I looked around to see if anyone was staring at me or pointing or whispering. It was stupid, but I always worried that someone would learn about what had happened with Travis in San Jose and it’d spread like wildfire. Sure, most of the town would have my back. However, there were always assholes who loved nothing more than to make others feel like shit so they could feel better about themselves.

Then I spotted Amber’s blonde head behind the counter. She waved at me, and I forgot about everyone else. After finishing with her customer, the other woman working took over and Amber rushed toward me. “Abby!” As soon as she was next to me, she whispered, “Let’s go upstairs so we can talk.”

There was a small one-bedroom apartment above the bakery that had been rented out to a former employee for years. But she’d recently moved away, and Amber had finally convinced her parents to let her live there instead.

Although, to be honest, I was surprised that her dad and stepmom had agreed to it. They took advantage of her kindness and need to take care of everyone and instead spent all their time and energy on her younger brothers.

Once inside her apartment, Amber blurted, “What happened with you and Rafe?” She glanced at my hand and added, “Where’s your ring?”

Since I’d been here a couple times before, I headed toward the kitchen and grabbed a soda from the fridge. After opening it and sipping a little, I finally replied, “It’s complicated. Explaining it will take a while, so we’d better sit down.”

Amber plopped onto the couch, hugged a pillow to her chest, and said, “Start talking.”

I quickly recapped waking up married, my lack of memories, and my agreement to remain married to Rafe for a year. Once I finished, Amber frowned. “Wait, so it’s all for pretend?”

“Yes, and it’s a secret from everyone but you, me, and Rafe. If the truth leaks out, the press will have a field day and that’ll defeat the purpose of our year-long marriage—to protect the reputation of Rafe’s business.”

“Of course I won’t tell anyone.” She leaned forward. “But just promise me, Abby, that you aren’t doing this because of your childhood crush on Rafe. He’s not the same person he once was, and I don’t want to see you get your heart broken again.”

Ignoring the latter part, I replied, “I know Rafe’s not the same person. I barely notice he’s a guy at all.” Amber raised her blonde eyebrows, and I added, “Well, okay, he’s hot and I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t sleep with him. Just once, mind you. But men and trust and relationships aren’t for me.”

She took one of my hands and squeezed. “I wish you’d tell me more about the asshole who hurt you, Abby.”

I studied her brown eyes and hesitated. Amber was probably the person I knew the least out of the BFF Circle. Not because she wasn’t one of my dearest friends, far from it. After coming back from San Jose, she brought food and stayed every day until I finally ate something.

However, she was the quietest in the group, the peacekeeper, and probably had trouble being heard when there was Katie and, until recently, me, since I’d been loud as well.

I blurted, “I’m sorry, Amber.”

She frowned. “For what?”

“For probably steamrolling you more times than either of us could count.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She shrugged. “I enjoy watching you and the others argue with each other. I’m better than I was, but I’ll never be the outgoing personality or the center of attention. And you know what? That’s okay. It’s taken me dating Jay to realize that.”

I smiled. “I’m glad you found a guy who appreciates you.”

In other words, I was happy she’d finally gotten over my clueless brother Zach.

She cleared her throat. “Well, mostly. I don’t know if Jay is my forever, but I’m willing to see where it goes.” She gestured toward me. “But right now, we’re talking about you. What happened in San Jose, Abby? If I’m to help you and Rafe keep up your ruse, then I need to know as much as possible. I swear I won’t tell anyone.” She put up her pinky. “Pinky swear I won’t tell anyone.”

Smiling, I hooked my pinky around hers and shook. As kids, we’d done pinky swears all the time; they were extremely serious for us.

Once we both released each other, I sipped my soda again and sighed. “Well, here’s what happened…”

And I proceeded to tell her about falling for Travis, thinking we were in love and would get married, and his ultimate betrayals of announcing his engagement to someone else and later his blackmail.

By the end, Amber stood up, threw her pillow to the ground, and stomped on it. “I’m going to fucking kill that bastard.”

I blinked. “Um, what?”

She paced the room, gesticulating wildly. “How dare he! He’s probably taken advantage of other intern teachers before. Maybe I should look into it. If there’s a way to bring him down withoutusing your name, then he would finally get what he deserves without hurting you.”

I also stood. “Now, now, I know you love true crime podcasts and like to do online research for stuff. But please, Amber, promise me you won’t do this. Rafe already said he’d take care of Travis, and no offense, but he has a lot more resources and contacts.”

“I won’t do anything to embarrass you, but I’ll quietly tap my own resources.”

“Amber…”

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