Page 25 of The Distiller's Darling

“Yeah, oh.”

“Fuck. I’m sorry I asked. Let’s pretend I didn’t.”

She shook her head, but her eyes remained guarded. “No, it’s okay. The thing is, I adore Naomi. She’s nice and funny, and she doesn’t take shit from anyone. I can appreciate that about her. She and Noah are really great friends, and I’m definitely not the kind of woman who tells her boyfriend he has to stop talking to someone who’s been in his life forever just because they used to have sex. I mean, I don’t love that she knows what his dick looks like, and I get tired of hearing about it from other people, but I trust him. And I trust her too, if that makes any difference in what you were going to ask.”

“That’s very …” He trailed off, at a loss for words. He couldn’t imagine how he’d react if put in a similar situation. Although, he kind of was now, wasn’t he? He wasn’t a permanent fixture in River Hill like Angelica was, but he did consider Noah a friend. Hearing that his friend and the woman he wanted to spend the next two months with had once been fuck buddies … well, he wasn’t particularly thrilled.

From the beginning, he’d known Naomi didn’t view sex the way most women he knew did. And Angelica was right—Naomi didn’t take shit from anyone. He liked that about her. In truth, he liked so many things about her.

But now he wondered if this new-found knowledge would be at the back of his mind the next time they were together. Assuming, of course, there was a next time. Going by recent events, he wasn’t really sure.

Angelica laid a hand on his bicep. “I won’t pry, but I will say this: Naomi is a really good person, and I consider her a friend. But she’s also super gun-shy about relationships. Noah’s told me about it, and she has, too. If you’re serious about her, you should probably go in with your eyes wide open. She’s not the type of person who makes promises of forever.”

Iain swallowed. That should have been music to his ears, but it wasn’t. For some strange reason, Angelica’s words settled in the pit of his belly like sludge. He didn’t understand why, so he pushed that feeling aside. “If that’s the case, it’s probably good that I’ll be gone in two months, then.”

She pulled her hand away and peered at him, one eyebrow raised in speculation. Eventually, she nodded once. “Yeah, it probably is.”

---