Page 13 of Unstoppable You

Not that I blamed Connor’s parents for the way he turned out, but they certainly hadn’t helped. I’d watched him get away with everything in high school with a smile and charm and his lazy “I’m just a local boy” veneer. It didn’t hurt that his dad owned a car dealership and had a lot of local power and clout.

Great, now I was thinking about JamesandConnor. A recipe for a bad night. The worst night.

I threw myself into the shower and then put on a cute dress before making a little extra effort on my makeup and curling my hair before I pulled half of it up and away from my face.

Checking myself in the mirror hung on the back of my bedroom door, I grinned. Damn, I looked hot. The dress I had on hit me at just the right spot, making my legs look longer. Since I didn’t have to walk too far, I slipped into my cute shoes that weren’t that comfortable.

Hell yeah, I looked great. I’d say that looking this good was revenge on Connor, but he’d never really noticed my outfits or commented on them except to say that he didn’t like me showing too much skin because he thought it would make other guys look at me. Or that I was trying to attract other male attention and make him jealous. It was all ridiculous. I had been completely and totally faithful to him.

One terrible thought that sat in my stomach and woke me up some nights waswhat if that wasn’t the first time that Connor cheated on me?Most guys didn’t wake up one morning a few years into a relationship and think “oh, I’m going to meet a woman at a bar, tell her I’m single, and bring her back for sex while my girlfriend is out for the evening.”

There had been several other times that I had questioned, but he’d explained it away and turned the tables on me until I was the one apologizing. He’d bought flowers and had started being sweet and I’d just…let it go.

I’d let it go and now look where I was.

Fuck, I was still thinking about Connor! Angrily, I shoved my phone and my lip gloss in my bag for the night and shrugged into my jean jacket.

Tonight I was having drinks and wings with Larison and I was going to promise myself not to think or speak about Connor. Couldn’t make that rule about his sister, though.

Larison and I had far too much to discuss about James.

* * *

“You did not!”she gasped when I told her how many croissants and muffins I’d ordered.

“She’d said I could order whatever I wanted and I thought about it, but that would have been rude and the employees would have had to pack everything up, so I just settled for like, most of it.”

Larison laughed and shook her head, taking a sip of beer. I reached for another wing, my fingers already sticky and covered in sauce.

“And you didn’t bring any of them for me? Rude,” Larison said.

“Sorry. A few croissants and muffins are the least she could do after years of psychological torture.”

She winced. “Shit, I’m sorry. You’re right.”

I shrugged. “It’s water under the bridge.”

Larison gave me a long look that I didn’t like. I squirmed under her scrutiny and tried to cover it by drinking and then shoving another wing into my face.

“Is it, though?”

“Yes,” I said, after licking some sauce from my thumb. “It is.”

She seemed like she wanted to say something else, but she didn’t, and that was one of the reasons that Larison was my friend. When I asked her to drop something, she did. I didn’t have to ask her to do it very often. Most of the time, things could be brushed off with a smile and the knowledge that things would be better tomorrow. They always had been, in my experience.

My silver linings philosophy hadn’t failed me until now. It wasn’t working so well on my cheating boyfriend. Right now, the biggest upside was not having to do his laundry for him. I guess that was something.

“What is it?” Larison asked, and I realized I’d drifted off again. I hated how often that happened to me now. It was seriously frustrating.

“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head and giving her a smile. “Just thinking. How’s miss Juniper doing in her ballet class?”

One sure way to get Larison to speak about something else was to bring up her daughter. I absolutely adored that child and I needed a Laney and Juni day soon.

“Oh, she’s loving it. Reid is strict, but she’s getting into it. At this rate, we’re going to have to get a bigger place just so she can have a dance room. I’m already budgeting for shoes, so we’re going to have to keep planning more book events.” She rolled her eyes, but she was beaming.

We both laughed and settled into familiar territory. It was good to be out with my friend, to be doing something normal. The only bad part was that I had to go home to an empty and quiet apartment. Larison started yawning and I wanted to beg her to have another drink, to maybe go nearby and get some ice cream, but she needed to get home to her family.

“You can always come have a sleepover with us as long as you don’t mind Juni waking you up at the crack of dawn. I’ll cook you breakfast to make up for it.” While that was a wonderful idea, I wasn’t in the mood for it.

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