Page 102 of Until It Was Real

Eli pays me just fine. But she won’t be hearing from me why I’m living in this crummy owner’s suite.

“I have moonshine or beer. Your choice.” Blossom holds up a bottle of beer in one hand and a bottle of moonshine in the other.

“I don’t drink.”

Paisley nods. “A good decision considering your condition.”

Blossom drops the bottles onto the kitchen counter with a gasp. “You’re pregnant? Rhett dumped you when you’re pregnant? I’m going to kill him. He can join Jaxon at the bottom of a nameless grave.”

“Whoa. No killing necessary. I’m not pregnant.”

Blossom’s brow furrows. “Then, what condition is Paisley referring to?”

“She has diabetes.”

I glare at Paisley. “How do you know?”

She shrugs. “It’s obvious. You always carry hard candy and juice boxes with you. You don’t drink. And I’ve noticed a bandage on your finger a few times.” She clears her throat and pushes her glasses up her nose. “The question I have is, why do you keep your disease a secret. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Easy for her to say. She wasn’t rejected time and time again for adoption. She doesn’t know how it feels to have a couple claim to want to adopt you and then change their minds once they learn your mother was a drug addict.

“I don’t care why you kept it secret.” Blossom pushes a glass of juice into my hands. “I care why Rhett dumped you because you have diabetes. What a jerk! He’s worse than his brother.”

Paisley purses her lips. “Eli is a good man.”

Blossom waves away her objection. “I wasn’t speaking about Eli.”

“Ah, yes.” Paisley nods. “Your ‘agreement’ with Jaxon.”

Blossom scowls. “There’s no agreement with Jaxon.”

Paisley snorts. “And Dakota isn’t heartbroken about Rhett either.”

They turn toward me and I hold up my hands. Juice spills over the side of the glass and splashes on my top. “Ugh. Klutzy Dakota strikes again.”

Blossom throws a towel at me, and Paisley snatches my juice away.

“Don’t think you’re getting out of this conversation by spilling on yourself,” Blossom says as I blot my blouse with the towel.

My shoulders fall. “What do you want to know?”

She sits next to me on the sofa and grasps my hand. “Why didn’t you tell Rhett? You love him. You shouldn’t keep secrets from each other.”

“You make it sound easy.”

Paisley barks out a laugh. “Falling in love isn’t easy. I watched all of my friends fall in love and thought it was the easiest thing ever. But it’s not.”

I sigh. “I don’t know. Falling in love with Rhett was pretty easy. I thought after…” I shake my head. I’ve never told my friends about my dead husband.

“After what?” Blossom pushes.

“I’m a horrible friend.”

Paisley’s brow wrinkles. “How did we go from you telling us about loving Rhett to you being a horrible friend?”

“I’ve been keeping secrets from you. Friends don’t keep secrets from each other.”

Blossom shrugs. “There’s a difference between keeping secrets and things you haven’t told us yet because you’re always working and we haven’t known you long.”

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