Page 29 of Over the Moon

“Like I said, cocky athletes are not my thing. You’re bigger and stronger, I get it.” She huffed and turned around, giving me her back and stepping away.

Fuck. I was just kidding. I didn’t mean to piss her off.

“Brett Lewis was my best friend, and he fucked my high school girlfriend when we all went away for college. They’d gone to the same school, and apparently, they’d been sneaking around behind my back most of the first semester. One weekend, I went there to surprise them both and found them in her dorm room looking awfully cozy. I confronted her, and she admitted it.”

Eloise’s mouth hung open.

“Wow. That is some shady business right there.” She shook her head, and loud laughter bellowed from me.

Shady business.

That’s one way to put it.

“She said some bullshit about being in love with both of us, and she couldn’t handle the distance.” I shrugged because it was water under the bridge. “She and I had run our course. We just had a long history, so I wouldn’t have expected that kind of disrespect from her. But Brett, man… That one hurt. We were tight all our lives.”

“So what did you do?”

“I told both of them that I was done with them. She cried, and he just stood there, looking dumbfounded, like he couldn’t believe he was caught. And then he reached out two weeks later and came to see me. He told me he ended things with her because it was more about the chase, and they had nothing in common in the end.”

“Noooooo. He betrayed his best friend, and it was just about the chase?”

“Yeah, I would have had more respect for them if they’d really been in love, and it went the distance. So I knocked his ass out, and we’ve never spoken again.”

“He had it coming,” she said, shaking her head with disgust.

“Like I said, the dude is an asshole.”

“For the record, I wasn’t going to go out with him again. The date wasn’t great. He literally talked about you the entire time. He wanted to know how bad your injury was, and if you were dating, and how long you’d be in Rosewood River.”

“Way to win a lady over on the first date,” I said, not hiding my sarcasm. “So why the hell did you let me believe you were going out with him again?”

“I figured if I told you I was considering it, you’d tell me why you despised the guy.”

“So you lied to me? Weeze, lying for information would definitely push the boundaries of the ethical contract,” I chuckled.

Her lips turned up in the corners. “I stretched the truth.”

“So, how much did you tell him about me?”

“Nothing. Nada. Zilch.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m quite the vault when it comes to being discreet.”

“You’re a damn good professional friend, Weeze,” I chuckled.

“Right back at you, Hotshot,” she said.

“Chicken Fried” by the Zac Brown Band started playing, and I leaned forward, singing the chorus right in her ear as she swatted me away.

“Get your butt over to the pull-up machine and get ready for those arms to start burning.”

I’ve never enjoyed being tortured so much.

Eloise Gable could put my body through hell, and I’d just keep coming back for more.

eight

. . .

Eloise

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