Page 8 of Chasing Forever
I go to shut the door again, but Romy plasters her hand on it. “What if it wasn’t?”
“Wasn’t what?”
“I see the way he looks at you, and I know you do too. You guys play these weird games with each other.”
I try to push the door shut again, but obviously she’s been doing some hardcore strength-training classes. “We were drunk. Stop romanticizing it, Romy. It was a stupid mistake that no one will ever find out about. We’re both taking this to our graves.”
A smile teases her lips. “I think you’re wrong.”
“Because you believe there’s such a thing as true love. That one day your white knight is going to gallop onto Plain Daisy Ranch and confess how he’s searched every square mile of land to find you.”
She giggles at the thought of it, and I seize the chance to finally slam the door shut and flick the lock.
Through the wood, her dreamy voice calls, “Just think about it, Lottie. The brother of the man who shattered your heart and your belief in love could be the one who pieces it back together. It’s so perfect, it could be a book.”
“Get your head out of the clouds, Romy, and come back to earth. It doesn’t work like that.”
I strip out of my dress and step under the hot spray of the shower, letting the water wash away the night, the memories, and most of all—Romy’s happily-ever-after fantasies.
Because real life doesn’t work that way.
It never has.
Chapter Four
Brooks
I thought maybe Bennett might take a nap, and I could bail on breakfast with him. No such luck. My new BFF is stuck to me like glue today.
We’ve eaten breakfast—where he couldn’t shut the hell up about those damn quiches. Then we walked the Strip and did some shopping, him buying Wren a souvenir—or five to make up for not going to Hoover Dam and taking pictures for her since he couldn’t get a rental.
I tried to suggest that maybe he call Lottie to meet up with us, but he didn’t take the bait, and now we’re walking into the lunch that Emmett and Briar put together before we ride to the airport to fly back to Willowbrook.
Lottie hasn’t messaged me, and it guts me when we walk into the restaurant and she’s not there yet. There’s so much I need to say to her. Things I should’ve said before last night.
“Nice disappearing act.” Ben shoulders up to me as we all wait for the hostess to make sure our private room is ready. “What happened with you and Lottie last night?”
Ben’s my best friend. I can trust him, but this situation is sticky, and there are some things I have to say to her first.
“Nothing.”
He rocks back on his heels, eyeing me as if I’m going to crack. He probably knows we hooked up, which honestly, I don’t even know if we did.
The fact that I could’ve finally touched Lottie, kissed her, and not remember? It’s the cruelest kind of punishment.
“Okay.”
“That’s it?” I should let it go like he is, but that’s never been my style. Sadly.
“I don’t really want to hear any details when it comes to my cousin anyway.”
He’s either being a solid best friend by not calling me out, or he really thinks we went our separate ways last night.
“Then maybe we can talk about Danson’s quiche obsession.”
Ben laughs. “Shit, he’s over there trying to convince Jenson to make them.”
Sure enough, I glance at Ben’s other cousin, and Bennett is talking and demonstrating with his hands the same way he did to me on the elevator ride down to breakfast this morning.
