Page 54 of The Forever Formula
“These two beers will be celebration beers,” he said with a grin.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
He shook his head as if shaking off a thought. “The meeting today. You didn’t even bother to ask.”
“Shit, sorry. It’s good news then?”
Austen beamed. “Better than good. We got the deal, and they bought out every single bottle of our stock from this year.”
“Well, that is good news,” I managed to say, holding up my glass to clink it against his.
“You aren’t even smiling.” He frowned before taking a sip of the bubbly golden liquid.
I shrugged. “It’s one of those days.”
“So you keep saying,” he reminded me with a suspicious look. Changing the topic, he nodded to the door. “See who’s here?”
CJ had just walked in with two friends.
If I called her over, CJ would flirt with me. It would be easy enough to take her home, something I’d done plenty of times before out of loneliness.
I watched as she ordered a round of shots with her friends. She caught me looking and smiled, giving me the go-ahead. She hadn’t stayed mad at me for being with another woman. Why should she? We weren’t exclusive.
Hell. Is that what was happening with Rachel? Had I not taken my shot? Did she think we were not an item and ...
No. I shook off the thought. It was stupid. That was her ex-fiancé. Not some fuck buddy from the bar. She had agreed to become that man’s wife. That meant something.
CJ looked over my way again and I stared at her, my face impassive. Hell, I might have been frowning. I could have CJ tonight, if I wanted. I could use her to forget all about Rachel.
But it wasn’t CJ that I wanted.
It was Rachel.
24
RADIO SILENCE
Rachel
Iwoke up with red puffy eyes. How long had I cried? My whole face looked blotchy.
I made my way to the kitchen and grabbed two cubes of ice from the freezer and held them over my eyes. They began to melt instantly, but they felt incredible.
My alarm rang on my phone then, reminding me that I’d happily agreed yesterday to see Noah’s mom this morning.Excellent.
At least it was unlikely that Noah would be there. I hoped.
I slathered my face in makeup to hide the crazy splotches and puffy eyes as best I could, and then walked over to the Hart house. I was going to have to wear my big-girl pants today and buck up.
There was no erasing the past, and these were my neighbors now. At least that much still felt right, being here. I was going to perk up, even if I wasn’t sure about Noah’s intentions anymore.
“There she is,” Natalie said brightly.
She ushered me to the sunroom, which was oddly warm for October, and handed me a cup of coffee. I gratefully sipped the warm liquid as Dottie’s little chihuahua, Mrs. Biggles, hopped into my lap. Thankfully, I managed to keep all the coffee in my mug and avoided scalding the tiny white creature.
“How are things going over there? Noah said it was looking beautiful.”
“Did he?” I asked, my ears perking up at his name.
