Page 33 of Terms + Conditions
“If you were so in love with her, why have you never come around before now?” Georgie pushes.
“Not like I had much opportunity.” Elijah scoffs. “You’ve canceled every trip planned the past few years, and we don’t all have the luxury of being able to take off work on a whim.”
“He sounds like you, Joshua,” Georgie throws my way. I roll my eyes at her smirk; she knows I fucking hate it when she calls meJoshua.
“We can’t all be rich heiresses, Georgina.” Her face falls flat when I use her legal name, and I match the smirk she had moments ago.
“No, but you made sure to marry one, huh?”
“Georgie,” Elizabeth warns.
“Enough!” Selena interrupts. “Before one of you breaks out the rulers to see whose is bigger.”
“Oh, don’t worry, we all know Georgie’s is bigger,” I taunt. “That’s why Jonah didn’t stick around.”
“Oh, fuck you, Josh,” Georgie hisses, pushing up from the table.
“Josh.” Elizabeth sighs and follows her friend.
Was it a low blow? Sure, but that’s what Georgie and I do. We taunt each other and go back and forth, eventually ending in agood laugh. It’s never supposed to be taken to heart. But I guess bringing up Jonah was crossing some kind of line.
Elijah and Jeremy share a look, both confused about what in the hell just happened. “Who’s Jonah?” Elijah asks, and Selena rolls her eyes.
“Welcome to Couples Weekend,” Lola says to no one in particular, and downs the wine in her glass.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
NOW
I’D LIKE TO HAVE a word with Mother Nature about this cold weather. We live in the South for godsake. I know it’s mid-December, but why is it thirty-six degrees? The breeze cuts through my hoodie and sweats as I slow my pace a few hundred yards from the boardwalk that leads back up to the house. My heart beats against my chest, and now that I’m not running, the sweat has started to form along my hairline. It doesn’t get very far with the cold breeze that blows in from the water.
Last night was the opposite of what this weekend was supposed to be about, and I still feel kind of bad about what I said to Georgie. At the same time, it’s been six years, and she’s married to someone else, should it matter that much? But with the tension between her and Noah maybe it was making her a little extra sensitive.
Not long after she stormed off, I ventured out to the back patio to find her and apologize. I didn’t want there to be animosity when this might be the last weekend I had with everyone.
Georgie sat with Elizabeth in the pool house at the far end of the patio. When Elizabeth noticed me walking toward them, sheglared over her shoulder. Georgie looked calmer, but she glared when she saw me, too. I raised my hands in surrender.
“I come in peace. I just wanted to apologize. What I said was out of line.”
Georgie’s gaze remained narrowed.
“You and I have always done this—given each other shit. It’s what we do, but…I took it too far tonight, and for that, I’m sorry, Gigi.”
With a sigh, her face finally relaxed. “It’s not your fault, Josh. I just…There is a lot going on.”
“Anything we can help with?”
Georgie offered a small smile, glanced at Elizabeth, and then back to me. “No, thank you.” She reached over and squeezed Elizabeth’s knee before standing. “I’ll see you both inside.”
When she was gone, Elizabeth shot up from her chair. “What the fuck, Josh?” Her stare was deadly. “Just because you don’t want to be here this weekend doesn’t give you the right to be an asshole!”
“I know.”
“That was so uncalled for. Georgie was just asking—Wait, what did you just say?”
“I said,I know,” I said simply. She looked taken aback by the words. “You’re right, Liz. It was uncalled for. I’m sorry.”
“Why are you agreeing with me?”
