Page 26 of The 7 Rules of Moving On
“I gave up so much to be with Bryan. I had big plans I didn’t follow because he was supposed to love me and that was supposed to be enough. I put my entire life on hold for him and look where it got me.” Gesturing to his bar, his town, she cried, “Nowhere!”
He tried not to be offended by that statement.
“I just…” Her hands dove into her hair and pulled. “I don’t know what I’m doing here. I’m so pissed at him. I’m so pissed at everything. Underneath this stupid red dress and fake smile and bright and bubbly bullshit, I am a ball of rage! I want to scream! I want to break shit! I want to text that asshole and tell him in great detail how much of a shithead he is…” she trailed off, her eyes catching fire as she rose to stand. “That’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna text him. Right now.” When she reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out her phone, Trig surged to his feet, yanking it out of her grip.
“What the heck?”
“No. No way,” he said, shoving her phone into his back pocket, circling around when she started grabbing at his ass to get it back.
“Give me my phone! GIVE IT!”
“No! You arenottexting Bryan!”
“Yes, I am!”
Short on options, because she was terrifyingly fast, he put his hand on her forehead, pushing her back so she could only swipe at him with her short, little arms. “Remember your rules, Kissie! Number three says—”
After a prolonged “Uuugh,” she stopped fighting him, slumped back down into her chair, and mumbled, “No calling, texting, thinking, or talking about the ex. Boo.”
Kneeling in front of her, his chest heaving from the exertion of not letting her touch his butt, he said, “Listen, you definitely deserve to have your moment of telling this Bryan prick to go to hell. But not this weekend. And,” he sighed, surrendering his pride along with any hope in hell he had of making something happen with her, “if you’ll give me another chance, I will try really hard to be a better wingman for you.”
“You will?”
Pulling her phone out of his back pocket, he handed it to her. “I promise.”
“Thank you.”
She still looked so sad. It was unacceptable. He had to find a way to make her feel better.
“Oh!” he said, remembering something as he reached into his other pocket for his own phone. He opened his tracker app and started chuckling, a low and triumphant, “Heh, heh, heh.”
“What?”
“Billy told me we had a good chance to see them tonight.” He looked up at her. “The sky is crystal clear, the moon is still behind the mountains, and the tracker is off the charts. All conditions are optimal.”
“Um, okay mission control.”
“Trust me?” he asked, grinning.
“Not even a little bit,” she responded, frowning.
Undeterred, he held out his hand. “Care for a swim?”
RULE NUMBER FOUR: NO DRUNK HOOKUPS
KISSIE
Every single word had been a brush across the back of her neck, fingers tickling along her spine.
If you were gonna be fucking around with anyone this weekend, I wanted it to be me.
She’d heard his words but had no idea what to do about them. So, she did what she always did when things got too real, she ran away, changed the subject. But she’d heard him. Her heart had heard him.
All her bathing suits were still in her room with Dawn, and she hadn’t wanted to wake her, so when Kissie dove into the deep end of Mystic’s pool after staring at the water beading on Trig’s back and shoulders, she did it in her underwear.
He’d turned away from her while she’d taken off her dress. But he spun around after she dove in, greeting her with a sly smile when she surfaced.
“What are you so happy about?” she asked, still angry with herself and her life despite how gorgeous he looked all wet and grinning, or maybe because of it. She couldn’t decide.
