Page 70 of Whisper Of Attraction (Whisper Lake 3)

“Right,” Jess agreed. “You don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to.”

Brynn nodded, thankful that she had such good friends. She took a deep breath as she opened the wine and started pouring. The silence was heavy and she felt like she was being watched. She glanced up and saw that both Jess and Ali were, in fact, staring at her expectantly. “What?”

“That’s it? You’re really not going to talk about it?” Jess questioned in disbelief.

Brynn had to laugh as she finished filling the glasses. “There’s not a lot to say.”

“Really?” Ali looked genuinely surprised.

Jess’s expression was disappointed. “I really thought Axel could put it down.”

Once again, they were getting the wrong idea. She felt her cheeks heating as she explained, “That’s not what I meant. He can and he did. There’s not a lot to say because that was it. Just that night. We haven’t really talked about it since.”

“Because Izzy is here?” Ali’s voice was hopeful.

Brynn lifted her left shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t think so. We’ve seen each other a few times when the kids haven’t been around. And, I mean, he’s staying a hundred feet from me, we work at the same place, and he has my phone number. If he wanted to talk about it, he would’ve.”

“Are you okay?” Ali’s eyes were filled with concern. “With…everything?”

Not really.

“Yeah.” Brynn forced herself to smile. “It was a great night. And I’ve always known his time here is temporary. It’s not like I ever thought that there was a chance for something more.”

She hoped her nose wasn’t growing because she was lying through her teeth. She hadn’t just thought there was a chance for something between them, she’d spent hours of her life fantasizing about it.

But she didn’t want her friends to know that. She hated when people felt sorry for her. In her childhood, she’d seen the look of pity in people’s eyes because her mother was eccentric. As a teenager it was because she was pregnant. In her twenties, it was because she was a single mom trying to juggle motherhood, school, and work.

She’d worked hard to build a great life for herself and Ryder, and the last thing she wanted to do was have that be undermined by some guy that wasn’t going to be here in a month. As much as she’d tried and failed to put him out of her mind, she knew she needed to try one more time.

Brynn handed her friends their glasses. “Let’s take this out on the deck.”

As the three ladies sat around the table, Ali lifted her glass in cheers, “To good drinks.”

“Good friends,” Brynn recited.

“And good sex!” Jess declared happily.

The girls chuckled as they clinked glasses and the conversation turned to Jess’s wedding plans. Brynn was listening, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. When she glanced up at the apartment window, she fully expected Axel to be staring down at her. But he wasn’t.

Yeah. It was definitely time to take back control of her mind and her life. No more letting him consume her every waking and sleeping thought.

Her new plan lasted all of sixty seconds because one minute later her mind had wandered to what tonight was going to be like since both the teens were going to be at friends’ houses.

What would Axel be doing?

Would he go out?

Would she see him?

Apparently taking control of one’s mind was easier said than done.

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