Page 70 of Resisting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 3)

She sniffed and grabbed the container that held the cinnamon rolls, cookies, and brownies. As she walked up to Tessa Maguire’s house she saw Karina Black and Sam Holt-Reynolds seated at the kitchen table. The two women were her oldest sister Grace’s age and had been friends since childhood. She remembered seeing them a lot at Mountain Ridge because they were also friends with Amanda, and Lauren who was a realtor who her sister Grace now worked with. The four girls used to call themselves the Fabulous Four. Audrey remembered thinking that they were all so cool.

The Hope Falls Effect had worked on all four of the Fabulous Four. The women were happily married and madly in love. As was nearly everyone else that was at book club. Over the years that Audrey had lived in Hope Falls, she’d witnessed first-hand one love story after another play out. Heck, in the past six months she’d witnessed two of her own sisters.

But when it came to her own love life, it looked like Hope Falls had zero effect on it.

Karina’s face lit up when Audrey entered the back door. “Ooh, are those goodies?”

“Yep.” Audrey set the container down and Karina ripped into the aluminum foil like a kid at Christmas. Sam joined her and the two both went for the cinnamon rolls.

“There you are!” she heard her sister’s voice behind her. “Finally.”

Audrey turned around and smiled widely at her sister. “Sorry, I was listening to SmartLess. They had on Reese Witherspoon, so…”

Viv knew how much Audrey loved Reese, Sweet Home Alabama was her all-time favorite movie, so she was sure her sister wouldn’t question her delay.

Viv’s eyes narrowed. “You already listened to that podcast.”

Damn.She never thought Viv listened to her, apparently she’d underestimated her sister.

“It’s a good one.” Audrey smiled with a slight shrug.

She started to head into the room where the rest of the book clubbers were gathered but she felt herself being yanked into the laundry room off of the kitchen.

“What are you doing?!” Audrey asked as Viv slid the pocket door shut behind them.

Her sister pointed her finger at her accusatorily. “You weren’t listening to the podcast, and you’ve been crying. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Audrey tried to step around her sister to get out of the small room but Viv put her hand on the door, blocking her exit.

“You are not leaving here until you tell me what is wrong.”

Audrey didn’t know if it was the lack of sleep, or the fact that she’d watched single people flirting all week, or if it had all just gotten to be too much for her to keep inside, but for whatever reason when she opened her mouth the Niagara Falls of confessions came spilling out. She told her sister everything from her intimate admission at Dining in the Dark, the motorcycle ride after dancing, her telling Josh that she wanted him to be her first, the cabin, the sex, him showing up at her house, the sex again, and finally him telling her that he thought she should see other people and her not hearing from his since he left her house half-dressed, carrying his shoes on Monday morning.

When she finished, she wasn’t sure what she expected her sister to do, but staring at her blankly as she blinked her eyes several times definitely wasn’t it.

Finally, Viv spoke. “You’re a virgin?”

“What? No. Didn’t you just hear what I said. Josh and I had sex.”

“No.” Viv shook her head. “Yes, I did. I mean before that. Before Josh, you were a virgin?”

“Yeah.” Audrey wasn’t sure why that was so shocking. It’s not like she’d had Viv’s dating life.

“But what about Chris? You two were together for like four years. Mom put you on the pill.”

“Chris came out freshman year of college.” Audrey knew that her sister knew that, but she figured she’d jog her memory.

“Yeah, I know but…I don’t know… I just figured that you two had…you know that he was experimenting or something.”

“We didn’t.”

Audrey could see that this news was mind-blowing to Viv. Like seeing the aurora borealis or the Matrix for the first time mind-blowing.

“Anyway, that’s what’s wrong. I’m going to be fine. I’m just hurt. I don’t know why he would tell me to date other people this week.” Audrey shook her head. That was the part that confused her the most. It had seemed like such a one-eighty. “I’m not going to do that, though. But I am going to the dance because, well, you know how much I love to dance—”

“Hold the fucking phone,” Viv cut her sister off and Audrey saw fire starting to light in Viv’s eyes. “So let me get this straight. You are telling me that Joshie boy knew you were a virgin, popped your cherry and then told you to go bang other people?”

“Viv, no,” Audrey warned.

---