Page 33 of Achievement Unlocked

I got dressed quickly, and Carly and I were on our way.

“Are you going to keep working at the school?” Carly’s question mixed with the raindrops and the sound of tires cutting through standing water.

Not as odd a question as it seemed like, since Easton’s grandparents owned the place. I was a teacher at a private school that specialized in helping underprivileged kids and making sure they had the resources they needed to keep pace with their peers. We provided tutoring, but also books, food, and clothes that they might not be able to afford otherwise.

I started working there long before Easton. “As long as they let me, I’m staying.” I loved the job. I’d gotten my master’s specifically so I could move into the teaching role. These days I did as much administration as anything, but I still made sure I had at least one class every term.

“They love you. I don’t know why they’d get rid of you,” Carly said.

“Because I dumped their grandson in front of an entire room full of people.”

Traffic was light this early on a Sunday, especially in this weather, and Carly navigated the wet roads with familiar ease. “He made that choice, and they love you.”

They’d made their money in real estate when they were younger, Betsy had an eye for where to buy low so they could sell high. They bought the schools early on, but didn’t give them much attention. They shifted their focus to the school when they lost their son—Easton’s father—and re-examined their priorities.

I’d been with them so long that I’d moved out of state for a few years to establish other locations. That was after the previous fiancé cheated on me, but that time, Nigel was with someone else.

And now my brain was spiraling into a lifetime of unlucky-in-love. “Can we talk about anything that doesn’t have to do with Easton?”

“Of course. What’s the deal with Landon?”

Except that. Mostly because I didn’t have an answer. Nigel told me to take this chance to explore, and I felt guilty that Landon had rented a space in my mind with anUncharted Territorysign over his head. “There’s nodeal.” He fucked like a beast, and I wanted to know what else he did. How could I want Nigel so intensely and still feel this pull to Landon?

“He’s the stripper from your bachelorette party, and yesterday he helped you move out of your ex’s house. There’s a little bit of a deal.”

“I don’t want to talk about Easton.”

“We’re not. We’re talking about Landon.”

Did I say I loved my sister? I meant I tolerated her meddling. Did she have any idea she was pushing buttons I was trying to ignore existed? “He’s a friend,” I said as much to myself as to her.

“Just like that? You barely know him.”

Why did our destination have to be so far away? “You talked to him yesterday. He’s a nice guy.” How much did I want to tell her? Not about the list or the sex, because I wasn’t in the mood to be teased or get a lecture. “We click, that’s frequently how friendships happen. Girls can have guy friends and have it be just that.”

“But can they really?”

I rolled my eyes. “Jeremy is friends with the women he works with.” Not just work friends, but hang-out-in-their-free-time friends, too.

“Half the people Jeremy works with have fucked each other. The other half are currently fucking each other. Not a great example.”

“Perfect example, because they’re all friends anyway.” I didn’t know why she was pushing this.

Carly glanced at me. “Nigel doesn’t care?”

“Why would Nigel care who I’m friends with?” It almost hurt me to say that. No one else should have an opinion about my relationships as long as I was happy in them, but I rearranged my world according to what others thought. Easton wanted a say—he hated my friends more than they disliked him—but it had taken me far too long to tell him to fuck off. Nigel and I weren’t even… But we might as well be, after that kiss last night… The things he did with his fingers…

“Are you blushing?”

My facewasa bit warm. “I’m not. Nothing.”

“I know I tease you a lot, but I’m worried about you.” Carly’s tone shifted to sympathetic. “What happened hurt you, and I don’t like to see you hurt.”

“I’ll be okay.”

“You will, it’s true, because you’re a bad ass bitch who has the power to heal the world. But that doesn’t mean you have to be right now. You’re allowed to grieve and mourn. You’re allowed to fuck around with hottie strippers. But be honest about your reasons.”

I was trying. I really was. “I do feel betrayed. If there was some way to make Easton know how much this hurt, or to figure out why I’m not—”

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