Page 56 of So Wrong It's Right

He takes a potato chip from my bag. “I don’t meddle. I just keep things running smoothly. Sometimes that means I have to intervene. Anyway, my point is that you and Christopher seemed to fit. I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”

“Remember how everyone thought you and I would get married someday?”

“You never thought we’d get married someday.”

“Goddess, no. You’re one of my best friends. I’d never have ruined that by dating you.”

After an exaggerated shudder, he dives back into his food. “I sometimes thought I’d probably marry Perry.”

I pause with the sandwich halfway to my mouth. “Yeah, I don’t think that was ever going to happen. I'm glad you found Tru. I’m glad she makes you happy. You deserve to be happy.”

“Back at you.”

He takes another careless bite. “You talk to Devon lately?”

I recoil in abject horror. “Gross. No? Why? Not you too...Megan thought I should get back together with him.” I shudder. Come to think of it, Devon wasn’t at the wedding.

“She must not know then. About the bachelor party.” The front door opens and Nash waves to the guys who go directly to the pool tables in the corner.

“Pitcher when you get a chance, Nash,” one of them yells and he nods.

“Know what?” I ask, bringing him back to the conversation. “What doesn’t my sister know?”

“Christopher didn’t tell you?”

“Christopher? Tell me what?”

“That night they turned my pub into a roadhouse—the fight was started by Christopher. He punched Devon. First.”

“Christopher punched first?”

“Christopher punched first.”

“My Christopher...well, not mine, butChristopherstarted a fight? What happened? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

Nash shrugs. “I thought you knew. Devon said shit about you, Christopher popped him in the face, Devon tried to land a punch, but ended up connecting with Brad on accident. That’s when I threw Christopher into the hall and called you to collect him.”

He goes back around the bar to draw the beer. Or whatever you do to beer from taps. Pour? Pump? Pull? I don’t know.

I’m trying to imagine Christopher starting a bar fight. Over me. It doesn’t compute. Not stodgy, boring, retentive...sexy, warm, slyly humorous Christopher Lockwood, DVM.

Goddess, we never would have worked. Never. This Year of Stella has shown me that I have a lot of work to do. But the thing I need to do most of all is make sure the next guy I date actually likes me. The way I am.

Because I deserve that.

But I miss that stupid, perfect face. And those damn beige ties. And the way he would look at me sometimes with a certain kind of wonder in his eyes. I never knew how to handle that look. Maybe if I had, I don’t know, talked to him, said things I was feeling, he would have stuck around.

But instead, whenever I felt things get too serious, I ran away. Good time Stella doesn’t know how to handle it when a guy might really like her. Care about her.

“You okay?” Nash asks. “Hey, I know what will cheer you up. Devon left town.”

“Well, that’s something. For how long and how do you know?”

“Katie is housesitting for him.”

“Your new bartender? Wait, Devon doesn’t have a house.”

“Yeah, I think he’s supposed to be taking care of Nick’s place while he’s in China. But rumor has it, one of his college girls is pregnant so he ditched town.”

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