Riley snapped her seatbelt on with extra force. “Yep. When your date ends with the guy in the back of a police car, it’s the universe’s way of saying he’s not the one. I’m going to repress his phone number along with the rest of the night.” Nick’s point count had bottomed out right about the time he started trading drunken threats with parking lot hoodlums.
Annie shook her head and made sadtskingsounds. “Poor guy. His fate was sealed as soon as Lucas saw you were his date.”
“Possibly. Lucas enjoys making my life harder.” And tonight, he’d been in high form. Riley tilted her head back against the seat. “I haven’t driven over the speed limit since we broke up because I know Officer Ex-boyfriend would love a chance to give me a ticket.”
“I meant because Lucas isn’t over you yet.” Annie, for some reason, was convinced his lack of a girlfriend indicated something.
Riley didn’t buy it. “He was clearly over me before we broke up. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have started seeing Winter while he was still dating me.”
“He might have been telling you the truth that nothing was going on between them.”
Right. And maybe a Nigerian prince really was trying to give her money through an email. “He lied to me about being with her that night. Why should I think he was telling the truth about the rest of it?”
Outside, the last of downtown rolled by, buildings and lights, huddling in the cold. The gas station had faded into the distance. Eventually, this night would too. “I’ve had a lot of experience with liars. I don’t need more.”
She meant her mother. As a kid, how many times had Riley wanted something—clothes, a treat from the grocery store, money for school field trips—and her mother had promised that next paycheck she’d have the funds? Next month, things would improve.
Her mother always had an excuse for why she couldn’t pay for whatever Riley needed, but there was plenty of booze in the cupboard.
Riley stopped going to birthday parties in third grade. She didn’t want to be known as the girl who came without a present.
Annie sent her a sympathetic look. “You can’t judge everyone by your mother.” Annie had heard Riley and Olivia trade stories about their parents. She’d been sufficiently traumatized by them and frequently called her own parents to thank them for not screwing up her childhood.
“If Lucas had a real excuse,” Riley said, “he would’ve given it to me. Instead, he stopped by my apartment, gave me a lame apology, and told me Winter was having issues he couldn’t discuss—like that made it okay for him to lie about being with her.”
It wasn’t a discussion she would ever forget. After he apologized for lying—and only for lying—he’d looked at her straight in the eyes and said, “I have a job where I’m required to keep people’s secrets. Are you going to demand to know all of those too? Are you going to be upset every time I offer help to a woman when you’re not around?”
He’d cheated, and she was the bad guy.
Riley shut her eyes, trying to block the scene from her mind. “And that’s when I decided dating police officers and lawyers was a bad idea. A normal guy would’ve come up with a convoluted story that I could shoot holes through. Lucas knew better than that. You can’t prove an explanation is false when a guy doesn’t give you one.”
Just thinking about Lucas made her cross and emotional. This night had already been too long, and she hated that he could swoop in, ruin whatever she was doing, and make her feel like an idiot for being a part of it. Irritatingly, tears pressed at the back of her eyes.
Crying over this night was not allowed.
Annie didn’t say anything else for a minute. Riley watched a group of rundown townhouses give way to a row of newer condos. They’d be at their apartment soon.
“I’m sure your next date will be better,” Annie said. Another long pause. “And if not, you can always do what I plan on doing. I’m going to tell Olivia I don’t have a date to the wedding and ask her to set me up with one of Carson’s hot teammates.” A dreamy smile spread across her lips. “Have you seen the men on his team?”
“There are some cute ones,” Riley agreed but didn’t consider the idea for herself. She didn’t want Lucas to think she couldn’t get a date. She could. She just needed some time to find the right guy. Fortunately, the nuptials wouldn’t be any time soon.
While Annie went on about her favorite Broncos and wondered how many of the players Carson knew from the other teams, Riley considered online dating sites and whether they were as bad as everybody said.
Sure, sometimes the guys were serial killers, but not always.
Annie had just pulled into the parking lot when Olivia video-called Riley. Her dark hair was piled on her head, and she wore red lipstick that matched her red dress. She must have been at some formal event.
“Are you with Annie?” she asked right off. “I want to talk to both of you.” Her voice was excited and breathless.
“Annie’s sitting beside me,” Riley said. No need to go into the details of her ill-fated date.
“You’ll never believe this,” Olivia chimed, all breathless excitement. “I still can’t believe it myself. Guess what just happened!”
Carson wouldn’t have proposed yet. Riley had only sent him the link to Olivia’s wedding ideas Pinterest board a week ago. Finding the right ring took time. “Are the Broncos trading Carson?”
Annie leaned over to see the phone screen better. She took one look at Olivia’s radiant expression and said, “Did Carson propose?”
“Yes!” Olivia squealed. “Can you believe it?”