“Oh, shit. You’ve been crying. Whathappened?”
She paused.
“It’s over with J. T.”
Laine literally clapped her hands to her face. “Nooooo!Whyyyyyy?”
“We had a big fight. And he told me to just go.” Which was technically true, but it left out a whole lot of stuff. What she wanted right now was sympathy and vindication.
“Oh, Bippy. I’m so sorry. I thought it might be just a fling, but look at you! You’re clearly torn up. Are you... were you... inlovewith him?”
“Inlovewith him?” she spat scornfully. “Don’t be ridiculous! He can go to hell!”
“But are you inlovewith him?”
“I don’t care what he does! Orwhohe does it to! Or when he does it!”
“Soooo... in other words, you’re in love with him.”
Britt moaned and dropped her face into her hands. “I didn’tknowI was until it was over,” Britt all but wailed. “Or maybe I did and just didn’t want to think about it because I was scared of what would happen next.”
The sex had been all crashing cymbals and crescendos, it nearly obscured the reason for it: the humble, intimate little offerings of a broken house in the woods surrounded by blue-eyed Mary’s, a fixed porch, a half-dead azalea. One soul striving to be worthy of another. Longing to give to each other what they needed most. A coded way of saying, “Iknowyou. Your happiness is mine.”
They’d been falling in love from the moment he’d walked into the Misty Cat.
Although J. T. likely didn’t know it, wouldn’t say it, and probably didn’t believe it. And she didn’t know how on earth that would ever change.
“Did you tell him you were in in love with him? Is that what ended it?” Laine wanted to know.
“No,” she said sullenly. “Of course I didn’t say that. How stupid wouldthatbe?”
“Yeah, love issuperdumb,” Laine mocked. Albeit gently.
Britt snorted.
Her sister’s brow furrowed. “But you have to catch me up, Bip. Is that what the argument was about? The fact that he’s not in love withyou? You know he’s supposedly never said that word to anyone.”
“I’ve read the articles, too,” Britt said testily. “All he said was, and I quote, ‘I like what we have. I don’t want it to end.’”
“Well, who wouldn’t like no-strings sex! I think that’s man-speak for I don’t want to think about the future ever and don’t make me talk about my feelings but I want to keep doing you until I don’t want to anymore.”
“Right?” Britt lapped up the vindication. “And while we were arguing about this outside his house, you know who was inside?”
“Who?”
She paused strategically. “Rebecca Corday.”
Laine’s mouth dropped open. “Hold the phone! RebeccafreakingCorday? Hisex?”
“Yeah,” she said. “She just showed up out of the blue yesterday and she spent the night at hishouse.”
Laine was frozen. She was clearly impressed with the awfulness of this. “Whoa. That’s pretty bad.”
“Right?”
“She’s going to that wedding in Napa, too. Is she his date?”
Holy shit. That was a horrible thought.