Forever with You

I’m glad she hadn’t.

“I’m so disappointed I missed that.” Katie sighed heavily. “But you gave him hell. He needs that. Hell, most people need that every now and then.”

“Oh man, and when he jumped over the bar to stop you from leaving?” Roxy fa

I coughed out a laugh. “Yeah, that was kind of impressive.”

“And I also missed that.” Katie pouted. “Such bullshit.”

Roxy gri

“Apparently you all already know everything.” I straightened out my straw wrapper and then began folding it again. “Not many details left.”

“There’s always detail,” Katie corrected. “But I don’t have to ask if he’s good or not, because one look at him tells me he’s good at it.”

A flush stained Roxy’s cheeks. “And that’s not the kind of detail we’re asking for. I know he went to see you after he left Mona’s Friday night. His car was in the condo parking lot.”

So he did drive a car. I shook my head. “He did stop by Friday night, but we didn’t do anything. He actually came over to apologize to me.”

Roxy’s brows climbed her forehead as she exchanged a look with Katie. “Say what?”

I glanced at the bedazzled girl next to me. “He came over to apologize for the way he acted.” I paused. “Obviously, that must be shocking behavior for him.”

“Shocking doesn’t really even cover it.” Roxy blinked a couple of times. “Did he try to get some after apologizing?”

“Not really,” I answered, letting the wrapper uncurl in my palm.

“Whoa,” Katie murmured.

I wasn’t sure if the whoa was a good or bad thing. “He seemed genuinely apologetic, to be honest. We chatted for a little while and then he left, but he did say something along the lines of me coming back to the bar.”

“Whoa,” repeated Roxy.

“Is this all really that surprising?” I sat back, dropping the wrapper on my plate.

Roxy nodded slowly. “Yeah, for Nick it is. Look, I don’t know how to say this nicely, but—”

“He’s a dick?” I finished for her, and when she winced, I had to fight the grin. “Trust me, I know he’s a dick. I’ve never in my life had a guy act like that after we got together. And I’ve only forgiven him because, like I said, he seemed genuinely sorry. That doesn’t erase how he acted, though.”

“Yeah, he’s a dick,” Roxy said. “But he can be a really nice guy. Nick was there for me when I was dealing with that . . . that creep, but he’s got relationship issues,” she finished.

“I don’t think he’s a bad guy,” I said. “I just think he’s not relationship material.”

Roxy was silent for a moment as she smoothed her hand over her hair, stopping when she reached the topknot. “I honestly think I’m his only female friend. He hardly talks to Calla. It’s kind of weird. It’s like she doesn’t exist to him.”

Okay, that was weird. I thought about how he believed he met the “one” but had been wrong. Was it Calla? I didn’t know enough about her to even hazard a guess at that possibility.

“But that’s just how he is.” Roxy’s brow creased as she continued. “And we’re not even that close. He’s not the most talkative guy. Sometimes he goes through spells when he is, but mostly, he’s kind of quiet, like an observer.”

Come to think of it, he hadn’t been real talkative the first night we got together. Then again, both of us had other things on our minds. “He was pretty talkative Friday night.”

“That’s pretty telling.” Roxy’s forehead smoothed out. “When you walked back into the bar Friday night, I just knew something was going to go down between you two.”

“Of course you did, because I called it the first night Steph walked in the bar.”

I turned to Katie. “You did?”

“Remember. I’m kind of psychic.” She tapped her finger off her temple. “I called it.”

“She did,” Roxy confirmed, gri

“What?” I said wryly.

“You strolled right on in that night.” She clapped her hands excitedly. “And here we are.”

For a moment all I could do was stare, and then I laughed. Some of the weird comments Roxy and Katie had made when I first met them now made sense. “I don’t see why this is such a big deal. Nick’s a player who normally doesn’t apologize or act decent to chicks he’s slept with. Knowing that doesn’t make him more alluring in my book. And even you said he was a dick.”

“Well, no shit, but the fact that he is acting different with you means something,” Roxy countered, and then she squinted. “Unless you don’t want it to mean anything.”

“She doesn’t,” Katie answered, and my gaze swung to hers sharply. “She’s going to break his heart.”

I stared at her, absolutely dumbfounded. “I am not going to break anyone’s heart.”

“Oh, you will. You won’t mean to, but it’s going to happen.” She was serious, and a sad look crept into her features as she met my stare. “Yeah, it’s going to happen.”

Shaking my head, I turned to Roxy. She was staring at Katie with this perplexed look on her face. I threw up my hands. “Why are we even having this conversation? Just because I accepted his apology and he appears to want to be friends doesn’t mean either of us are entertaining the idea of going there again.”

“People can change,” Roxy said.

I shot her a bland look. “Please don’t tack ‘for the right person’ on the end of that.”

She made a face. “No. I was going to tack ‘when they want to’ on the end of that.”

“Oh.” I flashed a brief grin. “That sounds more believable, but still, it doesn’t matter. Maybe Nick and I will be friends at some point, but that’s it. I don’t think our paths are going to cross a lot outside of visiting you.”

“I don’t know about that,” Katie said, and when she looked at me, the unwarranted and strange sadness lingered on her pretty face. “I don’t think you’re going to have a choice when it comes down to it.”

Chapter 8

The first day of October slammed into the city of brotherly love, winds blustery and temps that made me rethink the decision to move farther north instead of south. As I worked at my desk, I hoped that I wouldn’t have to go out again. The thin linen pants and blouse, even with my jacket and scarf and gloves, did nothing to beat down the cold.

There was a good chance I really was coming down with something.

I bit the inside of my cheek as I flattened my hand on my belly. My stomach churned like a washing machine. It had been that way since I got up. Ru

Missing any time when I was only in my forth week at the academy was unacceptable. What I needed to do at lunch was swing by the Walgreens down the street and stock up on antiflu meds.

I was going to try to will myself into not being sick, I decided as I started working again. Mind over body and all that jazz.

My fingers stilled on the keyboard as I heard Rick’s high-pitched laugh and I gritted my teeth. As I focused on my screen, my cell phone buzzed from where I’d placed it under the monitor. My gaze flicked to it. It was a text, and there was a number in the little box above the message, one I didn’t recognize.

Hey.

That was all the text said. Frowning, I waited a few seconds, and when there wasn’t another message, I picked up my phone, and clicked on the text, then went to the add photo option. I scrolled until I found an image of a little girl glaring at the camera with a perfect what-the-hell expression on her little face. Gri