Page 26 of Playing With Temptation

Sophie gave a ‘you’re so full of shit’ shake of her head. “The sparks sizzling between the two of you did not say high school friends. Don’t make me get Chelsea over here with a pitcher of margaritas. I’ll totally get you drunk. So drunk you’ll spill all your secrets and have a five-day hangover for my troubles.”

Sparks?

Had there been sparks sizzling between me and Jase? If there were, those embers were nothing more than him nursing a grudge, and maybe new anger from me being an asshole and driving away from him last week.

“He was just shocked to see me. It’s been a long time.”

“How long?”

“Fifteen years…give or take.”

Sophie let out a low whistle. “Damn, fifteen years and he still looks at you like he’s not sure if he wants to toss you over his shoulder and run away with you or pick a fight so he can toss you over his shoulder and take you to bed for some good old-fashion angry sex.”

Sex?

It had been so long since I’d had sex, I wasn’t sure if I even remembered what sex was like.

That was a lie. I couldn’t erase the memory of sex with Jase if I tried—and I’d tried, a lot, for years. But everything about him was imprinted—mind, body, soul. I couldn’t forget him.

“I think you misread the situation. Trust me, he’s mad at me, not interested.”

“Why would Jase be mad at you?”

My first inclination was to brush off Sophie’s question. Change the subject to her and Valentine to get myself out of the hot seat.

But for some reason, I couldn’t do it. Heck, I didn’t want to brush her off but opening up to her felt like a betrayal to Zoe. Like I was replacing her. Sure, I had other friends besides my bestie, but none of them knew about Jase. Or Mark. They were good enough friends to understand that Lucas’s dad was a no-go topic and they’d never pushed, they simply accepted my boundary.

Now I had no one who knew the sad tale of high school sweethearts gone wrong.

“My best friend Zoe died earlier this year,” I blurted out. “No, not my best friend, my sister. Not blood, but bond. She was there for me when I found out I was pregnant with Lucas. She held my hand while I was in labor and was the first person to hold my son. She lived with me and helped me with Lucas until he was six months old and I got the hang of being a mom. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have made it. Zoe was more than Lucas’s beloved aunt. She was his second parent and my voice of sanity.

“That’s why I came home. I couldn’t stay in Florida without her. I couldn’t drive down a street or go to a restaurant or a park or even pick Lucas up from school without the pain of losing her crushing me.”

All of that was true, but I left out the part about Zoe’s creepy husband following me.

“Rainy,” Sophie whispered. “I hate that you lost Zoe.”

Just hearing her say Zoe’s name knocked the wind out of me.

“So you see,” I wheezed. “I have to stay away from Jase.”

“No, darlin’, I don’t see, but I don’t have to. If that’s what you need, then that’s what you need.”

God, that was something Zoe would say. Maybe that’s why I let my secret slip. “I still love him. Seeing him feels like salt in old wounds that never healed. I owe him an apology, and one day when I’m stronger, I’ll give it to him. But right now, I can’t take any more pain.”

Sophie let that settle between us. Her soft, warm brown eyes stayed steady on me, giving me exactly what I needed from her—no pity, just understanding.

“If it’s not too much for you, tell me about Zoe,” she gently asked.

The conversation was far too heavy to be had sitting in a pool hall with a woman I barely knew, yet that didn’t stop me from telling my new friend all about the best friend a girl could have.

And when I was done, some of the weight had lifted. Not all of it, not even most of it, but it felt good to talk about Zoe.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Blue and red lights lit up Bryant Commons Park from an array of emergency vehicles.

A dead body was never good.