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Just as he turns forward, he says, “I saw that. If you want to not hate me later, you can do that again. Or you know, there’s always…” I smack his back. He was going to say “hate fucking.” I laugh and push him forward.
He guides me to the table where his stunning shampoo-commercial-worthy brunette ‘wife’ is seated. I tug at my scattered locks, but she’s show ready. I’m usually more put together than this.
“Claire, this is Li… This is Bette.” Of course, she’s freaking stunning. Of course, his new wife is otherworldly beautiful. She puts her hand out. I lean up to whisper in Hayden’s ear, “I’m not having a three-way with you.”
His eyebrows shoot up and down quickly.
He leans down to my ear and my body is on fire with the tickle of his stubble on my cheek. He whispers back, “But it’s French. I thought you loved all things French.”
I glare at him.
He coos in my ear and I’m having a hard time remembering I don’t want to sleep with him, whether there’s another woman there or not. “Relax.”
Then he says loudly as he turns towards her, “This is my sister-in-law.”
I relax into a full-body smile. Thank God it’s not his new imaginary dating/engaged/married/about to be a father with woman.
She greets me and the world is a little lighter around her. I shake hello. I say, “Hockey brother or baseball?”
He grins widely and I realize I’ve revealed I know a lot more than I’ve let him believe. He now knows I’ve followed his brothers’ careers. One to the NHL and the other is currently playing AAA ball in Reno with the Aces waiting to be called up to the Diamondbacks bench.
Her face lights up as she says, “Hockey. We play the Islanders tonight and I remembered this one was in town. Do you know Robbie?”
I shake my head and his hand appears on my lower back. We both pause for a second to relish the feel of it. He guides me to sit.
“No. I’ve only heard stories and followed his success. He has quite the career with the Flyers.” Hayden pinches my leg and I try not to react. Now he knows I looked for him.
“He does, but he’s winding down. He’s a bit old to be losing teeth. Or a bit young.” We all laugh. Then she gestures to him. “I love how Hayden is still talking about his big brother’s career. Have you known Hayden long?”
She’s fishing and I don’t know what to say.
“I mean are you… you know? I don’t think I’ve ever met—” Hayden cuts her off.
“Bette and I used to date.”
She squeals a bit and claps like a seal.
She sips her water. “Hay, I was under the impression you didn’t date. Well, except for that one tragic time.” She sweeps the back of her hand to her forehead in an overly dramatic way.
We both freeze, then he leans towards me, faces her, and speaks. “Would you say it was tragic?”
I grin, answering him, but looking at Claire. And suddenly we’re in a different place again. We’re not Hayden and Bette and we’re not Lizzie and Danny. No one’s hurt, our minds and bodies are just remembering we were friends.
“Hmm. I mean, not Romeo and Juliet tragic, neither of us went running for a dram of poison or anything. Well, there was that one time you almost dropped me off a roof. But on a scale of happy to tragic, I’d say a bit devastating.”
He nods sharply and laughs a bit. “I’d agree.”
Claire slams her hands to the table. “NO! Mother Mary and Joseph. That’s a wicked-ass thing to say to me. Is this Lizzie? Are you the fabled Lizzie who disappeared from the earth and none of us believed you existed, except for the thousands of pictures he’d stare at, well past the breakup? And the drawings. Uck, with the drawings. So many, I should have recognized you from them.”
He looks down and growls a bit. I did that, too.
I grin. “Yes. I used to be Lizzie.”
Claire sits back and looks like the Cheshire Cat as she bites into a pastry. She says, “And I thought Bette was your mortal enemy at work?”
I raise Hayden’s glass to her. “I’m her, too.” Then I sip his wine.
He takes his glass back, sips, and says, “And I used to be Danny.”
