AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why?”
“Because it’s Savage,” I said. “And he could go all…Savage.”
“He loves you guys. He’ll want you both to be happy.”
“I’m not sure it’s that easy.”
“Why do you make everything hard, Willa?”
“Excuse me?” I squeaked.
The water turned off and Waverly’s hand shot out of the curtain to grab her towel from the rack. “In the words of my really smart boyfriend, you need to get out of your own way.”
“What the hell does that mean?” I demanded.
She drew back the shower curtain. The gray towel was wrapped around her body and her red hair was slicked away from her face, her skin flushed from the heat of the water.
“It means, you’re a self-sabotager, and every time something is going well for you in your life you look for reasons to detonate it, not believing it can be real or lasting. Duke’s loved you forever and Savage is your best friend. He might be snippy because you guys didn’t tell him right away, but you’re not giving him the credit he deserves. He loves you both and wants you to be happy.”
My mouth dropped open. “You didn’t by any chance read Psychology for Dummies, did you?”
She grinned and stepped out of the tub. I was forced to back up to give her space—which there wasn’t much of in the tiny bathroom.
“I tried to push Dylan away and he called me out on it. You and me, we’re kind of the same. Mom fucked us up. Our dads…well, they’re not in the picture. What if for once in our lives you and I just cut out all the drama and decide to be happy?”
I stared at her for a long moment and then I said, “I can’t wait until you’re twenty-one. We’re going to have some damned good wine and emoting sessions.”
“You only have to be eighteen in Europe to drink,” she pointed out with a smile. “We could just pretend to be European…”
“We’ll wait until you’re twenty-one,” I quipped. “Besides, that gives us several more years to accumulate emotional baggage to dissect.”
“You don’t need any more emotional baggage. You’re pretty bogged down as it is.”
“Um. Rude.”
“Um. Right.” She smiled. “Now brush your teeth. I can smell your fish breath from here, and even though he loves you, fish breath will not keep a fella.”
“Oh, so you’re an expert at keeping fellas now?”
She shrugged. “I do okay.”
“Can I have three shots of tequila, please,” I said to the bartender at Shelly’s.
“Sure thing,” she said.
“You’re not going for bourbon, huh?” Duke asked from his spot next to me. “He likes bourbon better.”
“You know how he gets when he does bourbon shots. Let’s not make this harder on ourselves.”
We were perched on two stools waiting for Savage to join us. I’d texted him earlier in the day and asked if he wanted to grab a drink at Shelly’s.
Savage strode in, his eyes wandering around the room until he found us at the bar.
“Good timing,” Duke said to Savage. “Willa just ordered us tequila shots.”
I handed Savage a saltshaker.
The three of us quickly did our shots and sucked on limes.
