AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath, still holding his little plate of desserts between them. “Yeah. I’m sorry.”
Amelia blinked at him, her gray eyes widening slightly. She rocked back on her heels and blew out a breath. “Find. Good. I’m glad we had this talk. Enjoy the rest of the wedding.”
He watched her walk away, still feeling the ghost of her touch manacled around his wrist.
The next day,Amelia dragged her sorry self out of bed at seven o’clock and made it to a bootcamp in the park, arriving only three minutes late, which had to be some kind of miracle. Her feet were covered in blisters from her stupid lilac high heels, and her body felt like she’d run a marathon. Her mind—her mind was a mess. Thankfully, Maggie was her only sister, and Amelia would never have to go through the hellishness of helping to plan a big wedding for anyone else. Ever.
The bootcamp trainer, a big, buff man named Chet, made her do ten pushups as a punishment for her tardiness, which was a bit extreme, even though she deserved it. But she did the pushups from her knees, then found Camilla and their friend Lucy near the back of the pack.
“Hey, girl,” Camilla said, beaming. “Ready to sweat?”
“How are you so chipper?” Amelia grumbled. “It’s unnatural.”
“I run a bakery,” Camilla answered. “I’m up at two o’clock in the morning to start making bread. This is my midday.” She grabbed a big weighted ball and tossed it to a bleary-eyed Lucy, who stumbled back at the impact.
The shrill, piercing sound of a whistle interrupted their conversation. “Okay, ladies!” Chet called out. “Let’s form two lines. We’re going to start with some bear crawls.”
“Bear claws?” Amelia said hopefully, looking for one of Camilla’s bakery boxes that might be stashed behind the nearby tree.
“I wish,” Lucy grumbled while Camilla laughed.
The three of them dragged their way through the workout, then collapsed on the grass. This was a four-times-a-week routine for them on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It had been Camilla’s idea, obviously. The nutter.
Still, Amelia always felt better by the end of the workout. Except today. Today, she still felt angry and off-balance. When the rest of the group had wandered off to get a coffee at the little coffee truck parked at the east end of the park, Camilla sat up and leaned back on her palms.
“So,” she said, arching a brow at Amelia. “Are you going to tell us what the heck was going on yesterday?”
“Were you really out on a date with Leo St. James?” Lucy turned onto her side, her black hair plastered to her forehead. “You know he’s a huge player, right?”
“It wasn’t a date,” Amelia said, sounding a little snippier than intended. “We were picking up Maggie’s wedding cake.”
“He was ready to vault over the table and ravish her,” Camilla cut in. “Only that Fred Goodhew walked in.”
“He wasnot.” Amelia felt hot all over. She scowled at her friends, who beamed at her. “He’s not interested in me at all.”
“He said you were his fiancée.”
“What?” Lucy bolted upright, eyes wide. “Since when?”
“Since never! He lied!” Amelia huffed, then started at the beginning. By the time she told the girls about her interlude in the hallway at the wedding, they both had thoughtful expressions on their faces.
“I wonder how much he’s willing to pay,” Lucy mused.
“Stop it,” Amelia grumbled. “I’m not doing it.”
“Wish he’d said I was his fiancée,” Camilla cut in. “I could use the cash.”
Amelia collapsed on the soft grass and threw an arm over her face. She was sore, and tired, and she had three clients waiting on her to update their sales and KPI dashboards with this week’s numbers. Running her own business was rewarding, but she hadn’t expected it to be quite so relentless. As her friends chattered to each other above her, Amelia remembered the way Emory had looked at Maggie, and she realized she was lonely.
Even here, feeling the morning rays warm her skin and the dewy grass prickle her back, with her two best friends close enough to touch, Amelia was alone. She should be happy; she had everything she’d ever worked for. Her data analysis business generated more than enough money to live, and she had a nice little nest egg. She’d made it.
But…
The moment in the bakery played on repeat—those few seconds when Leo had dragged his thumb over her lips. She brought her fingertips to the spot, as if her own touch could mimic the fire that had blazed across her skin when his hand had made contact with her lips.
Yes, it was loneliness seeping through her veins like poison. It was the old refrain in her mind, that familiar voice telling her that she was unlovable. She was a terrible kisser. She was a dead fish in bed, except when she tried too hard, which was apparently worse. She never did anything right when it came to men, so after a while, she’d cut them out of her life entirely.
While she built her business, it had been easy to throw herself into the project. There was so much to do, and no time to think about men and sex. She hadgoals. Ambitions. Direction.
