AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Breaks sucked.
I fucking hated breaks.
My mind was still reeling over the fact that she thought what I wanted to do to her was anything like that night when we were eighteen and dumb.
Fuck. That.
I had no intention of stopping at kissing. Hell, I had no intention of stopping at fucking. I wanted Kennedy. I wanted all of her, heart and soul.
And that was what sucked the most about being an all-or-nothing kind of guy.
Turned out, I left empty-handed this time.
KENNEDY
Two years later…
Two years in New York and the crisp, cool air still snatched the breath from my lungs every time I stepped outside. It was not supposed to be forty degrees in March. I grew up on the shores of the Atlantic, where cool breezes blew in all the time. It even snowed in the winter. I was no stranger to the cold, but the air here was different. It pushed its way past the thick layers of clothing, past warm flesh all the way to the bone. This was the time of year I thought about North Carolina the most. I missed the warm comfort of a small town. I missed volleyball on the beach, walking in the square with a cup of ice cream, and watching the boats in the regattas.
I missed my friends.
Back home, I had my very own little girl gang. We were unstoppable.
Kacey was the girl every girl needed as a friend—thoughtful, kind, and completely selfless. She was the kind of girl who set out five bowls of cat food on her front porch every night so all the neighborhood strays wouldn’t starve.
Holmes was the friend you didn’t introduce to people until you were sure they could handle her—blunt and unfiltered, a pitbull in red lipstick and lace. Her real name was Cher, but she loathed the single name stereotype. With blonde hair and blue eyes, she also looked nothing like the singer. We called her Holmes because, by some sort of hysterical convenience, her last name was Locke. Cher + Locke = nickname paradise.
And then, I had Hendrix.
God, I missed him.
Our friendship had dwindled to a phone call or text message every couple of months. We used to be a spark. Now we were barely embers. And the knowledge that I’d done that to us chilled me as much as the New York air.
I thought I’d prove him wrong. I’d show him I wasn’t afraid of commitment. I’d do this the hard way, and he’d be proud.
I was the one who was wrong.
Sometimes I didn’t know which was worse; leaving him and becoming strangers or seeing him every day and becoming strangers.
The concrete pavement stretched on for miles as I walked the familiar four-block path from the Del Monte to my favorite coffee shop. I preferred my lattes from The Brew House because, screw Starbucks. Small-town girl in a big city. Locally owned was my jam.
A garbage truck passed, mixing the scent of yesterday’s thrown-out coffee with whatever was steaming up from the metal grates in the middle of the street. I heard a phone ringing, and I couldn’t tell if it belonged to me or the man in a tailored suit walking three inches behind me. Seriously, if he were any closer, we’d be partners in a three-legged race.
It rang again, so I reached into the pocket of my jeans and grabbed my phone. I slowed down to look at my screen just in time to see a familiar name across the front. The man in the suit bumped my shoulder as he rushed past me, nearly pushing me into the couple walking beside me.
Dick.
“Please tell me you’ve won the lottery and you’re buying us a private island in the Caribbean,” I said when I answered Kacey’s call.
Planning weddings in a small town for locals was one thing. Planning destination-style weddings for heirs and heiresses was another game entirely. I loved the adrenaline that came with working under pressure. I loved the feeling of seeing tears well in a bride’s eyes when she drank in the glory of what I’d created. I was an artist, a master crafter in romance. I loved love.
However, sometimes I wondered if a high-rise penthouse and a mid-six-figure salary were worth all the Excedrin and vodka I went through.
“Close. Ididhit the jackpot.”
“Slot machines or Bingo?”
“Ashton proposed!” she squealed so loudly that the guy beside me snapped his head in my direction.
