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“Uh… Hot Springs.”
“Hot Springs? Why did you stop in—Oh.” A short laugh followed her words, then she continued, “Did you see him?”
“Yeah, I did.” I smiled, unable to help myself.
How I could tell her that I’d done way more thanseePete Greenway again, the man my friends had pestered me about for days after we spent a night in Hot Springs the first time. The man I’d danced with and talked to into the night while my friends watched me let loose for the first time ever. They’d encouraged me, even, knowing I was engaged to be married to a man I didn’t love any longer. “I stopped to see Rachel and Bethany, if you remember them,” I said, blinking as the sun began to rise over the horizon.
“I remember them,” she replied warmly, no doubt thinking of the two local women we’d befriended in Hot Springs last year. “Did you…”
“I… Did,” I replied shortly, and Jane’s excited squeal at the confirmation that Pete and I had, in fact, slept together rang through the entire car.
“What a bad girl,” she teased. “I’m proud of you. You’re going to tell me all about it when you get here. Do you need anything? Money?”
“I’ll be fine, I have some left,” I said, wincing a bit as I thought of the meager stack of hundred-dollar bills in my purse. I’dtaken out several grand from my bank account—which was tied to my parents still, even though I was a twenty-nine-year-old woman. Eight grand wouldn’t get me very far for long, but it was enough to start. Jane lived in Leavenworth, Washington with her husband and three-year-old daughter Katie. She’d been the first person I’d called when I finally had the nerve to run like I’d been planning to do since my first taste of freedom during our road trip.
I could get an apartment with that money. I could tide myself over until I could find a job. But even with a degree I had no work experience. I’d never had a job in my life.
I tried not to think about it as I continued the drive. I was going straight to Jane, and I’d figure everything else out.
My family had no way to track me without my old phone or credit cards. They didn’t even know Jane existed.
I was safe, for now.
I’d just crossed over into Washington when the day turned to night. Exhausted, I called Jane and let her know I needed to stop to try to sleep for a while. I pulled into a hotel parking lot and booked a night, then decided two nights might be best. If I’d been followed somehow, I couldn’t risk anyone knowing I was going to Jane.
I took a much-needed shower and got ready for bed. I tried to eat but wasn’t hungry. And when I finally lay down in bed and closed my eyes, all I could think about was Pete, and how he’d absolutely worshipped me with his tongue, his teeth, and his cock. God, he’d made me feel a type of way I’d never experienced before.
But more so, painfully so, was the way his eyes had met mine when I walked into the bar again after a year.
He’d remembered me. And that look in his eyes was pure relief.
Had he been thinking of me just as much as I’d been thinking of him?
He couldn’t have been pining over the what ifs I’d felt over the last year. He was a skilled lover. He’d known exactly how to touch me to make me thrum and purr.
He couldn’t have been thinking of me when he had others at his fingertips. Someone like him—so brutally handsome and mysterious and rough? Well, after last night I was just another notch in his bedframe.
I could still feel his touch on my skin as I slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep.
And when I woke to sunlight fanning through the window, he was still on my mind.
Chapter Three
Pete
It had become clear to me in recent weeks that despite the fact I told myself I wasn’t one to dwell on the past, that was far from the truth. If my behavior toward Keely and George was any indication that I did, in fact, hold grudges… Well, I was working on that. It had been a month since George proposed to Keely and she was already up my ass about helping her plan her wedding. She wanted it over Christmas, I guessed. Something straight out of a Hallmark movie and she wanted me to supply the booze, of course.
And I would. She was my sister. I loved her even though she greatly pissed me off by falling in bed with my best friend and now they were getting married.
I looked down at my desk, noticing the scribbled notes and sketches left behind by the people I hired to help run this bar. I truly had nothing to myself, did I?
Frankie used the phone in here often to call her boyfriend Chuck, who was stationed at some military base in Oklahoma.Gus and Louis liked to come in here before their evening shifts began to drink the fancy coffee Keely kept buying for me.
I ran my hands over my face as I sat down behind my desk. I knew I had things on my to-do list but my mind was foggy and my body ached. I’d been spending a good deal of time helping fix up George’s old house he’d inherited after his mother passed away last year. They should be able to move in soon. That was the plan, at least. Keely was in a fit over wallpaper and George had it in mind to use his woodworking skills to build every single piece of furniture they needed, so it was… taking a while.
But the three of us were doing fine relationship wise. It still felt weird but as the days went by I got more and more used to the fact my sister and George were now an item instead of separate pieces of my life.
I was happy for them.
