“I’m not a challenge,” I said forcefully.
“That’s not a bad thing,” she returned. “For anything to be worth it, you should have to work for it, and I’m not just talking about a man on the chase. In this case, the work for you would be to dig deep and recover from Kev’s assholery so you can find some happiness.”
“I can be happy without a man.”
“Mm-hmm,” she hummed to the rim of her glass, took a drink then said, “Bet a bruiser like Gabe could make you more happy.”
I’d take that bet, Dreamer said.
You’d lose, Logic retorted.
“I mean, that boy has even a hint of talent, with that body, he’d wreck a woman in bed,” Shanti mused.
I trembled delectably.
So did Dreamer.
And she tried to hide it, but Logic did too.
“I’m not ready,” I declared.
Lame! Dreamer cried.
True, Logic stated.
“I’m not saying get ready,” Shanti said. “I’m just saying you’re twenty-eight. You’ve got a lot of life ahead of you. You don’t know what could happen. But nothing will happen if you close yourself off to it.”
This was wise.
“Okay, I’ll try to open myself up more,” I lied, and it sucked lying to my best girl, but I just didn’t have the energy for this.
She studied me cannily but decided not to say anything.
Hence the reason why she was my best girl.
“Just so you know, he spent the night again last night,” I announced. “Platonically, though not strictly platonically, if you get me. Just no hanky-panky. And don’t start. I was tired and I couldn’t fight it anymore.”
Shanti remained silent.
“But he woke up weird,” I shared. “Like, he jolted awake, and it was pretty violent, like he was having a bad nightmare, and when I looked at his face…” I shook my head like I could shake the memory away. “God, Shanti, I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.”
“What did he look like?” she asked quietly.
“Hazy, like he was still asleep, still in that dream, and…and…I can’t put my finger on it. It was like, this is horrible, but do you remember that picture of Christa McAuliffe’s parents when they realized the Challenger had exploded?”
“Holy shit,” she whispered.
“Yeah,” I whispered in return. “It reminded me of Christa’s dad after he’d turned to support his wife. Like this frozen shock.”
Shanti’s eyes got bright.
Mine did too.
“Do you, I mean, has anyone said anything about Gabe having some big bad happen in his past?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“He talked to me last night, about his folks, his sister, his family, including Luke and Ava,” I told her. “And it all sounded good. Healthy. Lots of love and respect, except for Luke’s dad, but he was an anomaly. Though, he also said he used to be a cop, and perhaps something happened when he was, but he didn’t communicate even a hint of there being a trauma he witnessed or something. So him waking up like that threw me.”
