I didn’t wait for what was going to be the second obvious protest before I turned and hightailed my ass out of Bravo Lounge.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I stepped onto the sidewalk and started for my car.
“Mo?”
“Yeah, I’m here. And, yes, I used you to get out of what was arguably one of the worst dates I’ve ever been set up on in my life.”
“That’s kind of fucked up.”
“If you sat through what I just had to, you’d understand.” I unlocked my car and slid inside, shutting the door. “And as for your question and myfamily emergency, yes, he cried.”
“Yes! See, assmunch, I told you!”
“I did not cry! I had Dorito cheese in my eye!” Brody shouted in the background.
“Dorito cheese?” Wyatt laughed. “Really?That’swhat you’re going with?”
I chuckled as I started my car. “You two are idiots.”
“Yeah, well, these twoidiotsjust got you out of a bad date,” Wyatt shot back. “You’re welcome.”
“And it’s a good thing. Because if he got creepy, I wouldn’t have hesitated to come from Darlington just to kick his ass,” Brody added. And while he kept his tone playful, I knew he was serious.
I had two meddling, sometimes annoying, and overprotective big brothers who didn’t trust any guy I’d ever had the courage to bring around them, even if they were nothing more than friends. They claimed every guy had ulterior motives and couldn’t be trusted.
They’d gotten better over the years, more so since they settled down themselves. However, they still liked to remind me now and then that I was their baby sister, and there was no shortage of hell they’d put someone through if they hurt me.
It was unhinged yet endearing at times.
“What are Leah and Avery up to? Shouldn’t they be supervising you two?”
“They went out to watch some chick flick at the movies, which got us on the topic ofThe Notebookand Brody crying.”
“I wasn’t crying!”
“It’s okay to admit it, man,” Wyatt said. “It’s good you’re in touch with your feelings…and all that bullshit.”
I snorted. “Leave him alone. It’s not his faultyouhave the emotional range of a teaspoon.”
I heard Brody laugh in the background. “Yeah, well, enjoy your Friday nightalone,” Wyatt teased.
“I will, thank you very much.”
My apartment building was nestled ten minutes from downtown in the suburban commuter belt of Bayport. I walked inside, shut and locked the door behind me, and hung my purse on the hook before tossing my keys onto the kitchen counter. It wasn’t a fancy condominium like you would find near the cove with rent that cost the same as my monthly salary, but I loved it.
It had two bedrooms, one of which I turned into an office for days I needed to work from home, a decent-sized kitchen, and a spacious living room with a small terrace that overlooked the pond with the fountain at the back of the property. And because I had a good relationship with my landlord—and because of my line of work—he let me paint over the ugly-ass gray walls that had been there when I first moved in, letting me make the space my own.
Late September made for perfect nights outside, so after I changed into an oversized slouchy sweatshirt and a pair of leggings, I poured myself a glass of wine and went to sit on my terrace.
Enjoy your Friday night alone.
My brother’s words echoed in my head as I stared out at the lit-up fountain at the center of the pond.
It wasn’t as if it was my personal preference to be alone. I just seemed to have the worst dating luck in the history of the goddamn universe.
I’d always been independent and headstrong. I didn’t need anyone special in my life to make it what I wanted. But that didn’t mean I didn’t crave to have someone to share it with. In the past, it never bothered me. I was never one to go out and actively search for love, always telling myself that it would find me when the time was right. Over the last few years, however, it felt like the universe was just rubbing the fact that I wasstillsingle at twenty-eight in my face.
My brother Wyatt got married a couple of years ago to his college sweetheart Avery, and they were nauseatingly perfect together.
