I smiled.
Me:Let me take a wild stab and guess tomorrow’s will say gorgeous.
Ethan:Good to see your psychic abilities are finally developing.
Me:Perhaps you should worry about developing a little more originality.
Ethan:Oh, I’m original and divinely gorgeous. It’s a winning combination. Tell that friend of yours I’m going to kick her ass when I get home.
Home. The word touched an empty place inside. I missed him, missed the sound of his laughter ringing through the house like music, missed his sarcastic and smutty humor. Missed ourhome.
Me:Just be safe and hurry back.
Ethan:I keep telling you I don’t need to worry about protection.
I chuckled.
Then another text lit my screen.I’m going to get some sleep. Good night, little witch.
I pinged back:Sweet dreams.
I smiled because I knew he had already formulated a comeback in his head that involved details of just how sweet his dreams were. I stared down at the phone and waited, but it never came.
Chapter 36
It’s Bad, Isn’t It
Georgie was sitting on the bottom step, hunched forward, staring at the floor.
The smell of bacon cooking wafted through the house. A rattle of pans told me Mary was cooking a late breakfast. Soft murmurs came from the sitting room. Karson had dropped us off and headed straight back out. I doubt he would have returned yet.
“Hey.” I sat down beside her, hooking my hands around my shins. “Can’t sleep either?”
She shook her head but kept hers down, her long dark hair curtaining the sides of her face. A dark bruise ringed her eye and bled down across her cheek. The split across her lip had dried and was coated with fine red-and-yellow scabbing.
“Did you take any pain relief?”
She raised her head and looked at me, one eye only visible through a thin slit. She must have seen something in my face because she said, “It’s bad, isn’t it?”
I attempted a reassuring smile. “No, it’s not terrible. It will come right in a few days,” I lied.
“I still can’t believe it,” she rasped. “How can you talk about your future together, how could someone look you in the eyeand tell you they love you …” Her voice cracked and she sucked in a breath. “And then they shove their cock into anything that moves.”
I was devastated when Tom cheated on me. I didn’t just lose him, I lost our friendship circle, I lost the life I was living with him, I lost the future we had planned together. And I lost the only person I thought I could rely on. In that one moment, my whole world was shattered. And worse, it broke my confidence, because all I could think was—What is so wrong with me?
It was only later that I understood there was nothing wrong with me and everything wrong with him.
I knew the soul-destroying pain she was going through; it was the kind of unique pain only cheating was capable of causing. I touched her arm in a show of compassion. “I’m so sorry, Georgie.”
Tears slipped down her face. “He said we were going to get engaged once he was signed to the NBA. He was the first guy I ever truly loved. I gave him my heart.” Her words choked on a sob. “And he crushed it, then he just threw me out the door like I was nothing to him but a piece of trash.”
My hand slipped softly up and down her back. “He’s an asshole and he doesn’t deserve you.”
“She wasn’t even fucking pretty.” She threw up her hands and they slapped back down on her legs. “He could have at least chosen someone beautiful.”
I went to say they never were, but I closed my mouth quickly. Georgie was the girl Ethan had cheated with when he was trying to make Sarah leave him. The reason we were in this mess in the first place. Not that I blamed her. Ethan could read minds and knew exactly what to say to charm the pants off someone. Literally.
“This is my fucking karma,” she sobbed.
