Chapter Twenty-Nine
RIVER
I was miserable.
I’d been sulking around for weeks.
My kids had said something and Lake had called me out on it.
I was sick of myself.
I never thought I’d be the girl that laid on the couch, drowning her sorrows in ice cream and watching some sappy romance movie. I knew that seemed cliché, but it must have been true because I’d found myself doing it multiple times lately.
Truth was, I missed Huntley.
The alert on the cameras went off and then there was a knock on the door dragging me from my sorrows. I’d done it to myself. I was the one that pushed him away after?—
Now came pounding. It wasn’t the kids or they’d let themselves in and their movie—the one I declined to go to—wouldn’t be over yet. I grabbed my phone and looked at the app on it to see who was there. Shaking my head, I sighed, knowing I was in for a lecture. Not only was Lake standing there, but Capri and Ruby were with her.
I managed to drag myself off the couch and pad over to let them inreluctantly.After swinging open the door, I looked into the faces of the three women.
“Let me guess. You’re staging an intervention,” I deadpanned.
Pushing her way past me, Lake answered, “Pretty much.”
The other two ladies followed. I wondered for a second how the heck I ended up in a world with friends who just busted into your house and did as they pleased. Yet, even as moody as I was, I couldn’t contain the slight curve of my lips as they pranced right over to the couch, sat, and then looked at me expectantly.
Giving them my best eye roll just caused them to laugh.
Lake, who’d stayed standing, wagged her finger at me. “Don’t you be rolling those beautiful eyes at me.” Her tone was playful and then in the next second turned serious. “I can see the sadness in them.”
“We are here so you can spill your guts,” Capri said.
Ruby, putting her two cents into a conversation I didn’t want to have, smiled and cheerfully added, “Then we are going to lunch and shopping.”
I looked down at myself, then to each of the women.
“Yeah,” Lake said, motioning with her hand up and down my body. “That’safteryou take a shower and put on something other than pajamas. There’s no more moping for you, sis.”
“What?” I gave her my best glare. “I’m not doing any such thing.”
“Really?” With the same hand she’d waved up and down me a moment ago, she flung it toward the pint of Rocky Road ice cream I’d set down on the coffee table when I got up to answer the door.
Obviously my glare didn’t work the first time, so I gaveanother whack at it that failed even worse and had all three ladies cackling.
“You’re all annoying,” I said without any heat.
I didn’t mean it of course, but I also had no desire to admit they were right. Since another round of laughter came, I knew they were aware I wasn’t truly mad. They also all wore the same look on their faces as they got themselves back under control.
It was a look that called bullshit on my attempt to make them believe I wasn’t sulking with Huntley no longer in my life.
Lake planted her hands on her hips—I swear her baby bump was mocking me too somehow—and just stared, until I wavered.
Letting out a sound of exasperation, I threw my hands up. “Fine, I’m so freaking miserable without him but it’s the way it has to be!”
My sister dropped her hands to her sides and started toward me. I put my own up to stop her. I’d known if she got any closer to comfort me, I’d lose it. She didn’t stop being the stubborn person she was and the moment she pulled me in for a hug, the water works began.
Two more sets of arms joined Lake’s and I was engulfed by the three women. After a few minutes I was being drug over toward the couch and pushed down to a seated position. When they all took their seats around me and looked at me with sympathetic eyes…
