CHAPTER 11
“I’m going to tell him.”
Indie’s glass paused halfway to her mouth before she looked at Clara. “You’re going to tell who what?”
Clara glanced at Holden across her mother’s yard. He was drinking beer with her brothers, and it was taking everything in her not to stare.
She looked back at Indie and lowered her voice. “I’m going to tell Holden I’m a virgin.”
An almost thirty-year-old virgin. God, she could already feel the heat crawling up her neck.
Indie grabbed Clara’s arm and dragged her to a corner of the yard. “Why?”
“Because I turn thirty in two weeks, and I don’t want to go into my thirties a virgin. It’s not just about sex. It’s about being close and intimate with another person. I want that. I want to experience it. And I’d like it to be with him.”
“Clara—”
“He kissed me.Hekissedme. When he did, it was like every nerve in my body woke up, and I felt alive and electric. It was raw and real, and he felt it too. I know he did. I saw and felt it in him. And now I just need to give him all the information and he cando with that what he wants. He can decide if the kiss changed anything.”
“And if it didn’t?”
Her stomach did a sad roll. “Then I’ll live with that. I’ll put space between us. I’ll try to get over this thing between him and me. And I’ll explore other options. I think I’ve really closed myself off to those other options because I’ve always hoped he’d love me.” It sounded pathetic.
Indie tilted her head. “You know I love you. But I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“It would hurt more for me to give up after that kiss.” She swallowed, catching sight of him across the yard again, a deep yearning stirring in her belly. “I’ve been on this journey the last few years to chase everything I want. And I need to give this one last chance.”
Indie sighed. “Come on. You’re going to need a drink then.”
Clara glanced at her friend as they made their way across the yard. There was something almost off about her today. “Are you okay?”
“Colt sent back the divorce papers.”
Clara stopped. “Oh my gosh. And you let me go on about my little issues?”
“They’re not little.”
She rolled her eyes. “So he signed them?”
“I don’t know. I can’t bring myself to open the envelope yet, but I assume so.”
“Why haven’t you opened it?”
Indie lifted a shoulder, a thin film of tears building in her eyes. “I just saw his handwriting on the envelope and it did something to me. It threw me back to this time when we were together and happy, and the strain of him being away all the time and us trying to have a baby hadn’t taken a toll on us.”
“Oh, Indie…”
“I thought I was ready for this. I did everything—engaged a lawyer, got the papers written up, signed and sent them. But I know the second I open it…”
“It becomes official,” Clara finished for her.
“Yep.” Indie’s chest rose and fell. “It’s going to hurt.”
Clara touched her friend’s arm. “I’m here if you want me by your side. Heck, I can open it for you. You don’t even have to look at the papers.”
Indie leaned her head on Clara’s shoulder. “I love you.”
“I love you more.”
