“I’ll get my own ride.”
The car had turned suffocating. I jerked open the door.
He dropped his phone. “What are you doing?”
I hopped out into the cold. “I’ll call my own Uber.” And slammed the door shut.
Ben rolled the window down. “You don’t have to leave. The Uber’s coming.”
I ignored him, cutting through the chilly grass. I needed to be anywhere Ben wasn’t. If that place happened to be on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, Hudson County, well—better than here. Maybe I’d get picked up by a murderous truck driver. Or a truck driver with a heart of gold. Honestly, I was not in the mood to be picky.
Of course Ben had rejected me. He’d made his feelings clear from the beginning. And he wasn’t even wrong. After everything we’d put each other through, kissing was a terrible idea. That didn’t make this any less humiliating.
I couldn’t believe how quickly I’d abandoned my principles and seized the chance to kiss him again. How on brand for Lee Stone, Queen of Bad Decisions. Guaranteed to do whatever would get me the opposite of what I wanted in the end.
Case in point: I was pretty sure I’d just ruined my relationship with Ben.
16
Stone-Cold Heart
I checked my phone for the millionth time, but still nothing from Ben. Over the last week I’d texted, emailed and even called him, but received nothing in response. Classic Ben, just like five years ago. I would hand it to him: if torture was what he was aiming for, his methods were very effective.
“Honey, are you working on Thanksgiving?” My mom peeked around the corner, holding her hands up like a surgeon about to go into the operating room. Both of her hands were covered in flour, like dusty white evening gloves.
“Nope, I swear.” I closed out of my texts and tapped my internet browser, where I’d been hard at work on a wholly different project. “I’m just getting your Tinder set up.”
Mom blinked in confusion. “Mywhat?”
“Ew, why Tinder?” Alexis swept past Mom, tossing a dish towel over her shoulder. “That app’s only for people who want to hook up. At least set her up on eHarmony or something.”
I stretched out on the couch and rested my shoes on the cushions, exactly like I wasn’t supposed to. Mom and Alexis rolled their eyes in perfect unison.Whew, the genetics were strong with those two. “Maybe Mom just wants to bone—have you thought of that? She deserves a little action.”
Mom, who was a total dish with her sage-green cardigan, chunky pearls and shoulder-length brown hair, the same shade as Alexis’s and mine, opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
Alexis lifted my feet off the couch and dropped them unceremoniously on the living room floor, then sat in their place. “What Momdeservesis an epic romance.”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “Those don’t—”
Alexis held up a finger. “Don’t you say those don’t exist, you heartless troll.”
I kicked her. “I was going to say they don’t last forlong, Princess Sunshine. As everyone in this room knows firsthand.”
“Actually,” my mom said, leaning against the wall. “I’m already seeing someone.”
Both our heads snapped and turned to her, like meerkats springing from their hidey-holes. “You’rewhat?” I screeched. “An adult man?”
“Details, now,” Alexis demanded.
Mom wiggled her flour-covered fingers. “All I’ll say before I go put the bread in the oven is that his name is Ethan, he’s a widower, no children, and he’s a successful tax attorney.” A naughty smile spread over her face. “And anexcellentlover.”
“Eww,”Alexis and I shrieked.
“I thought you just said I deserved to bone.” Mom shook her head and turned back to the kitchen. “My children, ladies and gentlemen.”
“Look what you manifested.” Alexis kicked me from her side of the couch, and I kicked her back, and soon we were fighting like two little crabs who’d toppled over and had only their legs to work with.
“We’re happy for you, Mom,” I called into the kitchen, getting Alexis good in the side. Though the weird thing was, I wasn’t sure I was telling the truth. I’d led the campaign to get Mom laid for years now, but I think I’d always been secretly happy when she said no. Now that she was seeing someone, did that mean she was over what Dad did? And if she’d gotten over it...well, without the vivid pain of a fresh wound keeping Dad alive, would he begin to fade away? I stopped kicking Alexis, feeling a sudden, terrible certainty in the pit of my stomach that he would.
