I lean back in my chair and snarf down about three times the amount of potato chips I planned to eat. I knew my diary was providing ideas—but writing a story about my ex-husband? The man who’s currently engaged to someone else? That’s just ludicrous. And pathetic.
This can’t happen. The chapter of my life that included Logan Wild in any romantic sense is long over. I’m going to have to rework this novel for the third time and try focusing on Mama and Daddy as inspiration. Maybe I can write their redemption story, which would at least feel like one degree of separation.
But right now, it’s time to meet Riley, right before I go to Logan and Gigi’s engagement party.
Super.
64
I pull up to the creek just as Riley steps out of her car. I park right behind her, and we walk toward the water together, taking seats on top of one of the picnic tables. I can see the streamers and balloons down by the lake just on the other side of the tree line. I’m sure Gigi’s already there, ready for her fans and all the cameras to descend on her.
“You look hot.” Riley glances approvingly at my silk green shirt and black miniskirt.
“Thanks. Maybe feeling good about my outfit will help my mood.”
“You dreading this party as much as I’d imagine you are?” Riley asks me, chipping paint off the table with a stick she found.
“Like you wouldn’t believe.” I take a rock off the bench. “Want to?”
We walk down to the edge of the water and take turns skipping stones. Riley wins, of course. Eleven skips. I get six.
“You always win.” I know I sound like a brat, and I smile at her to make up for it.
She follows me back to the table, and we sit in silence for a few minutes. The sun is hot already, and I’m sweating through my clothes. This feeling used to turn me on and make me wonder where Logan could be right now. But I know better than to ever play that game with myself again.
“So how was Austin?” I ask Riley.
“Sucked.”
She looks up at the sun, her shades even thicker than Mama’s. She tugs at her black halter top and rubs her hands on her black jeans. I smile and tell her she shouldn’t hide behind all that black.
“Well, here’s the thing. Wink’s cheating on me.”
When the words come out of her mouth, I don’t hear them at first. I don’t want to. All I see is her mouth moving and no sound.
I stare at her hard, and she repeats it. The same sentence, the same four words, and my eyes sting with the shock of hot tears under my eyelids. I blink them back.
“At first, I didn’t want to believe it either,” Riley says as if reading my mind. “That’s why I asked you to come to Austin with me. I wanted to snoop.”
A pang of guilt hits me in the gut that I never even answered her yes or no. I hurt that I wasn’t there for my little sister. Because I thought she was perfect and I was flawed.
“I found her online last night,” she says. “Internet stalked her and called her myself. That little bitch he’s been going up to Austin nearly every weekend for.”
“Not for practice?” I ask her.
“There’s practice now. But there wasn’t in March.”
“He’s been seeing her since March?” I want to turn back time, to the exact moment before I realized Riley doesn’t lead the most perfect life in creation.
“Since January. She came down here till March. Then, he worried I’d find out somehow, so he started going up to Austin.”
“Did you ever try to go with him?”
“I had just gotten hired, and he didn’t even have any games.” She starts to cry. “No, I didn’t try to go with him! Why would I?”
I hug her until she needs a tissue, and then I hand her one from my purse.
“I’m so sorry, Riles. I thought Wink was perfect for you. Shows you what I know.”
