“I don’t know where it started, but it became a thing. They all wore their nicknames like a badge of honor—Houston, Paris…”
“Denver?” Becca asked.
“He hasn’t mentioned Denver at all since he bought the house.” Courtney let out a breath. “Or anyone else. You’re special. You’re different to him.”
Becca had known Linx was a bit of a player. Heck, Bax had confirmed that for her. That’s why he was a safe bet for her pina colada fling. Still, this didn’t sit right, and there was a lot here to psychoanalyze. Later. For now, Becca had to get to her car.
“And now I have officially said too much.” Courtney shivered a little. “You should ask him about it.”
“Said too much about what?” Linx asked, slipping beside Becca to plant a kiss at her temple. “What should she ask me?”
“I just said…” Courtney closed her laptop and stood from the stool. “You know what? I think I’m going to go throw up now.”
Becca looked from Courtney’s retreating form back to Linx.
“You don’t get to use your pregnant status to run away, if we don’t get to ask questions about it,” Linx yelled behind her.
“Can and will,” Courtney hollered back.
Becca’s phone buzzed, announcing her car’s arrival at the front gate.
Good. Perfect.
Because she didn’t want to think about this, anyway.
Chapter 18
Becca
Becca hadn’t asked Linx about Denver or any of the others. Partially because asking him would be awkward as hell. Mostly, though, because asking raised responsibility levels which would cause a dump of cortisol which would raise her stress levels. Thus, it was none of her business.
“You’re just not going to ask him? You’re not the least bit curious about these women?” Kellie had taken a stool at Brek’s Bar. It was early—like late afternoon—and the place was empty except for the two of them and one cook in the kitchen. Brek moved in and out of the bar area, finishing up a handful of projects before the crowd started and he’d need to dive into bartending.
“You should ask him about it,” Kellie said when Brek was out of earshot.
This had been Kellie’s vote from the get-go. Their other friends were evenly divided amongst the ask and don’t ask camps.
Becca was team don’t-ask. Generally, she was team talk-it-out and communicate-the-hell-out-of-all-situations. This time… “It doesn’t really matter, though, right? It’s not like we have a future. Besides, the past should stay in the past.”
That sounded remarkably like something a grown-ass adult would say.
“Isn’t the past what has made us who we are? If we pick someone to spend time with, we should know where they’ve been, so we can understand where they are and where they’re going?” Kellie apparently felt philosophical today. Which begged the question—what was she avoiding that she was up in Becca’s business?
“You sound like me.” Becca wiped the bar counter. They only had thirty minutes before the regulars started pouring in.
“I sound like super-smart you.” Kellie sipped on her vodka martini with three olives.
It wasn’t exactly quitting time, but Kellie worked remotely for her accounting firm and made her own hours.
“Linx and I have both made regrettable decisions. We don’t need to dwell in the lost land of fuck-ups.” What mattered was the decisions they made from now on. Decisions that would lead to a helluva lot more fun.
It’d been days since Courtney had announced her pregnancy. Days in which Becca and Linx had not had another sleepover. Oh, they’d had sex. Mostly at her apartment after she got off work. She’d installed a lock.
He wasn’t driving her anymore—she had her car—but he followed her home to ensure she made it okay. She assured him she was perfectly safe, but he insisted. It was sweet, so she didn’t balk.
He’d invited her to his house for another sleepover, but with her work schedule and odd hours, it hadn’t worked out. That was the cover story. The reality was that she realized things between them were feeling not-so-surface anymore.
She had a lot of baggage to empty before she was ready for anything serious. Turned out, she carried a lot of luggage, herself. While she’d spent years helping others unpack theirs, hers had languished in the hallway of her life.
