We aren’t, but we settle into our seats anyway.
Lilah pulls a pack of Oreos out of her purse, then shakes them my way. “Want one?”
I smile and nod, instantly thinking about how Talia would love her. “They sell Oreos here?”
“Oh, no. I snuck these in. Have you seen the prices here? They’re outrageous!”
She’s not wrong there.
“I brought chips,” Rory announces, lifting her jersey—sans bedazzling—and pulls a bag from her hoodie pocket. “But I’m not sharing.”
“Nobody wants your gross chips,Wednesday.” Lilah rolls her gorgeous blue eyes, and Rory retaliates by knocking her Oreos out of her hands.
Okay, they are officially nothing like any WAGs I’ve known throughout the years.
“Wednesday?” I ask through a laugh.
Rory groans. “Ugh, yes. That’s me. Lucas claims I’m a real-life Wednesday Addams, hence the nickname.”
At first listen, she sounds annoyed, but the smile at the corners of her lips gives her away. She doesn’t hate it, she loves it—and she loves him too. I’ve seen that look before, on myself back in college when I was so damn smitten with Callum I couldn’t stop grinning even justthinkingabout him.
“So, tell us about you, Chloe. We don’t know anything.”
“Other than you left a few years ago,” Vanessa adds, earning a glower from the three other girls.
“Careful, you’re almost starting to sound like theevilstepsister again,” Rory says.
Vanessa shrugs. “Sorry. It’s the truth, though.” She sits forward, looking over at me. “I’m not trying to be mean, I promise. I’m just being honest—that’s quite literally all we know about you. It took days just to learn your name.”
“Have none of you ever heard of Google? I had that shit uncovered by the next day, before the guys got home from checking on Keller.”
They go back and forth about what they found on Google as if I’m not sitting right there.
“Is it true that you’ve been married since you were twenty-one?” Auden asks.
“Uh, yeah. That’s true.”
Her eyes widen. “Wow. I… Well, no offense, but I just can’t imagine getting married so young. That had to take guts.”
She has no idea.
“You guys must have really been in love, huh?”
Yes.
I close my eyes against the single word. We were in love. So damn much that we didn’t care how reckless it was to hinge our entire futures on a college relationship. We just wanted to be together.
Look how well that panned out for us.
A hand lands on my shoulder, and I open my eyes to find Auden staring at me with a sad smile.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened, but if it makes you react like that, whatever it is, it can’t be good.”
But that’s where she’s wrong—it was good.Sogood. It didn’t matter, though. I still didn’t feel like it was enough. I didn’t feel likeIwas enough.
“So, I heard you were in London. Isn’t it lovely there?” she says, changing the subject, and I’m grateful for it.
“I loved it. I take it you’ve been?”
