“You didn’t correct me either.” She stared him down. “You are tenderhearted and loyal to a fault. I just don’t want to see you get hurt. You have to promise me you’ll stay away from her until your heart is mended. It’s rarely a good idea to be friends with your ex, especially when she’s over you, and you’re clearly not over her.”
This was not at all turning out the way he’d planned. Dillon shook his head, knowing he couldn’t make that promise, and it was ridiculous under any circumstances. He was a grown man.
“I’m not promising anything, and you’re wrong about her.” He couldn’t imagine sitting down to eat now, not that he saw anything prepped. “Can we do lunch another time?”
She waved him away. “I was too upset to make anything. Go on. We’ll talk about this later when we’re both more levelheaded.”
It was the only thing she was right about. Dillon left, knowing he’d screwed that whole thing up, and yet not knowing how he could have fixed it without revealing everything.
With some alarm, he realized he hadn’t even asked whether Lina saw Mom there, or whether Mom had interfered and made a scene with this other guy. Things could possibly be worse than he’d imagined.
OceanofPDF.com
Chapter 12
Lina called Paige and Ashley for an emergency girl meeting, and being the good friends they were, they didn’t hesitate to come right over, despite the fact that Ashley had been having mild contractions on and off all day, and Paige came dressed up for an open house she needed to leave for within the hour.
Ashley broke open the bag of mini powdered donuts she’d brought over. With the first bite, white powder spilled onto her belly. She brushed it off. “This seemed like the perfect sad person food to bring, something that leaves evidence all over you so people automatically know you need support.”
Paige picked a mini donut out of the bag and carefully set it on a napkin. “Direct me to one of your cooking aprons, if you don’t mind. I need to convince people to buy a house tonight, not pat me on the head and tell me things will get better.”
Lina gave a feeble laugh. “Second drawer down.” She took a donut out of the bag and ate it thoughtfully. “I know today will be a funny memory someday, but right now it just makes me wish I could hide somewhere.”
Ashley frowned. “I picked the wrong day to miss work. What exactly happened?”
Lina related the story, starting with Thomas and ending with Brenda leaving the parking lot. There was a long silence when Lina was done. “Go ahead. Say ‘I told you so.’”
Paige shook her head. “Have you talked to Corrie? I highly doubt she gave her okay for this Thomas guy to come scope you out while you were working.”
“Nope. My pending date with Thomas is sort of low priority right now.”
Ashley bit her nail. “You’re worried about Dillon.”
“Yeah, but I haven’t talked to him yet either.” She should be looking forward to resolving everything, but instead, it filled Lina with dread.
They each ate a few more donuts, getting incrementally messier.
“You have powdered sugar in your eyebrow,” Paige said, pointing at Ashley.
Ashley ate the last of her donut, wiggling her eyebrows and making them laugh. “Are we done with these?” She twisted the bag closed before they ran to the bathroom mirror to check the damage. There was a little bit of powder on Lina’s lower lip, and a little on her shirt. She quickly rubbed it all off.
Smoothing her hair back from her face, Lina studied the reflection of the three of them side by side. They all had dark hair and brown eyes, but Lina looked nothing like the two sisters in all other respects.
“My sister from another mister,” Paige said, throwing her arm around Lina. She looked thoughtful. “Did you ever send for that DNA test?”
Lina nodded. “It should come back any day now.”
“What will it tell you?” Ashley asked.
“My ethnicity for one. I know I’ve got a blend of things going on, from both sides. But also, if anyone related to me has also taken the test and made their results searchable, we could find each other.”
“That would be so exciting, Lina.” Ashley gave her a quick hug.
It was exciting, but Lina had tempered that hope with reality. Chances were good she wouldn’t find anyone right away or maybe ever at all. A relative would have to buy their DNA test from the same company for them to find each other.
Ashley’s phone rang from where she’d left her purse in the kitchen. Her husband, Chase, was probably a little more than worried about her, considering she’d be delivering their baby any day now. And Paige had work stuff she needed to get to. Lina practically shooed them out the door with promises that she’d be fine.
Ashley had left the bag of donuts on the table, and Lina tossed them straight in the trash. She’d had her fill—with donuts and with feeling sorry for herself.
