Olivia looked like she was about to fire off another retort, but instead she sighed, rubbed her hands over her eyes, and picked up the remote. “Whatever. Do whatever you want, Merritt. It’s none of my business.”
She hitplayagain, a little aggressively, and the show blared back to life.
Merritt glanced over at Olivia, who kept her eyes fixed firmly on the TV. “I’m not going to, you know. Date him. Or…toy with him. This was all hypothetical.”
Pause.
“Okay.”
Pause.
“Don’t say anything about it? Please?”
“I won’t.”
Merritt knew she should drop it, but she was still feeling unsettled. As if reading her mind, Olivia spoke first. “Has he said anything? To you? Like, been flirty or anything?”
Merritt shook her head. “I don’t think he’s buying what I’m selling.” Her mind flashed back to seeing him with Skylar, the receptionist at the yoga studio, and the way she’d smiled andtossed her hair and leaned in closer than she’d needed to. “I’m sure he only dates, like, twenty-two-year-old wellness influencers.”
Olivia shrugged, refusing to take the bait. “Yeah, maybe.” But to Merritt’s surprise, she didn’t stop there. “I don’t think I’ve seen him with anyone since his ex.”
Merritt forced herself to wait a few beats before responding. “What ex?”
“You don’t know her, she left town before you got here. It was a pretty fucked-up situation, actually.”
“Oh yeah?”
“They dated for, like, two years, I think? Then, boom, out of nowhere, she left him for their roommate.”
Merritt’s stomach twisted. She didn’t know what she was expecting, but it wasn’t that. “Holy shit. That’s awful. And nobody saw it coming?”
Olivia shook her head. “I mean, they all spent a lot of time together, but none of us really thought anything of it. The two of them moved away pretty soon after that. I think they’re in Texas somewhere? I saw on Instagram that she just had a baby.”
“Wow.” Merritt was too stunned to say anything else.
“Yeah. So…just leave him alone. He’s already been through enough.” Olivia’s tone was flippant enough that Merritt resisted the urge to defend herself again.
Merritt turned her attention back toBottoms Up,which had now been playing for several minutes without either of them taking in a word. “Maybe he should go on this show. He’d clean up.”
“You just want to see his butt.” Olivia grinned.
“Well, yeah,apparentlyI’m banned from trying to see it any other way.”
“Damn right.”
Merritt laughed, relieved that the tension seemed to have evaporated.
Olivia was right. Even though every innuendo she’d tossed at Niko had seemed to fly straight over his head, Merritt knew it would be easy to fuck him if she really set her mind to it. It usually was.
But what would ultimately come of it, if she was being honest with herself? Was a night, a week, maybe even a month of vigorous sex worth the potential long-term fallout of dropping a bomb on their delicate social ecosystem? Maybe in her twenties, but she supposedly had better control over her impulses these days.
Olivia rested her mug on her stomach and groaned. “God, I feel like shit. Am I a terrible person if I skip the meeting tonight?”
“What meeting?”
“SummerFest. I’m on the board again this year.”
Crested Peak hosted a number of festivals and events throughout the year, but SummerFest was one of the biggest, drawing tourists from all over the country. For a week in July, the town was overtaken by a giant street fair, with all the local businesses participating, plus outside vendors. The kickoff was a fundraiser—usually some kind of performance, accompanied by a silent auction, benefiting a different community organization every year. Over the past few years, Olivia had taken a larger and larger role in helping to plan it.
