“A crier?”
“Someone sensitive. Someone who loves just as hard as he does.” I turned and smiled at him. “An optimist. And I am most definitely short on optimism these days.”
“Yeah, well, if he doesn’t find Mrs. Right soon, his liver is gonna fail.”
I turned and waved down JR—my new best friend. “Another!”
“Don’t you think you’ve had enough?”
I plopped my chin in my hand, grinning up at him. “Not nearly enough. I can still make out the bar clearly, and every time I look toward the windows, my heart breaks. So, unless you want to hear my sad, sad tales, pour me another.”
He was on it faster than any bartender I’d ever seen. If there was one thing a man never wanted to hear, it was about a woman’s broken heart. And JR was the least likely to sit around listening to my woes. The only woman he tolerated was his wife. Other than that, he was kind of a loner.
“You know, you really need to do something to get over Liam,” Josie whispered. “He’s married.”
“I’m well aware.”
“But you’re still pining for him.”
I sighed heavily. She just didn’t get it, and she never would. “The heart wants what the heart wants.”
JR slid my drink in front of me, narrowing his eyes as if to warn me. Warn me about what, I wasn’t sure.
“You know, you never told me what really happened with him.”
“Yes, I did. In fact, I told you everything.”
“Everything except how you ended up with the life-altering, forlorn love.”
Yeah, I hadn’t mentioned that part. “Just call me Susy-come-lately. It’s the age-old tale of man meets woman. Man falls for woman. But another woman fell in love at the same time, only he never knew.”
“You never told him?”
“When?” I snorted. “See, it all started a long, long time ago in a land called Montana. We were kids on the playground. You know the story. Bailey got stuck on the monkey bars and Liam climbed up there to get her down.”
“Yes, but what does that have to do with you?”
“Well, that very same day, I was playing and this kid walked up to me, calling me fat and ugly, and then he pushed me down. I scraped up my hands and knees. And as I sat there, I cried in the gravel, wishing someone would beat up the jerk.”
“But no one did.”
“Liam saw the whole thing,” I said, remembering the incident. “As I recall, he told the kid to knock it off, and then he walked away. Not exactly the shining hero I’d wished for. He didn’t even help me up. But then again, he only had eyes for Bailey.”
Josie stared at me, her eyes wide as she sipped through the pink straw in her margarita. “He did nothing?”
“Nope. He didn’t know I had a crush on him.”
“And you didn’t tell him.”
“There was no point. He was always staring at Bailey.”
She took a long sip of her drink, then pulled back, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Brain freeze.” Shaking out her head, she took another sip. “So, that’s it? After that, you just gave up?”
I let out a humorless laugh, sipping my own drink. “Oh, no. I watched him from afar, always wishing he would look at me, buthe never did. Not in middle school when someone shoved all my clothes in a locker while I was changing during gym.”
She gasped in horror. “What?”
“You never heard about that?”
