“Good. Do you have any leads for a new place?”
“Vanessa is looking for me since I can’t put out feelers yet. So far, nothing. Sierra Rose Ridge doesn’t have apartments except that rundown place on the edge of town where everybody buys drugs. There are a few guys looking for roommates, but I don’t know them. I’m sure they’re fine, but…”
“Jumping from the pan into the firing range.”
Dani snorted.
“That’s not how that phrase goes.”
I shrugged.
“It does now.”
Her throaty laugh rang out full force, and I willed my erection away. I once loved everything about this woman, but she still wasn’t for me. If only I could get it through my thick skull.
“Thanks, I needed a laugh.”
We sat in a silence for a few minutes and watched the flames. It was relaxing, but nothing smoothed my jagged edges as much as hanging out with Dani.
Her voice broke the silence, and the whole story of how she found out about Beau’s perfidy spilled out. At first, she spoke in a halting, ashamed voice, but the more she told me, the more her indignation and anger returned.
“Fuck, that’s a shitty situation,” I said when she wrapped up her tale. “I’m happy to help you get your stuff when you’re ready to make things official.”
“Thanks. I’ll take you up on that.”
She peeled the label off her water bottle, another habit from years past.
“We weren’t a couple when he asked me to move in with him. I was living with my parents and felt like a loser. His roommate got a new job across the country. It seemed like the perfect solution.”
After she pushed the label into the empty water bottle, she tossed it at her feet.
“The house has two bedrooms, and one was supposed to be mine. We were roommates. When I stayed at my parents’ house for a few nights when mom had the flu, he converted my room into a man cave since ‘we were dating anyway.’”
She buried her face in her hands. “God, I’m such an easy mark. No wonder he thought he could get away with it.”
“You’re not an easy mark; you’re trusting. That’s not the same.”
“Trusting, gullible, stupid, whatever you want to call it. I’ve been killing myself working around the clock, and I believed him every time he said the bills went up. I never once questioned him because everything’s more expensive. Finding out his parents own the house, and I’m not on the lease was a real gut-punch.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, it’s going to make it harder to find a place now. I have no rental history, and he’s tanked my credit if the lawyer can’t fix it. I’ll be stuck living with my parents forever. It’s a good thing I like them so much.”
Our conversation petered out, and we sat in companionable silence. Eventually, she grabbed her shoes to leave.
“Thanks for letting me crash your stargazing.”
“You’re welcome anytime.”
I didn’t tell her she made it better.
Chapter 10
Dani
I couldn’t stop thinking about Jake. Worse, it was in ways I’d never thought about him before. Sure, he was attractive in high school. When he got his height and put on muscle one summer, the girls at school went feral for him. To me, he was just Jake - my brother from another mother.
But now, I found myself fantasizing about what ifs. What if he was curious, too? What if I wasn’t the only one who thought last night felt like a date? What if dating him didn’t ruin things between us? What if my bad luck was because I’d been blind to the perfect guy all this time?
