Page 26 of Ashes to Ink

He just really didn’t want to make a mistake. He was good atthose.

So he got dressed and watched as she did the same.

And then he kissed her before he left, wondering when hewould get to see her again.

Wondering if this had all been a dream.

Because it had been perfect.

And nothing with him was ever perfect.

Chapter Seven

Abby knew the others knew exactly what had gone onduring and after her date with Ryan the night before, and she hadn’t even saida word. Apparently, it was written all over her face.

She’d had sex.

Dirty sex.

Emotional sex.

Damn good sex.

And her best friends knew.

Oh, they knew.

And now they were sitting in Thea’s bakery, teas and coffeesin their hands, staring at her with expectant looks on their faces. She wouldhave to confess it all.

Because they might know, but they’d still want all thedetails.

It was how this whole friendship thing worked.

“So, are you going to tell us how your date went lastnight?” Adrienne asked, her eyes full of warmth as a smile tugged at her lips.

“Um.” Abby knew she should have said something other than aword that wasn’t really a word, but she didn’t know how she was going toexplain it.

She hadn’t known what she was going to say, hadn’t known howthe date would go. It had been, well…she didn’t want to say perfect becauseshe, more than anyone, knew that nothing was perfect—except for herdaughter—but it had been pretty darn close.

“Is that um a good um?” Thea asked, coming over with morepastries for them. They were in Thea’s bakery, newly reopened since it had beenclosed for a little bit after the explosion that hurt Roxie’s husband, Carter,and Thea herself.

Abby couldn’t quite believe everything that had precededthose events or that her friends had actually been hurt.

But Roxie had said that Carter would recover nicely, andThea was up and walking around. In fact, the other woman looked so happy and inlove with Dimitri, the man that completed her in every way, that Abby figuredthat maybe she could put what had happened at the bakery behind them.

Of course, they’d probably be able to do that easier ifCarter hadn’t been hurt as badly as he had been.

So the bakery was open again minus the updated renovationthat Abby knew Thea had wanted to do. They were also short an oven, buteverything else was fine. The damage hadn’t been as extensive as everyonethought in the beginning, and Abby was grateful for that. She had missed thebakery the few days it had been closed. She had missed her friends.

“It went great.” She put her hands over her face andgroaned. “Why am I making it sound like it was horrendous?”

“Why don’t you tell me?” Kaylee asked, sipping her tea.

Kaylee was relatively new to their friendship circle. Newerthan even Abby was. Kaylee was their Brushes with Lushes artist and coach. Atleast once a month, they went to Kaylee’s art studio, drank some wine, andtried to learn how to paint. Everyone was much better than Abby was, althoughRoxie tended to be really hard on herself.

But Kaylee was their friend now, and Abby enjoyed opening upher circle just a little bit more to accommodate the woman. Something was goingon with Kaylee, something that Abby didn’t know the details of, but she had afeeling it had to do with Landon. Not that any of them were going to askKaylee, because the woman would probably just walk away after she gave them alook that shriveled them down to their bones. Kaylee was good at that, even thoughshe was one of the sweetest people that Abby knew.

It didn’t help that everybody’s current focus was on Abbyand Ryan, and not Kaylee and Landon. Well, Abby and Ryan as well as Roxie andCarter. But they weren’t going to talk about that couple either.