Page 132 of Spurred On

“I’m not sure how to begin . . .”

“Porsche, we’ve been friends our whole lives. I think you can just say whatever it is.”

She grimaced. “It’s about Sidney.”

All of a sudden, his casual demeanor faded. He sat bolt upright and stared at her. “What about her? Is she okay? Have you seen her? How is she doing? Is her father all right?”

Porsche leaned back a little and laughed. “Well, that answers one of my questions.”

He frowned. “Which was?”

“Are you still interested in her?”

Interested?Hardly the word. “What’s your point?”

“She’s not happy.”

His mood dimmed. “She’s not?”

“She hasn’t been for a long time. Oh, she pretends she is, but I can see it in her eyes.”

“It was her decision to break up with me,” he said, linking his fingers and staring at them.

“I know. But she’s . . .”

“What?”

“Difficult.”

He huffed a laugh. “Tell me about it.”

“She’s always been more complicated than most people.”

Complicated, she was.

“I always suspected she harbors some deep dark sense of being unworthy, unlovable. And that was why she was always so snarky. To cover it up.”

He lifted a brow. “Or maybe—just spitballin’ here—she’s just snarky?”

Porsche laughed. “It could be that too. But considering her sense of vulnerability, her stubbornness and her certainty that things will always go sour for her, I can see why she jumped to the conclusion she did . . . when she found two women naked in your bed.”

He rolled his eyes. “Did she tell everyone about that?”

“Pretty much.”

“It wasn’t my fault. They just showed up there. Christ.” Would he be tormented by that one night forever?

“And your shirt was unbuttoned?”

“I’d just taken a shower. I was heading to my room—”

“With champagne?”

“For her. I was going to set up this romantic scene. We were going to finally have some alone time together. But they were there. I was as shocked as she was.” Maybe more.

“See, I thought it was something like that. I told her it was.”

“But she didn’t believe you.”