by Nancy Warren
When she drove away, a little later, Kate felt surprisingly good. That big, unresolved thing in her life, her impending wedding, was over. Ted promised he’d tell his parents if she’d go with him. She was too happy to be getting her freedom to argue.
The first person she wanted to tell about her extraordinary evening was Nick. But, as much as she wanted to, she didn’t pick up the phone.
Instead, she drove to Lissa’s in order to switch cars one more time.
When she knocked on her friend’s door she was practically yanked inside. “You are not getting a glimpse of your car keys until you tell me everything.”
“Everything?”
“Okay, everything from the second you left here until now. I have beer, wine, tequila, some vodka, I think, and I made the mistake of hitting Costco when I was hungry.”
“Oh, not the snack aisle?”
“I have jumbo family packs of everything from Doritos to yam chips.”
“Could I have some tea? I’m driving.”
Lissa shook her head. “You’re not driving. You’re staying over. I also ended up buying the family pack of eight toothbrushes.”
And, she realized, she really, really needed some easy girlfriend time. So, she said, “I hate yams.”
Lissa laughed. “Doritos coming right up.”
They sat up late over junk food and wine. Kate didn’t tell Lissa about her recent visit with Ted. That was Ted’s business and even though he’d hurt and betrayed her, she could see that he was hurting too. Besides, she didn’t want to talk about Ted. Ted was over. He was the choice of the woman she used to be.
But she was dying to talk about Nick.
Lissa laughed until the tears ran down her face when Kate described how Nick hired her to teach him to surf. “I give that man credit, he’s got cojones.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Also, I could not help but notice that the man is seriously hot.”
“Seriously hot? Wait a minute, how could you—“
“He came here.”
Even beneath the wine buzz, she felt the pierce of betrayal. Lissa, the one person she’d trusted completely in all of this had sold her out. “And you told him where I was.” She didn’t even voice it as a question.
“Hey, girlfriend. I didn’t tell him shit. First, I didn’t know where you were because you didn’t tell me where you were going. Second, I’ve got your back and you don’t ever forget that.”
She nodded, feeling confused and irritated. “So, what happened?”
“He showed up here, looking like something out of a wet dream, and I might have given him a hard time about hurting you. He convinced me he wasn’t working for the Carnarvons. Agreed with my assessment that Ted is a dick, and then told me he was worried that no one had seen or heard from you for days.” She glared at Kate. “Which was true. I had no idea where you were after that one call you made from the road when you sounded unhinged.”
“Unhinged? That is so unfair. You were counseling me.”
Lissa continued as though she hadn’t spoken. “So, when he told me he was worried something had happened to you, I told him about my car.”
“Seriously? Does no one think I can take care of myself? I was fine.”
Lissa grinned and poured more wine for both of them. “Oh, I know you can take care of yourself. I wasn’t worried about your safety. But after five minutes with Nick I knew he was exactly what you needed. A real man, with hot eyes who was obviously crazy about you.”
She sipped wine. Grabbed a chip and crunched into it. “You sent him after me so—“
“So you could get laid properly by a guy whose eyes light up when he talks about you.”
“His eyes didn’t light up.”
“Like a Christmas tree.”
“Oh. Okay.” She savored the image of a frantic Nick on Lissa’s front step, worried about her and decided she liked the image.
“Now, tell me everything.”
The telling took quite some time since Lissa kept interrupting to ask questions.
She got all the way to their last meeting. And when she described Nick’s parting words she heard her voice go husky.
Lissa stared at her for a moment. “And did you tell him you love him?”
She was so startled she choked on a chip. “No. Of course I didn’t tell him I love him.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to be in love with him,” she wailed.
“I don’t want to be five-three and twenty pounds overweight, but that doesn’t change reality.”
“I ended my engagement like a week ago. I can’t be in love with another man already.”
“You can if you were never in love with the first one.”
She let out a howl of frustration. “Why did you never tell me this?”
“That you didn’t love Ted?”
“Yeah.”
“Seriously? I thought you knew. Figured you were in for a nice, easy life and you liked him well enough. If that was enough for you, who am I to judge?”
She blinked, trying to take in the fact that her best friend knew she didn’t love Ted. But Lissa was wrong, wasn’t she? “I did love him. No. I thought I did.”
“Well, you can thank the suspicious dad for paying a seriously hot dude to try and seduce you.”
Kate had just enough wine in her to think this was the height of hilarity. “Truth is, Nick did seduce me.” She thought about it. “Or maybe I seduced him.”
“Seems to me you seduced each other.” She leaned over and patted Kate’s short hair. “And I like everything about the way you look since you got back. Like the hair, the weight you’re putting back on, and honey, you glow like somebody who’s getting great sex.”
She dropped her voice though there was no one to hear her. “I had no idea.”
Lissa grew suddenly serious. “Sucks about your job, though. Specially now you need it.”
She waved a hand airily. “I will find another job.”
“So, what’s next?”
“Ted and I decided that we’d tell our parents together that we’re not getting married.”
“That’s going to be a fun conversation.”
“Yeah. I’m really looking forward to it.”