her nose. “Shut it, you.” Her gaze drifted to Tammy, Heidi’s soon-to-be sister-in-law, who had recently moved to town. “Don’t keep your childhood friends around. They know too much about you.”
Tammy snorted, though she’d wisely just kept to margaritas—although that was mostly because she’d arrived after when the wine had already been consumed.
Kate, on the other hand, gasped and swatted Cora’s arm. “Rude!”
“Children,” Heidi warned.
“Make another blender full,” Kels called. “We’re gonna need it.”
Heidi set the blender on the counter, picked up her own glass. “Someone else is on blender duty,” she said, sinking down on the couch. “I’m done for the evening.” She glanced at her watch. “Plus, the boys are going to be here soon, and we all know that Kels—”
“Don’t say it,” Kels warned.
Cora grinned, stage-whispered, “Is primed for Pound Town when the booze goes down.”
They froze.
“Pound Town?” Kels asked. “Seriously?”
Gazes collided. Lips twitched. Then they all broke into peals of laughter—or maybe it was cackling. Either way, all Stef knew was that by the time she gained control of herself, her face ached from smiling, her stomach hurt from laughing, and she was once again so damned happy to have found these women.
They could talk about absolutely everything and absolutely nothing. They could tease each other until they were sick with laughter, and they would infallibly be there for each other.
No matter what.
Friends. True friends, and not like the ones who’d taken Jeremy’s side in the breakup, who’d left her alone in a new state, even though they understood that she’d moved here for him, that her family was back in Florida, and that she knew no one outside of their circle.
Thank God she’d gotten the job with Heidi.
Otherwise she didn’t know what she’d have done.
Go back home? Admit that moving to California and quitting her job without a plan, believing in the promise of a man who’d been incapable of fulfilling it, had been a mistake?
Ah. The joy of relationships.
At least her friends had good ones. Heidi’s Brad and Kate’s Jaime were both amazing. Of course, they were also brothers, so that was probably a big part of it. One family made good men, and it was all the rest of them that—
Tanner was nice, too.
He belonged to Kels.
So, maybe it was that all the good ones were taken?
Or maybe . . . she swore she had a thought there, swirling around her brain, but it flitted away into a fog of alcohol and pleasant sensations as she reclined on her couch listening to her friends babble on about their newest reality show obsession—this one about first dates.
It was sweet and cringy and . . . just the thing they loved watching.
“Oh, no,” Kate cried, the nicest one of all of them. “He’s not going to pick her.”
No, the man on the TV didn’t appear to be interested in the sweet, nerdy, cute blond girl he’d been paired with. Instead, his eyes were focused over her shoulder, and when the camera kindly cut in that direction, they could all see exactly what had drawn his attention.
A gorgeous, buxom brunette, who was smiling shyly at him.
And yup, now the man actually got up, crossed over to the woman and began chatting her up instead of his own date.
“What a fucking douche canoe,” Cora muttered.
“Seriously,” Kels said.
“Jeremy did that to me,” Stef whispered.
There might as well have been a record scratch for how quiet it went. In an instant, all eyes were on her, and Heidi grabbed the remote, pausing the show. “Excuse me?” she asked, her tone deadly.
“I—um . . .” Stef shook her head. “It’s nothing,” she said.
“That doesn’t sound like nothing,” Tammy murmured.
Stef whirled and glared at her. That was so not helpful.
Tammy lifted her hands. “Just saying.”
“What she’s just saying is right,” Cora said. “Jeremy is an asshole, and you’re lucky to be rid of him.”
“I am,” Stef agreed.
“It’s just . . .” Kate began, seemingly plucking the words out of Stef’s brain.
Stef winced, decided to not admit to that aloud, and set about glugging down her latest margarita, embracing the burn, grasping tightly to the swirling feeling of her mind.
“It can be hard to start over,” Kate continued, thankfully not plucking the second part of Stef’s inner thoughts out of her brain.
Because what Stef had been thinking was that it can be hard to be alone.
She shouldn’t be feeling lonely.
She had her friends—real, true friends. She had her job. She had Fred, who was currently snoozing in the corner after having exhausted