“I’m familiar with going from love to hate. This... I guess it’s been so long for me that I forgot. On second thought, maybe I don’t miss it as much as I thought I did.”
“Well, as much fun as this has been, I think you ladies have jobs to get back to,” Rebecca said.
“That’s nice,” Lane said, her tone dry. “Look how quickly we’ve been replaced.”
“You haven’t been replaced. It’s just that I’m not going to stand here and discuss the nature of my...dalliances.”
“Is there more than one dalliance?” Alison asked, her eyebrows raised.
Rebecca noticed that Lane looked slightly concerned. “No there isn’t,” she said, her tone emphatic. “Gage is quite enough on his own.”
Too much.
“Okay,” Lane said, “you have a point. I should get back to work. But, give me a call if you need anything. We’ll be traveling in a pack tonight.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Alison held up her finger, signifying that she needed another minute, and Lane nodded before walking out of the store. The petite redhead moved closer to the counter, her expression full of concern. “Is everything okay?”
“It is. I promise. I know it’s weird, but he didn’t force me into anything. I get that from the outside looking in it seems incredibly unhealthy and maybe it even is. But I think it’s something I need.”
That made Alison’s expression get even more concerned. “The minute you feel like you need him, it’s trouble.”
“That isn’t what I meant. I know that you are on hyperalert for this kind of thing, and I don’t blame you. But he isn’t like your ex-husband. I wouldn’t say he’s a nice guy, but he doesn’t pretend to be either. He’s definitely not Prince Charming. He’s not even the huntsman. He might be the beast. But I’m not holding out hope I’m going to find the man underneath all that. That isn’t the point. This is for me, it isn’t for him.”
But the moment that she said it, she realized that he was getting something out of this too. That as selfish as she intended for it to be, he needed it for some reason just as badly as she did. And she cared about that. She was starting to care about him.
“What happened...” She took a deep breath. “It happened. But it doesn’t define me, and it shouldn’t define him either.”
“Okay. I trust you. But I don’t trust him. And if anything happens... If he hurts you any more than he already has, I’m going to shank him with the sharp end of my pie server.”
Rebecca took a deep breath, trying to ease the tension in her chest. Battling with the strange emotions that were bubbling to the surface. There was something about this relationship that was forcing honesty. Between herself and Gage, between herself and her friends. Within herself.
And she had never felt more grateful for Alison, Lane and Cassie than she did now. That she had backup if she needed it. That she could have this conversation with them. And that they would have her back regardless of what was happening.
She rounded to the front of the counter and wrapped her arms around Alison, pulling her friend in close. “Thank you,” she said, releasing her almost as quickly as she’d taken hold of her.
She wasn’t a big one for touch. Mostly because it hadn’t been on offer. Her mother had been distant at best, and then absent after that. Jonathan wasn’t demonstrative. He’d grown up in the same environment she had, if not slightly worse. From what she had been told, his father had been a horrible bastard who had only touched anyone with his fists.
Rebecca’s father was just gone. That, she imagined was preferable. Still, she was starting to think that maybe she needed a little more than she had previously imagined. That she needed the people in her life to be a little bit closer than she had always kept them.
“You’re welcome,” Alison said, her eyes looking suspiciously bright. “I’m always here for you. You know that.”
Rebecca nodded and smiled, doing her best not to get stupid emotional.
After Alison left she spent the rest of the day in a kind of strange suspended state, held between anticipation and dread. Now she was thinking that the dinner thing was a bigger deal than she had originally given it credit for being, thanks to the overreaction of her dear friends.
By the time she pulled into Gage’s driveway she was nearly trembling with a strange adrenaline-fueled