Anything but Minor - Kate Stewart Page 0,42

a few bags of assorted chips and threw them in the cart.

“I’ve got you.”

Pain seared through me as she looked on at me with sympathy.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I thought I was onto something.”

“We all do,” she said as she pushed the cart in front of her and me along with it.

An hour later, I floated in a large inflatable pool in a borrowed bathing suit with a plastic cup of red wine in my hand. Despite my circumstances, I smiled at a perfect looking Kristina who looked stunning in a silver bikini as she danced around her yard, picking up toys as Lana Del Rey sang about her heart.

“Thank you,” I said as she looked over at me with a smile.

“Girl, I’m not a fan of too many women, especially the ones that come and go strictly to become part of the club or marry into it. I knew you weren’t one of those. And by the way you had Rafe looking at you...I was sure...”

I winced.

“Anyway, I know you’re good people, even if you did threaten to eat my son.”

I shot up in my float. “I was joking.”

“He’s a kid so he took it literally. I’m pretty sure I could hire you to come over and scare him into cleaning his room.”

“Sorry! I’m not really that good with the little people.”

“Neither am I, and I’m a mother,” she said as she joined me in the pool with a cup of her own. She lay back and looked up at the sky. “This is the life.”

I looked around her backyard. It was definitely a fitting playground for a little person, complete with a bike, a sandpit, and multiple water guns.

“I bet you’re an awesome mom.”

She looked at me, her hand over her eyes, shielding them from the sun. “I try really hard.”

“I can tell you are,” I said with certainty.

“It’s not easy, but worth it at times. I didn’t see my life turning out like this, that’s for sure. A bartender and a single mom. I imagined it much different. ”

I nodded because I understood it, at least the career aspect. As far as my romantic life went, I’d never really had any expectations. Rafe had given me a piece of something I now craved, and I felt like he’d taken it away just as easily. I wondered why he even bothered calling me and still I cringed at the thought of not speaking to him again. I’d left my phone in my purse inside Kristina’s house but was dying a little with each second that passed.

“Every available woman in Charleston has the t-shirt.”

I wouldn’t be that woman for him, though technically I’d already been that woman for him. I refused to let him look at me the way he did other women. I wasn’t a “piece of pussy.” But just the thought of being another insignificant fling had me in knots.

Hours later, and after drinking more wine than I ever thought I was capable, I found myself in a conversation with her that had me revealing everything about myself.

“Wow, that strict.”

“It was a nightmare. I was home by eight-thirty on prom night. It started at seven.”

“That’s a shame, girl. But here you are now, living it up.”

“True,” I said as I lay back on the float, my head spinning slightly. “A little too much maybe.”

“You want to tell me about it?” she asked, her voice mournful as if she understood exactly how I felt. For a brief second, I looked on at her, curious if she’d ever been in Rafe’s bed. She read my thoughts.

“No, we’ve never hooked up.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she said as she pulled our floats together. “Andy has a thing for me. Rafe wouldn’t lay a hand on me. I’m kinda getting over...someone.” A brief silence followed. “Andy is perfect, you know...but the heart wants what it wants.”

Shocked by her admission, I looked over at her beautiful face and thought the world a screwed up place if a girl that beautiful whose insides seemed to match her outsides couldn’t have the man she wanted. If that was the case, I held out very little hope.

“It’s funny you say that because last night I could have gone on a date with a man worthy of my time and instead I blew him off for Rafe.”

She nodded as if she understood, and I reveled in our budding friendship. “What did he do?”

“He gave me a t-shirt.”

“I’m not following.” I told her everything, aside from the sex. As she