Bittersweet (Redemption #3) - Jessica Prince Page 0,65

to some—” She looked at the TV and sucked in a gasp. “Is that Yellowstone? God, Rip is so hot!”

“Right?”

Farah let out a light laugh as she bent to retrieve my remote and moved closer, handing it back to me. I quickly paused the show so I wouldn’t miss anything good. “So how are you feeling, honey? Any better?”

I propped my pillows against the headboard and sat back against them, patting the comforter for them to sit. “I’m feeling a lot better. I’d probably still be praying for sweet, sweet death if Jensen hadn’t forced me to go to the doctor.”

My friends shared a look that was part smug, part giddy school girl.

“What?” I asked, my gaze bouncing back and forth between the two of them. “What’re those faces about?”

“Nothing,” Poppy answered with a shit-eating grin. “It just seems like you and Jensen have really been getting along the past few days.”

I shot her a scathing look and crossed my arms over my chest. “There’s nothing going on with me and Jensen besides the fact that we share a kid.” And why the hell did saying those words make me feel like I wanted to throw up again? “And we’ve only been getting along because I’ve been delirious with typhoid fever most of the time.”

Poppy threw her head back on a laugh, sending her silky hair flying. “Wow. Someone’s a drama queen when she’s sick.”

“You’d be dramatic too if you were on the brink of death,” I grumbled. “I’m lucky to be alive.”

“Then I guess it’s a really good thing Jensen was here to help nurse you back from those pearly gates,” Farah teased.

Before I had a chance to shift away from their chosen topic of conversation, my phone pinged and the screen lit up with some social media notification.

Silence descended over the room as they both stared at the picture of Jensen and Brantley on my phone until the screen went black again.

“Um . . .” Farah dragged out.

“Still want to claim there’s nothing going on?” Poppy asked.

There was no point in denying it any longer, not after they’d seen the picture, so I did what any mature adult woman would do. I fell to my side, stuffed my face in my bedding and groaned dramatically.

“Oh God. I’m such a freaking mess,” I whined as I rolled to my back and flopped across the mattress like a starfish.

“All right, drama llama. Just calm down.” Poppy took my wrists and pulled me back up, propping me against the pillows. “Just relax and take a breath. And maybe explain why there’s a picture of your ex and your son as your screen saver.”

“Honestly, I don’t know why,” I admitted, looking down at my hands as I tugged at a loose thread on my sheet. “He sent it to me earlier when he picked Brantley up from his Mother’s Day Out class and I just saved it. I don’t know why I did it.”

“Don’t you though?” At Farah’s question, my head lifted, my eyes going to my sweet friend. Farah had been through so much before she’d moved to town, more than any person should ever have to endure, and she’d come out of it stronger than ever. I respected the hell out of her for not only surviving but thriving.

Sometimes I envied her strength. In comparison to what she’d suffered, my little heartbreak wasn’t much of anything, yet I’d let it define me. I’d let it consume every single piece of me until I was so mired down in it I couldn’t pull myself out. She’d moved on and started a new life. I’d hit the pause button on mine and never restarted it.

“You know, there’s nothing wrong with not hating him. There isn’t a single person in your life who would fault you for forgiving him.”

I arched a brow. “I’m not so sure about that.”

She read my meaning and smiled. “I know from experience that big brothers can be serious pains in the ass. But when it comes to things that are important, whether they agree or not in the beginning, once they see you’re happy, they eventually come around.”

Her big brother, Jase, had been just as overprotective of her as Stone was with me, only he went about it differently. After her trauma, he’d all but wrapped her up in bubble wrap and treated her like porcelain. It had taken a while, but he eventually got over it. Now he was happily married to Poppy and so obsessed with