No Commitment (Capital Kingsmen #1) - Lisa Suzanne Page 0,40

hasn’t stopped thinking about me for over two years, why did she marry someone else?

“What are you smiling about?” Dustin asks.

I set my phone down a little guiltily as I glance over at him. Should I feel guilty for texting an old friend? No, but since this is more...maybe.

“Nothing,” I mutter.

“Bullshit,” he says, calling me out. “You haven’t smiled like that in years. It’s Danielle, isn’t it?”

I sigh, and Tommy pauses the movie with a grumble as the three guys who have been by my side since we were teenagers all turn to look at me. “Yeah,” I say. “She’s thinking about me.”

“Dude, she’s married,” Dustin says, as if I need the reminder.

“I realize that,” I say. “But she’s the one who keeps opening doors.”

“That doesn’t make it okay,” he says.

“I think it’s fine. Can we shut the fuck up now and get back to the movie?” Tommy asks.

For once, I’m (borderline) grateful for his attitude. I’d prefer not to have the spotlight on whatever seems to be developing between me and the one who got away.

“You’re just saying that because you’ve got a girl,” Brett says to Dustin. “You know what he and Danielle have been through. You know what all that shit did to him.” He’s saying it like I’m not sitting right here in front of him.

But he’s right. It did do something to me. It changed me. I don’t know if my smile has been genuine in the last two years...maybe not until this very conversation when a text came through to let me know she’s thinking about me.

Dustin shrugs. “I don’t have a horse in your race, man,” he says to me. “But as the only guy here who’s in a committed relationship, if she’s got a ring on her finger, you stay far away.”

“Amanda doesn’t have a ring on her finger,” Tommy points out.

“You know what I mean,” Dustin says. “And she will. Soon.”

All three of us turn to look at him. “What?” I say, speaking for all of us.

“I wasn’t going to tell you this just yet, but...” He draws in a deep breath. “She’s pregnant.”

“What?” Tommy, Brett, and I all say it at the same time.

“I’m proposing before we leave for the stadium tour,” he says.

The three of us continue to stare at him in stunned silence. It’s one thing to think that one of us is getting married—that there will be a wife in the equation, someone else to think about as we plan tours and albums and gigs. But he’s telling us there will actually be two people we have to think about.

I’m surprised as a tinge of jealousy darts through me.

I haven’t thought much about kids or the future, but that little dart that just ran through me makes me think I want those things more than I’ve allowed myself to really consider. I’ve spent so long moving from one meaningless thing to another since nobody even came close to what I felt for Dani that I never really saw myself settling down.

But now that she’s back in my life...maybe I do. But only if it’s with her.

I’ve been stuck on her for so long that I can’t even see past her. I should, particularly considering she’s married...but she hasn’t stopped thinking about me despite that. It’s possible there’s still potential there.

I’m just scared I’m setting myself up for disappointment all over again. I don’t know whether I can go through that again. I don’t know if I can lose her again and come out okay on the other side.

“Wow, man. Congratulations,” I finally say, breaking the silence that fell over us.

One side of his mouth lifts in a smile. I know Brett and Tommy are thinking how this is going to change things for us and how it affects them, but that’s just their nature.

I’m sure they think I’m sitting here thinking those exact same things.

They have no idea whatsoever that I’m actually sitting here with envy as Dustin’s on the brink of having everything I wish I had.

CHAPTER 21

DANIELLE

I shouldn’t have sent that reply, but now it’s out there in space, the only direct line I hold from Fox Point, the suburb of Milwaukee where we live, to Los Angeles.

I wait for his reply.

I have nothing else to do.

I’ve taken up a few hobbies since Ford works late into the night a couple times a week—all things I can do as a stay at home mom. Reality TV tops the list, but it seems somehow boring compared