One More Time - Ali Parker Page 0,29

eyes narrowed, and he took a step back, a vein in his neck pulsing. “I mean it, bro. Stay away from her unless you’re actually interested.”

He didn’t wait for me to say anything more, shoving at my shoulder as he walked past me. I had no idea how that escalated so damn quickly or why my blood was boiling, but it had, and it was.

My hands were shaking, and rage rolled around in my stomach like a barely contained beast as Dom let the door slam shut behind him. He’d gotten to me in a big way.

Why though? I’d only slept with Kelly a few times. It didn’t mean a thing emotionally, so why was I so damn pissed? Better yet, why the hell couldn’t I stop thinking about her?

Chapter 12

Kelly

“There’s nothing like a good romcom to get you out of your head for at least a little while.” Alicia swooned as we walked out of the movie theater. Stopping by a trashcan to get rid of the last scraps of our popcorn and empty slushy containers, she turned to face me with a sickeningly sweet smile on her face.

The red lights framing the movie posters for the next showings behind her made her hair glow, giving her an almost ethereally peaceful look. My sister was suffering from full-on romcom fever and was clearly thinking about her very own prince charming waiting for her at home.

Well, not that anyone would refer to Jared as prince charming. He was more like the Emperor of Cockiness and apparently Spectacular Orgasms, although providing the latter must run in their family. I quickly shut down the Caleb-direction my thoughts were taking and focused on Alicia.

We hadn’t had a good girls’ night out for a while, so we’d decided on dinner and a chick flick. I should’ve known better than to agree to a romantic comedy with my head-over-heels in love sister. In fact, I should’ve suggested a horror flick if I was going to avoid the sappy conversation we were sure to get into within the next few minutes, if history was anything to go by.

“Don’t you think it was just so sweet the way he went after her?” Alicia asked, still smiling dreamily. “Every girl deserves a love like that.”

“Except most guys wouldn’t be able to get through airport security to stop her from getting on that plane,” I pointed out. “Although I guess your guy would’ve been able to.”

Alicia giggled and nodded. “Probably. Jared would be able to convince an Eskimo they needed to buy ice from him, if that was what he wanted.”

“Poor you,” I teased. “You’d never be able to get away.”

“She wasn’t trying to get away,” Alicia exclaimed. “It was a misunderstanding. That’s all.”

“Those seem to be common in relationships,” I remarked, thankful that if nothing else, there were no misunderstandings in whatever it was Caleb and I were doing.

“That’s my point. Communication is really important in relationships. If there isn’t proper communication, then misunderstandings are bound to happen. In that way, the plot was kind of realistic, don’t you think?”

“Realistic if you’re a hopeless romantic. Why would she forgive him just because he runs after her?” I enjoyed a good romantic comedy as much as the next girl, but mostly, the plots just depressed me.

Alicia’s jaw dropped, and she spun to face me. “She didn’t forgive him because he chased after her. She forgave him because he came clean. Cleared up all the misunderstandings and then told her the god’s honest truth.”

“Even so,” I said as we stepped onto the busy sidewalk outside the movie theater. It was a clear, balmy night, and the streets were alive with activity. Alicia and I hooked arms and headed off toward our favorite Mexican place just a few blocks over. “After all that, he told her the truth, and voila! She forgives him for everything?”

“Haven’t you ever heard that love is forgiving?” Alicia countered. “It conquers all.”

“You mean it conquers psycho stalkers that try to kill you and rock stars with their heads up their asses about their feelings?”

She rested her head on my shoulder as we walked and squeezed me tighter. “Well yeah, there’s that too. But it worked out all right in the end, didn’t it?”

“It sure did,” I told her, smiling because if anyone truly deserved happiness, it was Alicia. As nauseating as the two of them might have been together at times, it was super cute. “Good thing you believed in romance, right?”

“I didn’t, though. Not really.