Red Nights - Shari J. Ryan Page 0,7
what a sweetheart.” No matter the occasion, Aspen is always one to note a good-looking guy. I can’t look at him like that any more though. “You said you grew up with him…is that all you did with him?” Her eyes ping back and forth between me and the road.
I close my eyes instead of responding. It’s taking all my willpower not to reach into my purse and finally light that beautiful cigarette I’ve been dreaming about since I woke up this morning.
“There’s more. Isn’t there? You’d better tell me right now, Felicity Stone.”
I glance over at Aspen, who looks like she’s sitting on a bed of nails, her rusty red waves flopping around over her shoulders as her hazel eyes widen with excitement. “We dated for a year,” I tell her. “That’s it. No more to the story.”
It’s obvious I’ve sparked some kind of excitement within her when she shouts, “I knew it.” Her hands slap the steering wheel. “So what happened? Why on earth would you break up with that?”
Because of Blake, of course. He was very uncomfortable that we were dating. He was always harping on Tanner’s track record with girls and said he didn’t want me to be another notch on his bedpost. It put a strain on Tanner and me, and in the end, I didn’t want to hurt their friendship, so I reluctantly ended things. Which sucked.
“Can we not go there right now?”
“You need a drink,” she says. “Or four.”
I need a lot more than alcohol right now.
We park along the side of the road and find Tanner waiting outside the restaurant. “Ladies,” he says, opening the door and ushering us in.
I know Aspen is dying to hear the rest of our story by the way she looks back and forth between Tanner and me throughout dinner. But tonight is not the night for it. She’s been after me for being single since I met her. While she makes herself happy in less orthodox ways (to her, it seems like men are a box of chocolates without a guide and she needs to take a bite of each one to see which flavor she likes best), I’ve pretty much had no personal life in the past year, which I’m totally okay with. She’s the one who isn’t okay with it; she’s always telling me how happy I’d be if I met someone. Maybe I would be, but it isn’t high on my list of things to do. Especially now.
We manage to get through dinner without anyone noticing I ate less than five bites, and without Tanner asking if Aspen had something in her eye, considering the amount of times she winked at me. Each of the three times Aspen went to the restroom, Tanner tried to break the ice by mentioning a funny memory of Blake. There’s plenty to remember. Blake and Tanner played off each other with the never-ending jokes. The laughter was constant, and there was never a dry eye at the end of a meal with the two of them. But right now, I want to jump out of my skin.
“Guys, I need to call it a night,” I pipe in over their chatter about which dessert is better. Thankfully, neither argues with me.
Once outside, Aspen jumps into the car quickly as I say good-bye to Tanner. Maybe she doesn’t realize I can see her eyes glued on us from the rear-view mirror. But nothing is ever going to happen with us again.
He leans down to give me a hug good-bye and whispers in my ear, “We’ll make it through this.”
It pushes me over the edge, and I cry. I sob like I’ve needed to since the night of the fire. Everything within me heaves and trembles. Tears pour from my eyes, and I clench my arms tightly around his back.
This is the exact reason why I’ve been avoiding hugs.
“Hey, hey.” He pulls himself from my death grip and looks down at me. “We have to be strong. It’s what Blake would have wanted. You know he’d be laughing at us for crying today.”
I nod, avoiding the use of words. There are no words.
“Come on, get in the car. Get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow’s going to be hard enough.” He opens the passenger door, and I slide in as he leans down to place a small kiss on my cheek. “Like I said, we’ll get through this.” Today was only the wake. How am I going to make it through the