“Just ignore it.” Right on cue, the cell chimed with an incoming text.
We’d met at Muffin Top not only because the coffee was exceptional, but because Dani would come over to chat with us whenever there was a lull. It was supposed to have been my own personal time, where I got to hang with a couple of my new friends, shooting the breeze and talking about nothing in particular, but every time that stupid phone rang, my shoulders bunched up, knotting with tension.
“Whoever that is, they’re pretty damn persistent,” Dani stated.
Propping my elbows on the table, I let out a little groan and massaged my temples. “It’s Alex.”
When I’d refused to talk to him the day he brought Ivy home, he’d taken to calling and texting nonstop. It was a major annoyance for me, but it was really starting to piss Micah off.
“Maybe it’s important?” McKenna queried. “What if it’s about Ivy?”
“It isn’t,” I replied flatly. “This has been going on since he brought Ivy home three days ago.”
Dani crossed her forearms and leaned closer to rest them on the table, lowering her voice so people couldn’t eavesdrop. “What’s going on?”
I told them all about what had gone down during his pickup the Friday before. From Micah showing up and staking his claim, to Alex’s insistence that we needed to talk.
“Oh damn.” McKenna dropped back into her chair with wide eyes. “I bet seeing Micah Langford all territorial like that was all kinds of hot.”
I sighed dreamily, thinking back to how sexy Micah had been.
“Stay on track,” Dani demanded, pulling me from the lusty fog that filled my head every time I thought about Micah. “So, what happened on Sunday?”
“Nothing. Like I’d already told him, we had nothing to say to each other, so I refused to have a little sit down with him when he dropped her off. But I noticed Ivy was in a mood when she got home. She was mopey and quiet all evening, and when I finally got her to talk to me about it, she told me he and Krista fought pretty much the whole time she was with them, and that Krista had been mean to her.”
“God, what a bitch,” McKenna seethed.
“Pretty much. I’d been ignoring his calls until I found that out, so when he called the next time, I answered and ripped into him about letting that woman be mean to our daughter.”
“What did he say?” Dani asked.
“Basically that he was leaving Krista and wanted me back. That he’d made a huge mistake divorcing me, and he wanted Ivy and me to ‘come home.’”
The sweet, smiling coffee shop owner slammed her palm down on the table, making us jump. “What a fucking dick!”
“Obviously, I told him he could go straight to hell, but he’s got it in his head that if he keeps reminding me about all the good times we had, I’ll change my mind and come back to him. That’s what the texts are about.”
I flipped my phone over and swiped the screen, going to the text chain that contained one long-ass message after another. I slid it to them and let them read about our weekend at Virginia Beach for the Fourth of July, the Christmas we spent in a secluded cabin together in the mountains, and all the other memories that didn’t mean a thing to me anymore.
They both leaned over my phone, their attention rapt as McKenna scrolled so they could keep reading.
Dani’s curious gaze returned to me once she finished. “So, none of these are getting to you? Like, you don’t feel yourself softening at all?”
I jabbed my finger at the phone. “That family trip to Disney World he mentioned? I didn’t know it at the time, but his affair with Krista was already in full swing by then. I can only assume that at least a few of the ‘business calls’ he’d taken every evening, locking himself in our room for at least an hour so I wouldn’t interrupt, were her.”
McKenna cleared her throat in an attempt to mask her laugh. “I know this isn’t supposed to be funny, but come on! The fact that this guy’s that stupid is pretty damn hilarious.”
The thought of finding Alex’s lame attempts funny hadn’t crossed my mind until that very moment, but now that my friend had pointed it out, it was pretty hilarious.
“Oh my God,” I choked out through a giggle. “You’re right!”
We all fell into a peal of laughter that lasted until I had tears in my eyes. “All right, so enough about that jerk-off,” Dani said after pulling in a deep breath. “Tell us about you and Micah. Everyone’s still buzzing about the fact the town’s biggest playboy finally found a woman he can’t get enough of.”
I got that same sinking feeling in my stomach I felt when McKenna had brought up Micah’s bachelor ways. As much as I tried to tell myself I was being ridiculous, that things between Micah and me were fantastic, since that little bug had been placed in my ear, I occasionally caught myself playing the what if game. What if he cheats? What if he ends up realizing he doesn’t want to be in a relationship? What if I have too much baggage?
I tried to keep my mind from journeying down that dark path, but sometimes I couldn’t help it. We hadn’t been together very long, but the intensity between us made it feel like I’d known him forever, and each day I woke up to find he’d taken another piece of me.
I was falling for him faster than I’d ever fallen before, and to think I could be taking that dive all by myself was terrifying.
“We’re good,” I replied, making sure to inject cheer into my tone. “Everything’s good. It’s still early, you know? We’re just taking one day at a time.” And maybe if I kept saying that enough, my heart would stop jumping ten steps ahead.
“I’m so happy it’s you,” Dani said on a sigh. “I mean, he’s always shot me down any time I mentioned setting him up, and, God”—she rolled her eyes dramatically—“the women he’d pick up at the bars. It was ridiculous. We were all worried when he finally did set his sights on someone for good, she’d be someone none of us could stand. But you’re you, and we love you.”
The compliment buried in there didn’t quite penetrate, so the smile I gave her felt stiff and brittle.
She kept going, oblivious to the turmoil roiling around inside of me. “Leo says now all that’s left is for him to pay up on the bet.”
“Bet?” I asked, my ears perking up. “What bet?”
She tried waving it off like it was nothing. “Oh, it’s just this stupid thing. Trick and Hayes were giving him grief, saying sooner or later he’d fall on his ass for a woman. Micah was so confident it was never gonna happen, he said he’d split his paycheck between them if that day ever came.”
A cold chill pricked at my neck, and the sip of coffee I’d just taken turned to cement in my stomach. If he was refusing to pay up, that couldn’t mean good things for the future of our relationship.
Before I had a chance to twist that into something nasty and painful in my head, my phone went off. I glanced down at the screen and let out a sigh of relief that it wasn’t Alex’s name I saw, and quickly engaged the call. “Hey Sylvia, what’s up?”
“Hey, darlin’ girl. Just wanted to check and make sure you weren’t already on your way back to the shop.”