“Well…” Chloe coughed. “Does it matter? You just need a good enough first date to invite the guy to the wedding for the second date.”
Natalie was starting to think maybe she was too far out of her area of expertise to deal with this. She wasn’t her mother. That woman was graceful and classy and could turn the head of any man she wanted. Natalie? Not even close.
“No one around here is going to date me—” Natalie started.
“That’s not true!” Chloe cut in. “You’re very dateable. It’s just that everyone in town knows you.”
Michelle tapped a few more keys. “Which is why I’m expanding the search to a fifty-mile radius. Unless…” She stopped typing and looked Natalie dead in the eye. “Is there someone you’re interested in?”
Something felt off about the way her friend posed that question and kept that pretty, questioning gaze locked on her. There was no way she could know about East, right?
“Around here?” Natalie asked.
Michelle just continued to look at her. “Yes. If you like someone, there’s no shame in that. No matter how close to home they are.”
Okay, now Natalie was being paranoid. She really thought Michelle might know about East…but there was no way.
“Nope,” Natalie said, cutting off this line of questioning. “There’s no one in Beaufort I’d want to date.” And that was the truth. Easton Ambrose was the least dateable person in these parts. Next to Natalie, that was. Ironic.
“Okay,” Michelle said, going back to typing. “Hookups can be fun, too. You’re hot, Nat. But if the men around here are so set on friend-zoning you, then we’ll go to a different zone.”
That was Michelle. Miss Can-Do Attitude, all the time.
Natalie smiled. Her friends really were great. Too bad she couldn’t tell them that the one man she never thought would ever look twice at her was officially out of the friend zone and in the “oh shit we totally had sex” zone.
Even if she could tell them, she could never go for East anyway…but that didn’t stop her from needing to talk about it. In some way. Because this was killing her. She didn’t know how to process half the feelings she was feeling, and worse, she was pretty sure one of those feelings was withdrawal, like East was some kind of drug. The whole day today, she could still feel him every time she moved.
Yeah, she needed to talk. But she couldn’t out any of the details. Maybe she could be discreet…
“So, most of these guys are probably players, right?” Natalie started. Both of her friends looked up at her. “I mean…” She pointed to the screen. “They won’t be looking for anything long term.”
“You want something long term?” Chloe asked.
Natalie shrugged. “Eventually. One day. I just want…”
“Passion,” Chloe said. She remembered from the discussion they’d had back when Chloe was fighting against wanting Gage. Passion had never been a problem for her. And yeah, Natalie wanted that. In fact, she’d had a taste of that with East. And it was addictive.
“You can find that,” Michelle said. “Maybe one of these guys will work out. You never know!”
Yeah…you never know. Just like she’d been on a date last night and then ended up sleeping with Easton.
“I’m not sure…” Natalie said. “I want passion but have no idea how to get it, or sustain it if I had it.”
“What’s going on with you?” Chloe asked.
“I just don’t know about this dating thing. It shouldn’t be this hard.”
“Ah, it’s hard as hell,” Chloe said.
“Yeah,” Michelle agreed.
“Did it bug you, Dex being a ladies’ man before he met you?” Natalie asked Michelle. Her fiancé Dex had grown up here like most of them, and he’d had a reputation before he’d met Michelle. A one-and-done kind of man, much like East. Only Dex had always wanted more, and East? Natalie was pretty sure that man would die a bachelor. Proudly.
Michelle thought about her question. “No. I mean, I knew he had experience with other women in this town, and it never really bothered me. Everything you go through makes you the person you are. And Dex is amazing.”
“That’s because he’s all about you.” Chloe winked. And Chloe was right. Both of her friends were gorgeous.
If Natalie were honest with herself, she had to admit that Easton’s reputation made her nervous. Take out the whole family complication and she’d still feel insecure about the whole thing. She didn’t have the experience he did. Hell, everyone in town looked at her like a buddy and looked at him like a sex god. She couldn’t compete with the women he’d been with. Or the women he could get.
And now she’d added herself to that list. Jesus.
She’d always assumed the guy was a knockout in bed. He had to be with that kind of experience, right? But she’d been unprepared for just how good he’d been.
She’d never felt that before. But maybe this was routine for East. What was new and fun and unique to her was probably old hat for him. Show up, make a woman come harder than she ever had before, then take his distance. And that was the problem. She was reeling today, and East probably hadn’t given her a second thought.