I never saw love.
I never saw them look at each other the way Austin was looking at me right now. The way I’d always wanted to be looked at—with complete trust and confidence that no matter what, we’d still be holding hands in the end. And as if to prove her point, she reached for my hand and squeezed it hard.
“Are you going to go kiss someone to piss me off again?” she asked in confusion.
“What? No. Why the hell would I do that? I love you.”
“Then that’s really all I need to know.” She held out her hand. “One step at a time.”
“Austin, I don’t think you’ve really thought this through, all of it, what it will look like.”
“Funny you should say that”—Austin wiped at a few escaped tears—“since this really smart doctor once told me that it’s how you feel about yourself that defines the person you are, not what others say. He also said this really awesome thing about eating all of your dessert.”
“You would fixate on that part.”
“He buys me MoonPies.”
“Because he loves you.”
“And he lets me drink Mountain Dew.”
“And he prays every night it won’t kill you.”
She smiled and walked into my open arms. “I love you. Let’s just . . . wait and see what happens. Let me talk to my mom and . . . well, the good news is this. I’m on Team Mom, and I know a thing or two about revenge.”
“Believe me, I know, but you can’t just go keying your dad’s car.”
“Um, yeah, I can.”
“Austin—”
“I know a really easy way to slit his tires.”
“I’m not helping you commit a crime.”
“Fine, I’ll just call Avery.”
I jerked the phone out of her hand and shook my head. “I refuse to bail you out of jail. If you want to get even, I think I have a great idea, but let’s just . . . wait and try to get through the day for now, alright?”
She nodded and kissed me softly on the lips. “Thank you for telling me.”
“Thank you for not being angry.”
“Oh, I’m angry as hell that you thought by breaking my heart in a million zillion pieces, you’d be fixing things for me—”
I backed up slowly.
“But I also know angry sex is the best kind, so you’ll just do hard time in the bedroom, plus I had my eye on that stethoscope of yours. Think you could bring it home?”
“Something’s wrong with you.”
“Or very right?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Just wrong.”
“You love me.”
“I do.” I kissed her again. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
AUSTIN
A loud knocking sounded on Thatch’s door.
I opened it and took a step back as Avery held her hand in the air and then sucked in breath after breath before finally stumbling into the apartment. “Hold . . . just one sec . . . can’t breathe.”
Lucas followed and shook his head slowly. “She ran.”
“She needs to start power walking or something,” I mumbled, biting off a huge piece of a Twizzlers licorice.
“Heard that,” Avery said on another wheeze. “And I was worried, okay? You texted me a picture of two MoonPies, a Snickers bar, and a six-pack of Mountain Dew! It wasn’t Diet, Austin.”
“Gross, Diet?” I scrunched up my nose. “And why would that freak you out?”
“Need I remind you of last time?” She threw her hands in the air. “I had to rescue you from your own filth!”
I waved her off. “Well, I’m not in need of rescue, though Thatch did the honors at least a few times this afternoon.”
Avery made a gagging noise and then looked around the apartment. “Where is good Thatcher?”
“On his way home.” I shrugged. “Why?”
“Are you living here?”
I tried to find the right words. Technically I was about to. Thatch and I had at least come to that conclusion on the way back from the restaurant. I was to move into his apartment away from the crazy that was my father as soon as possible.
“Kind of.” I needed to tell her about my parents, but I wasn’t really sure how not to make it sound like a bad soap opera.
If that weren’t bad enough, Braden had been trying to call me all day as if we even had something to talk about. I assumed he got my number from my dad.
And suddenly everything made sense.
My dad had wanted me away from Thatch.
He had been worried about his affair being made public.
And he was so selfish, he was willing to put a psychopath in my way.
Asshole.
I chewed the licorice harder while Avery quietly slid the tub close to me and nodded in encouragement.
I’d been hungry for the last six weeks for junk food—more than my usual, which just meant the stress was getting to me!
It’s probably why I hadn’t started my period.
The piece of licorice got stuck in my throat.
I started coughing.
Lucas slapped me across the back. “You gonna make it?”
“No.” My eyes filled with tears. I’d been emotional too. Really emotional. More than usual. I covered my face with my hands and then started counting backward on my fingers, and when I ran out of my own fingers, I had Avery and Lucas hold up theirs.
Clearly they were good enough friends to just do it and not question my sanity.
My numbers counted back to the day before Thatch and I had broken up for good.
But that would mean . . .
I looked down.
And back up at my friends. Several times. Up, down, up, down.
“Is she having a seizure?” Lucas whispered under his breath.
“I don’t know, check her pulse,” Avery encouraged.
I slapped his hands away. “You guys would literally die in the wild. That’s not how you check for a seizure! And if I was having one, I’d be on the floor.”
Lucas held his hands back. “Whoa, just trying to save your life.”
“If that was you trying . . . I would have been dead. But thanks.” The tears kept coming.
“Honey”—Avery grabbed my hand—“you’re freaking us out on game night.”
Since when did it turn into game night?
“I, uh . . .” I licked my lips. “I think I’m—”
The door opened, Thatch strolled in, looking handsome as sin. His muscles bulged beneath his black button-up, and his gray slacks slid against such thick thighs that I found myself staring like I hadn’t seen him in years.
The final piece clicked together.
I’d been unbelievably horny.
As in, ready to jump his bones for offering me the newspaper and a piece of bacon.
“Turn on the news, now!” Thatch demanded.
I was still in shock while Lucas and Avery ran over to the couch. Lucas found the remote first and flipped to the local news.
“Breaking news out of Seattle. Pictures of the mayor’s wife, Shana Rogers, and her young lover have recently surfaced. The pictures show the two holding hands and talking closely. Mayor Rogers has released a statement asking for privacy at this heartbreaking time.”
The screen switched to a photo.
It was Thatch.
And my mom.
It was bad timing.