“Bullshit. Lauren told me she offered you a job. Why haven’t you taken her up on it, or at the very least gone and talked to her and Scott?”
Inhaling a slow breath through my nose, I opened my eyes. “I told her tonight I’d stop by tomorrow and talk to them.”
“Good. You need to stop pouting. So you quit your job and slept with a guy. It’s not like you cheated on anyone. You think you’re the first person to ever have sex and regret it? My God, I could fill your head with tales.”
Her words slowly started to fade as I got lost in the memory of Jase’s eyes as he said goodbye to me. Every time I’d tried to think of Paris an image of Clark would pop into my mind.
“Are you even listening to me?”
“Yep.”
With a sigh, Meagan asked, “What did I say then?”
“I’m not the only person to have meaningless sex and I need to get over it.”
With a wide smile, she stared at me. “I said a lot more than that. Have you called him? Tried to text him?”
Shrugging, I asked, “What good would it do me? I told him to leave and then I slept with another guy. I’m no better than what I accused him of.”
“Oh, for the love of Pete.” Meagan stood up and glared at me. “Taylor, I never in my life thought I would see the day when you would be sitting around feeling sorry for yourself. You had a brief moment of standing up for yourself and having the balls to live life and now you regret it. Well tough shit. You told him to leave, you sought out another man, fucked him, and woke up the next morning regretting it. Welcome to the real world. Daddy is no longer sheltering you, so get the fuck over it. Now, it’s time to pull those big girl panties up again and stop sulking. You’re either going to call him or you’re going to move on with your life. Either way, you better snap the hell out of it by the time Christmas comes.”
And just like that, she stormed off into the house . . . leaving me sitting there with her words screaming in my head. Turning my attention to the red sky, I slowly shook my head. “Damn her,” I whispered. Knowing she was right.
After taking a horseback ride around the ranch with Lauren, Colt, and Scott, we headed back to the house. Lauren and Colt hadn’t shared their news with anyone yet and I knew they were bursting at the seams to do so.
Walking into the house, Jessie greeted us with a buffet spread of food. “Y’all are back just in time.”
Inhaling the heavenly scent, I moaned. “My goodness that smells good.”
“Take the job and you’ll eat like this every day,” Lauren whispered in my ear.
With a smirk, I looked over to Colt who was totally lost in the sea of food.
“Colt, why don’t you open a bottle of wine and pour each of us a glass,” Jessie said.
I froze, alongside Colt and Lauren. Jessie glanced up and looked at each of us. “Is something wrong?”
Lauren stumbled over her words. “Um . . . well . . . I um . . .”
Clearing my throat, I looked at Lauren and then Jessie. “I’ve stopped drinking . . . wine and beer and all that stuff; you know it’s bad for you and . . . all that stuff.”
Ugh.
I moaned internally. I never was a good liar.
Jessie arched a brow. “Really? Why?”
“Well . . . ah . . . I um . . . I got really drunk and did something stupid. So I gave it up.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, Jessie peered at me as if she could see through the lies. All the lies that were about to pile up one on top of each other. “I know, hard to believe, but there it is. It was . . . um . . . illegal.”
“Illegal?”
Colt groaned behind me as he sunk down into a chair. “Uh-huh,” I mumbled.
“Wow. This is a whole new side of you, Taylor. I’m not sure about hiring you if you’ve done something illegal.”
Oh damn. I stuck my foot in my mouth.
“Well, I mean it wasn’t really illegal-illegal. It was just . . . you know.”
Scott stood next to Jessie and smiled. “No, I don’t think we know. Why don’t you tell us?”
“Tell you? You mean tell you what I did that wasn’t illegal but was?”
For goodness sakes. Even I thought I sounded crazy.
I could tell Scott was trying to hold back his smile as he and Jessie both attempted to stare me down.
“Well . . . if you’re sure you want to know,” I mumbled as I glanced at Lauren.
“Oh . . . we want to know. Don’t we, Jessie?”
Jessie chuckled. “More than you could imagine.”
Swallowing hard, I tried to think of something. Panic was building and I was about to blurt out I slept with a practical stranger.
“I . . . I slept with—”
“I’m pregnant!” Lauren called out.
Jessie and Scott both turned and looked at her with disbelieving faces. “What did you say?” Jessie asked.