Total pages in book: 190
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Her eyelid twitched. “In other words, he thinks up excuses to contact you but might as well be saying, Hey, I exist—don’t forget me or move on too fast.”
“Yes. The only reason I haven’t blocked his number is that I want him to feel my utter apathy toward this shit.”
She sighed. “I wasn’t lying to Felicity when I said I could see he misses you. Anytime he looked your way, there was so much longing on his face I could almost feel sorry for him. No way has he been able to hide from her that he wishes things were different.”
I scratched my neck. “I feel sorry for his girls.”
“Me, too. On the one hand, they’ll be glad to have him living with them again. But they’ll see he’s unhappy, and they’ll probably take that on; probably think they’re not enough to make him happy. Kids do that.” Sabrina paused. “I noticed the girls very discreetly waved to you earlier.”
“They’re little sweethearts. The entire time I was dating Grayden, Felicity made them feel so torn, wanting them to hate me. They felt guilty that they didn’t.”
“Her son still isn’t your biggest fan, going by the looks I saw him tossing your way today.”
“Hmm, he threw a prawn at me earlier.”
“What?”
“Are you really surprised, given that Blaise is basically a male version of Felicity? He lives for her approval. He takes on her opinions. If she likes someone, so will he. If she loathes him, he will too. If she doesn’t approve of a girl he dates, he’ll dump her immediately just to please Felicity.”
Sabrina grimaced. “Sad, isn’t it?”
“Very.” Again, my cell chimed once. Glancing at the screen, I saw it was yet another message from Grayden: You looked beautiful today, by the way. “Unbelievable.”
“What?”
“It’s Grayden again.” I read the text aloud.
Her mouth went flat. “He’s trying to prod you into talking to him.”
“So it would seem.” Ass.
She shook her head, her nostrils flaring. “If he really cared for you like you deserved to be cared for, he wouldn’t do this. He’d respect your ‘no contact’ wish and let you go.”
“You’re getting riled up all over again.”
“How can I not? What he’s doing is so fucking selfish. Well, I’m no longer in danger of feeling sorry for him—that ship has sailed.”
I closed the van’s sliding door. “Let’s forget about them. They’re not important.”
“Too right they aren’t. But I’m going to say one last thing before we switch topics.”
“Okay.”
“If he leaves her and comes crawling back to you, you’d be a fool to give him another chance. Don’t get me wrong, you’re my bestie; I’d support you if you made that choice. But I’ll never believe he deserves you, and if you marry him I will wear black to the wedding. And I don’t mean a hot or classy number either. Think The Woman in Black. That’s what you’ll be faced with. I will make sure I look creepy as fuck. Small children will cry and run from me.”
I felt my lips quirk. “You have no need to worry. Even if I still loved him, which I don’t, I wouldn’t take him back.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“Yes. I don’t blame him for putting his kids first—I never will, never could. For their sake, I’m glad he did. But he’d promised me that, no matter what, he’d never go back to Felicity. I believed him. I believed in him. In us. In all the other little promises he made.”
She gave a nod of understanding as she said, “And he broke your faith by so carelessly making those promises without being positive he could keep them.”
“You don’t toss around promises like that so offhandedly. You just don’t. I can’t be with someone whose word I can’t trust. And so I’m done with him. I’ll never, under any circumstances, take him back. I wouldn’t want to.”
Sabrina curled her arm around my shoulders. “He quite simply isn’t good enough for you. You’ll find someone who is, and then everything your exes did will cease to mean anything. I can say that from personal experience. Tamara made me realize all I’d missed in my past relationships—the hurt and regret just vanished like magic. Because if any of those relationships had worked out, I wouldn’t now have her.”
I sent her a playful snarl. “You two are so in love it’s sickening. Ollie and Marleigh are just as bad—I get cavities in my teeth just seeing how sweet they are together.”
“They are beyond cute. And now they’re having a baby! I’m so excited to be an aunt. Hey, just think, when they finally walk down an aisle, you and me will be sisters-in-law.” Sabrina dropped her arm to her side. “She’d better make me her maid of honor.”
“I think Harri will get that privilege—they’re super close. They have been since they were babies.”