Romance Warfare: a Tigress' Guide to NOT Secure a Mate(30)

Abby crept over to her window and peered down. Her bedroom windows faced the front of the house, giving her a clear view of the front door below.

Even from above, Abby recognized the two women waiting for her to answer.

“Oh my God.” Abby’s fingers tightened at the sill, and then she pushed back from the windows and grinned. “No way!”

In seconds, she was out of her old, dusty bedroom and on her way down the stairs. Abby opened the front door right in time to catch Tiffany with her fist raised and ready to knock again.

“Tiffany!” Abby squealed. She grinned from ear to ear. “Carmen!”

Tiffany hitched one of her perfectly plucked eyebrows and shot Abby a look. “Seriously? You’re still in your pajamas at this time of day?”

Abby opened her mouth to reply, but found no words. Instead, she looked down at herself. There was no way she could argue that the pink pajamas with white polka dots and the cute, baggy, graphic T-shirt she wore were street clothes.

“I, um, well…”

It was after two in the afternoon, and while she hadn’t been expecting company, she knew that she had no reason not to be dressed. Working from home meant that she could stay in her pajamas all day if she wanted, but Abby was usually more in charge of her life than that. The breakup had done more than affect her writing. What was the point of getting dolled up if nobody appreciated it anyway?

“Good thing we’re here to stage an intervention.” Carmen laughed, and the two of them flounced through the door and entered the house like they owned the place.

In some small way, Abby thought, they kind of did.

Tiffany and Carmen had been her best friends all through childhood. Every summer, when Abby and her brother had come to Cub's Cove to spend their vacation with their grandfather, Tiffany and Carmen were waiting for her arrival. The three of them spent their time exploring the woods and wandering the town, talking about boys and laughing about the stuff only best friends found funny. With all of the in-jokes they’d made over the years, Abby was pretty sure that they could have entire conversations in a code that no one would understand.

“Intervention?” Abby closed the door and turned to face them. Tiffany had her hands on her hips, and Carmen was laughing coquettishly. “What do you mean, intervention?”

“Oh, you know. Three months with no call after you break up with Tyler, and then we spot your car out front of the house? Yeah, we know you’re still not over that scumbag. So we’re here to help you out of your rut,” said Tiffany. She narrowed her eyes critically and looked Abby over again. “Good thing, too, if you’re still in your pajamas at two in the afternoon.”

“We’re going to get you fixed up, girl,” Carmen promised with a wink.

Both of her friends looked beautiful. It had been years since Abby had come back to Cub's Cove, but Tiffany and Carmen looked no worse for it. Skinny, tall, and fashionable, they were everything Abby wasn’t. Never had her weight bothered her before, but after what Tyler had done…

Standing there beside Tiffany and Carmen, she felt inferior. Hopeless.

For as much as Abby wrote about timeless, heart-stopping romance, it felt like she’d never experience one. Girls like her were never swept off their feet by gallant, handsome princes. But girls like Tiffany and Carmen?

And her old best friend, Kate? Even snakes like Kate got their happy endings. That snake was the one who snatched Tyler behind her back.

“So, first things first,” Tiffany said brightly. “You need some light.”

“Mm hm.” Carmen had already moved to the window. Abby had all the curtains drawn. “Here’s some sunshine to brighten your mood!”

With a dramatic tug, Carmen yanked the curtains open and light streamed through. Abby shielded her face with her arms and recoiled with a hiss. “The light! It burns. It buuurns!”

“What are you, a vampire? Told you we should have brought our garlic and our crosses.” Tiffany grinned at Carmen.

“Does this vampire sparkle?” quipped Carmen.

All three of them laughed. They were die-hard Twilight fans when the books were at the peak of their popularity.

Whoa. How long had it been since she’d laughed? Abby dropped her arms and shook her head in disbelief at herself even as she laughed. It was good that Tiffany and Carmen had stopped by. She needed their company more than they knew.

“I missed you, Abby,” Tiffany said. She closed the distance between them and drew Abby into a hug.

Carmen, not wanting to be left out, hurried over and hugged the both of them. “Group hug!”

Abby sniffled and held back tears. “I’ve missed you guys, too.”

“We’re going to make it all better,” Carmen promised. Their hug broke, but the three of them remained standing close. “You can’t punish yourself forever, you know. Staying hung up on a guy who’s as low as Tyler isn’t healthy. That’s why we’ve come up with a plan to cheer you up now that you’re back in town.”

“A plan?” Abby wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.

For as long as they’d been friends, a plan always meant some harebrained scheme that didn’t always work, but was always a lot of fun. The problem was, Abby wasn’t sure she wanted to do anything too extreme. Getting out of the house felt like a lot of effort.