Aspen (The Dragon Kings #2)(6)

He sat on the edge of her bed and stared at her. She knew he wasn’t sure what to say.

“Yeah, me too. She always handled this stuff better than me. I still remember what happened down in Yosemite. I don’t know what I would have done if she hadn’t been home.”

“You’re making it worse.” Rowan and Sissy had no idea what really happened in Yosemite. But they knew she’d had her heart broken. Her sister had been nursing her own broken heart by some surfer, so they spent the rest of that summer holed up in their cabin watching extremely violent movies to drown away their sorrows.

“Sorry. Come on, get dressed. I think I know how to make this better.” Rowan tugged at her hand.

“How are you going to do that?”

“I’m not. Tori is on her way over. She said something about shopping therapy.”

Aspen jumped up. “Tori’s coming over?”

“Yeah, she’ll probably be here in fifteen minutes.”

Aspen stood on her wide front porch and tried to think of what she would say to Tori. It was really too cold to wait outside, but the chilly air cleared her mind. She needed to apologize to Tori but didn’t know how.

Tori’s Beetle pulled into the driveway, and Aspen climbed into the passenger seat. She was the one who’d screwed up.

“Tori, I’m really sorry about Sid. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“I know. You’re forgiven. Friends are allowed to act foolishly where boys are concerned.”

She knew she should be mad at Tori, but because she had no other close girlfriends at school, she wouldn’t call Tori out for waiting until she was hurt to come back.

They drove into Bozeman and pulled up in front of Tori’s favorite funky boutique. Tori knew all the good ones. Ella’s friend owned it and took in donations like a thrift shop and then would modify them. She had serious talent. Of course her clothes were also crazy expensive, but Aspen wasn’t looking to buy anything anyway.

Tori made a beeline for a rack of denim mini skirts that had patches of flannel sewn on them. Aspen’s stomach clenched, thinking of that new girl at school. The one who stole Sid. Tori held one up to her and looked at Aspen, who grimaced.

“What?” Tori asked, looking down.

“Skye wore a miniskirt this morning.”

Tori’s face fell. “Oh, I’m sorry. Let’s try something else.”

“I’m not going to be good company today.” Aspen thumbed through a rack of tshirts, but she didn’t really see them. This was probably a bad idea.

“Well then, we’ll just have to figure out how to put you in a good mood.” Tori just started grabbing various items off the rack and shoving them into Aspen’s arms. “Come on, let’s go try those things on.”

“Why? It’s not like I’m going to buy any of them.”

Tori dug into her purse and waved a credit card in front of Aspen’s face. “I have my mom’s credit card and no restrictions. I’ve got to make up for ignoring you for the last couple of months. Let’s find you something that will make Sid regret ever going back to that bitch. She hung all over him today. I even heard—”

Aspen held her hand up. “Stop. I don’t want to hear anymore. Just give me the clothes.”

Aspen pulled the curtain of the dressing room closed and took off her shirt, examining the choices in front her. She grabbed a blue t-shirt and got started on the pile of clothes.

Tori didn’t try anything on, just kept pushing things at Aspen. They finally decided on a pair of skinny jeans that had been torn in various places and a Yale sweatshirt that fell off one of her shoulders.

Aspen was grateful for the distraction. Tori talked enough to make her forget everything else. It had been so long since they’d had girl time.

On their way home they stopped at the Purple Dragon.

Ella was putting chairs up on the tables. When Aspen asked for mochas, she groaned, but she started the espresso anyway.

“Where’s your other half?” Ella asked.

Aspen tried to keep her voice from cracking as she spoke. “We broke up.”

Ella dropped the milk container. “Crap. What happened?”

Aspen started to cry. What was wrong with her? She never cried before Sid came along, and now she was a freaking faucet.

Thankfully, Tori answered for her. “Some old bimbo girlfriend showed up. They made out in homeroom. Hudson had a tizzy. I heard she’s even living at his house.”

This was news to Aspen. “What else did you hear?” she asked.

“Oh, loads. She was in my math class, so I talked to her for a while. She’s way sweet. I don’t think she has any idea Sid has a girlfriend.”

“Why didn’t you mention this before?”

Tori leaned down to pet Wiggles. “I tried, but you said you didn’t want to hear it.”

Aspen crossed her arms as she processed this information. Suddenly, shopping for an outfit that would make Sid jealous seemed like a stupid idea. Skye was probably in some sexy piece of lingerie right now.

“I thought you were on my side.”

“I am. I’m just telling you what I know. Anyway, they’d been together for a looong time. She said she’d missed him so bad that her parents arranged for her to come live here.”