Kissed Blind (Hot Pursuit #2)(98)

“Yeah.” I sighed. “But he didn’t always act like that. That was one time and he was pretty drunk. ”

“Um, once?” She cocked her head to the side.

I pursed my lips. “All right, maybe it was more than once.”

“All I’m saying is that it wasn’t normal. He couldn’t stand for another guy to talk to you, but he made a big deal out of holding your hand. It never made sense to me.”

“He always said holding hands was lame though.” I grimaced. “That was annoying.”

“Face it. You settled for him, and I say good riddance. You’re young, smart, and beautiful…I’d kill for your eyelashes. Your Mr. Wonderful is still out there somewhere.” She grabbed a blanket and wrapped herself up, giving into the chill in the air. “Hopefully he’s hanging out with mine, because damn, am I sick of waiting.” She chuckled.

I snickered while blotting my cheeks. She always found a way to make me laugh. And in that moment, I realized she was right. I had settled for John.

I used to think, so what if he didn’t hold my hand. He treated me well behind closed doors. He kissed me, hugged me, and always told me I was pretty. But in retrospect, I guess those things will only get you so far, and oftentimes, I felt alone. I’d been overlooking the things that were inherently wrong for quite a while. There had to be a reason why I never felt comfortable sharing my problems with him—I should have felt comfortable, but I didn’t.

A flood of phone calls and texts came in from John throughout the night. Liz eventually grabbed my phone and turned it off in an effort to save my sanity. There wasn’t anything he could say; it was over.

Liz and I stayed up well into the night talking until I’d thoroughly beaten the dead horse. Somewhere after one o’clock, we crawled into our beds, sufficiently bombed. My eyes were swollen from crying, and thankfully I passed out. It had been an awful day, but at least it was over.

The next morning I woke up with a throbbing headache. I had to call my family and let them know about my change of venue. I snatched some Advil from Liz’s medicine cabinet and headed to, what was now my room, to call Sarah.

I sat on the edge of my bed and ran my hand over the pale lavender, silk quilt. It was soft against my palm while my insides felt like a cluster of jagged edges. I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and dialed Sarah. After she picked up, I gave her the abridged version of everything that had happened; it was too painful to go through all the gory details again.

“Well, I’d like to say I’m shocked but nothing seems to surprise me these days.” Sarah chuckled uneasily. “I’m really sorry. Liz is a good friend. She’ll take care of you the way you take care of me.”

“Yeah, she took care of me last night. I’m rockin’ a pretty solid headache right now.”

“That’s what a good friend does. She made you laugh when you were crying, didn’t she?”

“She did.”

“Of course she did. That girl’s hilarious.”

“She really is.” I laughed. “Well, anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know where I was.” I sighed and drank a big gulp of water. “Any news on a ruling yet?”

Sarah had been dealing with an onslaught of legal problems. Anders had filed contempt charges against her when she took the kids on vacation shortly after she’d filed for divorce. She’d been gone a couple days over the two weeks she’d been entitled to in her temporary custody order, and Anders tried to insist on paying them a visit on her vacation because of it. Sarah didn’t allow it under the advice of her counsel. The trial had taken place earlier in the week, and Sarah had been traumatized by the experience. I’d assumed her lawyer, Chuck, would have told her what to expect from the trial, but he hadn’t. I could only describe her as being shell-shocked afterward.

“Seriously, we can talk about me later. I’m sure you need to talk this out a little. I know you.”

“No, really.” I groaned and rubbed my temples. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s over and in the past. I need to talk about something else. Liz and I were up late, and I had crazy dreams all night. This will be a welcomed distraction.”

“Okay.” She conceded with a sigh. “No, no ruling yet, but I’m sick worrying over it. The judge didn’t seem to like me much, so I’m sure she’s going to rule against me.”

“They’re not normally warm and fuzzy people, but you never know. Being gone a couple of days longer shouldn’t be that big of a deal especially knowing how much Anders called and harassed you while you were gone.”

“Yeah, it probably would have been nice if Chuck had brought that up. I’m just so mad. Pissed actually.” She whispered that last words so her kids wouldn’t overhear. “He told me I shouldn’t let Anders visit. I can’t believe he advised that knowing it could have come to this”

“Well honestly, I didn’t think Anders would stoop this low, but it’s just another thing I’ll tack on the list of things I never saw coming.”

She tittered. “Me, too. You said it could be another two weeks though, right?”

“Yeah, just keep checking the website for a ruling, and I will, too. The last time I looked was Thursday after we talked. I thought it would be too soon still, but I know how anxious you are to hear something.”