Worth It (Forbidden Men, #6)(28)

But I hadn’t entered them in six years, and I knew if I ever did, the memories would no doubt slay me. So I tore my attention from the flaming red maples, pushed from my car, and made my way up the front walk until I was on a covered porch and ringing a doorbell.

The ten-year old who answered immediately yelled, “Zombie attack,” when he saw me. Then he ran off, screaming.

On any other day, I would’ve chased after him, croaking “Brains,” with my arms outstretched and my head canted to the side, but today, I just couldn’t get with the program.

So I stood there, by myself, in the opened front door, pathetic and a little mangled, if not completely broken.

“Colton, who’s at the—” A brunette popped her head into the living room to see me still hanging out in the entrance. “Oh! Felicity. Hi, come on in. What’s up?”

I took a deep breath and stepped into the house. “Hey, Aspen.” I gave her a friendly wave and then a forced smile as I closed the door behind me. “You have any time for some girl talk?”

“For you? Of course. Follow me back to the kitchen. I’m trying to make homemade noodles for chicken noodle soup. The guys always go gaga whenever I make anything homemade, and I get a kick out of their exaggerated reactions, so it’s become kind of an addiction of mine to cook up new surprises for them. Can I get you anything to drink?” she asked as we entered the brightly lit room.

“Oh my God, yes.” Nothing sounded as good as alcohol right now.

“Iced tea?” she asked, making me frown.

“You mean, Long Island Iced Tea, right?” I corrected—pleaded, really—as I slumped into a chair at the table and rested my face in my hands.

She glanced back at me and lifted an eyebrow. “Ah, so this is going to be one those talks, huh?”

I sighed and closed my weary eyes. “Unfortunately yes.”

The sounds of cabinet doors opening and ice in a glass were like music to my ears. When Aspen sat across from me and slid a cup my way, I sat up and took a fortifying breath. After a long, deep drink that made my eyes water, I let out a refreshed sigh and sent Aspen my most sincere look of gratitude.

“Thank you. You’re amazing. I love you.”

She blushed and waved away my gushing praise. “Just talk. I’m dying of curiosity over here. What happened?”

“Right.” I cleared my throat and stiffened my back. “So, I walked into my apartment about an hour ago, only to interrupt Cam screwing some other girl.”

Aspen gasped and slapped her hands over her mouth. “No.”

I nodded. “Oh, yes.” Gifting her with one of my overly forced smiles, I added, “And when I confronted them, I discovered he was actually ready to dump me and have her move in...without discussing it with me first. In fact, her clothes were already hanging in my closet.” After a bitter laugh, I asked, “What a way to break it to a girl easy, huh?”

“I can’t...this is just... He seriously cheated on you?” Aspen blinked before asking, “Is he stupid or something?”

I laughed. “Bless you.” The chuckle actually felt good. I was relieved for the break in my agony. “I needed that.”

“No, really.” Aspen just kept frowning. “How could he not realize how awesome you are? How could he...and then just move on with someone else without talking to you first? Oh, wait. Is the apartment leased in your name or did you move in with him? Maybe—”

My shoulders buckled from the burden piling on them. “I moved in with him about six months ago, and he’d been living there for over a year. The lease and everything is in his name.”

“But haven’t you been paying the rent for the past—”

“Four months? Yeah. Pretty much.” Stupid, idiotic, naive me.

Aspen shook her head. “I still can’t believe he just... That bastard.”

It did my heart good, seeing her upset on my behalf, and that kind of cheered me up a little more.

“Yup.” I nodded, totally agreeing. “But the good news in all this is that I’m not pregnant like I kind of feared I was.”

“Say what?”

Leaning in toward her, I confessed, “I’m late, but I think it’s just stress or I-don’t-know because I sensed something was going on with him lately. But this is the second test I’ve taken in two days, and they’ve both been negative, so whew, huh? Dodged a bullet there.”

Aspen shook her head, gazing at me with something akin to awe, which was weird because I didn’t think I could be any more pathetic than I was in this moment.

“You amaze me,” she said. “I don’t know how you can still smile and be so upbeat at a time like this.”

The grin on my face went a little stiff as a memory assailed me.

Make me a promise, a voice from my past whispered through my head. Suddenly, I was sixteen again and he was gripping my face, begging me with desperate brown eyes. No matter what happens today, don’t ever change. You are fun and sweet and amazing just the way you are. You make the world a better place because you always find the bright side. You ARE the bright side. And if I’m ever going to make it through this, I need to know you’re out there, still glowing and making the world bright.

I wiped my hands over my face and coughed through a tickle in my throat. “Well...” I shrugged and met Aspen’s gaze before I had to look away. “You know, it wasn’t like Cam was the great love of my life.”