Crushed (Torn #7)(2)

Trista’s eyes glittered before she snorted a laugh, as if I was the most amusing thing she had seen today. “f*uking Hell, Amber, where the hell have you been? Haven’t you seen the way Carter’s been throwing looks at her?”

Carter Mason, Lindsey’s big brother. Right.

“He was?” I frowned, beyond confused why Carter was, well, being plain ol’ Carter. “But Emma’s married and pregnant…” to Mister Bass freaking Cole.

“My thoughts exactly.” Trista snickered before plucking her champagne flute to toast to against my empty one.

“Ugh. Men are a hopeless bunch.” If Carter was that way, I didn’t have to imagine what Brody would be like once he saw Lindsey again. Pregnant or not, their hearts were spoken for, and there was nothing I could do to make that go away. God knew I had tried.

Emma was in the throes of a mini panic attack, glaring at both of us since we were talking about her as if she wasn’t even there. “Will you guys hush it?” she whispered in a hiss. “People will hear, and the last thing I need is gossip. Bass has been through enough with my Carter drama. I don’t want him to think this baby isn’t his, and with the way you two are going, people might think I’m having an affair with my ex.”

“It is Bass’s, right?” Trista raised her brow, unperturbed.

“God, Trista…” My mouth hung ajar, stunned at her audacity to ask such a direct question, while Emma froze, probably insulted by the damning question.

Trista innocently blinked at us. “What? It’s a valid question!”

Emma’s cheeks were painted beet red as she tried to hush Trista down.

It was valid, but this wasn’t the place to discuss it. Why couldn’t she have waited until we were back in Santa Barbara, back in our place, to open this discussion with coffee and ice cream while all of us argued our case like we normally did on girl’s night?

“Trista! You can’t just blurt shit like that. What the f*uk!”

Trista merely shrugged, giving me a penetrating look. “Oh, come on, don’t tell me the thought has never occurred to you?”

“I’m right here!” Emma grunted out, losing her temper. “It’s Bass’s, okay?” she harrumphed as calmly and as dignified as she could.

Trista nodded, beaming at her. Of course, her being Trista, she just couldn’t let one slide when she could undoubtedly add more to Emma’s escalating blood pressure.

“One hundred percent?”

Emma made a cute sounding growl, surprising me that she was still acting like a lady, before she declared to the both of us, “I better go, or I might be in danger of choking you!”

We both watched Emma sashay her way towards Lindsey and Dimitris’ hot European friends before I huffed out a breath with a small, disapproving shake of my head.

“What’s gotten into you?” I glared at my best friend. “You can’t just grill her like that. She’s pregnant, Trista!”

She shrugged like she didn’t feel as if she had crossed the line with her crazy interrogation. “Oh, come on, you make it sound like she was in labor. She’ll be fine.”

“You’re crazy.”

She truly was. I didn’t even know how or why she came up with her ideas. Then again, this was Trista after all. Out of the four of us, she was always the one who had more guts to say things that weren’t meant to be said. Even Lindsey, who was normally unabashed about things, would be left speechless with Trista’s direct approach to confronting things between us friends.

“It was a valid question, Amber. I love Carter and Bass, too. I mean, we’re all invested in them, and if some odd shit happens, would you be shocked if that baby turned out to be Carter’s? ‘Cause, hell, I wouldn’t be.” She shrugged, deep in thought. “Just sayin’ is all.”

It was no question we were all invested in our friends’ relationships, most especially Emma’s confusing love triangle, because we had all been there when it happened. We had been witnesses to her downfall and blossoming love life. As a result, I got that Trista came from a good place, but seriously? There was a time and place for such intrusive subjects, and that very moment hadn’t been the time.

Reflecting on Emma’s rollercoaster love life, it wasn’t a hard question to come up with, but after her almost losing Bass and going through a tragic miscarriage that seriously rocked everything in her life, she deserved a break from it all. Trista needed to understand and respect that.

“She did go back and forth there for quite some time…” I started to say, remembering how passionately broken she had been when Bass had broken her heart the first time around after wrapping up their first film together. “But Emma wouldn’t do that … not with Bass, not when she has everything to lose.”

Emma had made a daring choice. She had chosen the one she couldn’t live without. Even though it had been tearing her apart, she had made a choice, and I couldn’t have been more proud of her.

“Carter is hot—holy flippin’ hot—but Bass … He’s mighty delish.”

Trista was rather too enthusiastic to say the least. I knew she didn’t mean anything by it, but seriously, I wondered what Taylor would think if he heard her adore other men that way. He was a secure man—I knew that—but surely he would feel a tinge of something, wouldn’t he?