With Every Heartbeat (Forbidden Men #4)(17)

Watching her now, I guessed she hadn’t been quite as lonely without me this past year as I’d been without her. Cora had moved on. Realizing that made my heart ache, made me feel abandoned and pathetic for hanging on to the only friendship I’d ever had. But then I reminded myself she hadn’t told anyone else about her kidneys. She only trusted me with that information.

I knew it was a selfish thought, but it still made me feel better.

The gossiping commenced around her, each girl more eager to dish the most recent events with my best friend. They treated her like the queen bee of the group. It took her a minute of gasping about so-and-so being caught cheating on what’s-her-face before she remembered me.

As our gazes clashed, her eyes widened. “Oh, you guys totally have to meet Zoey.” Peeling herself away from her friends, she grinned at me and hooked her arm through mine. Tugging me forward, she beamed proudly. “This is my new roomie. Isn’t she just the sweetest thing ever?”

“Ohmigod, I just love your hair color. Who do you have dye it?”

“Look at that tan. Which salon do you use?”

Cora laughed. “Save it, guys. This,” she displayed a hand over me, “is all natural.”

More gasps followed, making me blush.

“No way.”

“Oh, honey. You are blessed.”

“Bitch, I hate you,” another teased, and everyone laughed.

I smiled uneasily, wondering if it’d really be this easy to make friends. But a microsecond later, one of the girls remembered another piece of hot gossip she wanted to tell Cora...in private. As she dragged my best friend away, the other girls wandered off too, leaving me standing there like an idiot. I guess I could’ve followed, but I knew I just would’ve felt more awkward and left out if I tried to fit in.

So, when I spotted all the supplies piled up for the car wash with a list of instructions, I got to work, hooking up the hoses and filling all the buckets with soapy water. There was a small warehouse storage building shed close by that had given us permission to use their hot water for the soap buckets. It took five trips, but by the time I had everything set up, cars driving by caught on that we were open for business.

The girls who’d had shirts on suddenly lost them, and I discovered I was the only female in the parking lot sans bikini. Half of Cora’s crew took up the promotional end of the sale, standing out by the highway and waving signs at the passing traffic.

On the other side of the huge parking lot, the guys had set up camp as well. But more of them were cleaning cars than actually trying to lure in customers.

I spotted Quinn along with his roommate he’d introduced to me last night. The two of them had teamed up together on cleaning until a third guy arrived to work with them. And that’s when the new girl joined our ranks.

She went to Cora for instruction, but Cora didn’t have a clue what was going on. She was busy being one of the sign holders.

When no one was very forthright about giving her any duties, I hesitantly called, “You can help me.”

She turned, and I was bowled over by how pretty she was. Her hair was a tad bit darker than mine, but it looked, I don’t know, better. Shinier. It had this natural wave that curled perfectly around her heart-shaped face. And her eyes were a bright jewel blue while mine were more washed-out green. But she grinned at me as if I could be her new best friend.

“It looks like the guys over there are teaming up and having two or three people clean each car,” I said.

“Sounds like a good plan to me.” She bounded forward and grabbed the hose. “I can rinse.”

“That’d be great. Thanks.”

We easily set up a workflow, and before long, we were able to talk and clean at the same time. She moved closer to scrub on the same side of a bright orange SUV as me when I couldn’t keep up, and spoke low as she leaned in to ask, “So, are we the only two who didn’t get the memo that we were supposed to wear bikinis to this thing?”

I blushed. “Actually, I did kind of get that memo. But I refused, so my roommate settled for stuffing me into this.”

I wished I were wearing something more like her outfit. Her shirt was oversized with a hole in one sleeve and the shorts were long and paint splattered. She looked so comfortable I was envious.

“Well, thank God you didn’t listen to her, or I’d be feeling totally out of my element right now. Though, I swear, those aren’t swimming suits they’re wearing. Seriously, who would actually swim in one of those things without worrying the first wave to come along would rip it right off you?”

I giggled, totally agreeing.

“And that thing that blonde in the blue is wearing?” she went on, shaking her head with horror. “No. Just…no.”

I grinned but felt compelled to say, “She’s my roommate.”

The blonde flushed hard, her eyes growing wide. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry.”

With a laugh, I waved her apology aside. “No, it’s okay. I love her to death, but I totally agree with you on the outfit. Not over my dead body.”

She set her hand over her heart and blew out a breath. “Whew. Thanks, but I still feel crappy for talking about them all behind their backs.” Then she cleared her throat as she picked up the hose to rinse. “So, you’re Cora’s roommate? You must know Quinn, then?”

My heart sped up at the mention of his name. Keeping my eyes on a bird dropping I was trying to rub off the paint, I murmured, “Yeah, I…I met him last night.”