Page 35 of Forever Yours

“Nope, nothing happened at the shopping trip,” Devlin insisted.

Annabelle narrowed her eyes. “Hmm. Did something happen at a time, say, other than the shopping trip?”

Devlin knew she hadn’t told them about the kiss, and she justified her silence by a nagging feeling that they’d meddle more if she said anything, and she needed meddling friends right now less than a Scooby Doo villain did.

“Okay, don’t be mad,” Devlin started.

Annabelle stopped midway through opening a package of crackers. “I knew you were holding out on us!”

“Last week I was looking at the art gallery. The movers had just finished emptying the place and they let me look around after I promised them I’d lock up.” She saw the wide eyes of her friends and realized that she might shock the unflappable duo with this next admission. “Gabe came in after me and I don’t remember who started it, but all of a sudden I was against the wall, and we were making out.”

“All of a sudden?” Prudence asked. “A deer jumps out at you all of a sudden. You don’t shove your tongue down someone’s throat all of a sudden.”

“You know what I mean, Pru! I wasn’t expecting it to happen. I was a ball of nerves on the day of the town council meeting, and I guess it just took the edge off.” Devlin looked over at Annabelle, who had been silent so far. Suspicion filled her—Annabelle was up to no good when she was quiet like this.

“Oh,” Annabelle said when the attention was directed at her. “I’m sure it did. Take the edge off, I mean.” She continued to nibble on a cracker. Devlin wasn’t fooled by her lack of reaction.

“C’mon, AB. What do you want to say?” she asked.

“Well.” Annabelle took her sweet time finishing her bite. “You and Gabe already have a history. I know that you both want the same shop, but why should that stop you from having some fun with him in the meantime?”

“Having some fun with him?” Devlin wasn’t sure she understood what Annabelle was getting at.

“You know,” Annabelle started to explain, “get your frustrations out. There has to be something cathartic about absolutely fucking his brains out knowing that he’s the source of your frustration.”

Prudence guffawed at this, then appeared to reconsider. “That’s a pretty good point.”

“That’s a terrible point!” Devlin exclaimed. “What happens when the city makes their decision and one of us loses? Who do you guys pick then? I meant it this morning when I said I don’t want my need to buy this building to come between any of you guys.”

“Who says we have to choose?” Prudence pointed out. “Life goes on. You guys make it work, or you don’t work, and were just fuck buddies for a while. We’re all adults.”

“You don’t believe that.” Devlin was shocked at what they were saying. “You’re telling me that if you and Grey don’t work out, we’ll all continue to sing kumbaya together as one big happy group?”

Prudence had the courtesy to appear abashed. “That’s different.”

“Pru, you know it wouldn’t end up any different.” Devlin needed to calm down. She felt like she was getting upset with her best friends every time they had a conversation about Gabe. She was better than that. They were better than that.

“I appreciate your advice, but like I said before, and what seems to be the theme of this weekend, none of this is personal.”

Even as she said so, she knew she was lying because every single thing with Gabe seemedverypersonal. As much as she tried not to think about her ex-boyfriend, she was thrown off guard whenever he popped into her head like he did now. He had been controlling, and she couldn’t help to bring him into the equation. She tried to tell him to leave, that it had been over a year and she was tired of putting him into her situations, still making decisions based on what she thought he’d do, or how he’d react. Like now, she knew he’d expect her to put him first, to put everything she wanted on the back burner in order to make him happy. She didn’t know how to stop this.

Get the fuck out of my head, you asshole.

Annabelle, who had the knack of knowing when a change of subject was needed, laid her hand on Devlin’s arm, indicating a cease fire. “What do you think they guys are doing? They should be coming down for lunch anytime now.”

As if manifested out of thin air, they heard footsteps on the stairs.

“Ah, here come the three wise men now,” Annabelle deadpanned.

Greyson made his way to Prudence, pulling her into a hug and a deep kiss. “I missed you, Pru.”

Prudence returned the kiss and sighed. “We’re ready to take a break for some lunch, what about you?”

“I’m famished,” Sebastian exaggerated. “What did you ladies make for lunch?”

“We’re very important businesswomen, Sebastian. We’ve been waiting for house husband Greyson to come and make us some food,” Devlin teased.

“House husband. I like the sound of that, believe it or not.” Greyson nodded his assent.

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