Page 141 of Back in the Saddle

“You were right. I wasn’t catching his vibe. I’m glad you pointed that out because he needs to move on.”

“And the way you laid into Luna’s sister.”

My lips turned down. “That was wrong.”

“So you know, both you and Luna were right about what I was communicating. I thought it was Luna’s battle, not yours, and you needed to butt out. But also, the woman was obviously begging for a confrontation. She dresses like a hippie, but she’s a drama queen. She feeds off negative attention. It’s her drug of choice. You were giving her her fix, so I was also telling you to chill out. She wasn’t worth it.”

“Whoa,” I breathed at this revelation. “Sheisa drama queen. How did I not see that? It’s always about the drama with Dream.”

“Shocked as shit that woman is Scott and Louise’s daughter, and Luna’s sister.”

“Do you have a take on that?” I asked.

“On what?”

“Why she’s so different from all of them? You’re also right about the negative attention. Which is weird. It’s not like Scott, Louise and Luna are always rays of sunshine like Harlow.” I reconsidered. “Well, Louise is. But none of them are like Dream.”

He shrugged. “Could be she feels left out because they’re tight. But she’s a grown-ass woman, so she should learn to deal with her feelings without lashing out.”

“No truer words spoken.”

And he had a point about Dream maybe feeling left out.

But I knew for certain Scott and Louise loved both their girls and showed it.

So I reckoned it was more about Dream being jealous of her sister.

“Going back,” Eric took me out of my reverie. “You weren’t wrong calling her on her shit. It’s never wrong to stand up for someone who’s getting beaten down by a bully.”

Aw.

I loved that he thought that.

I grinned at him.

Then I took another sip of my cocoa.

“What’s this about mocha icebox cake?” he asked.

“I’m not sure it’s an actual cake. It’s some mocha mascarpone cream thing sandwiched with chocolate chip cookies that you chill for a long-ass time then eat.”

Eric swiped my mug out of my hand and put it on the coffee table.

“Hey! I wasn’t done with that,” I snapped as he dragged me to the door. When we were out of it, I asked, “Where are we going?”

“To the grocery store.”

I grinned again.

So…totally…and perhaps it would be constantly…falling for this guy.

* * *

My hip was moving.

I opened my eyes.

Eric’s face was close to mine.

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