Page 8 of Between Now & Heartbreak

So, I add this to my list of sins and force myself to say what I must. “Uh, Duke and I…” I let out what I hope sounds like a happy chuckle and clear my dry throat. “Well, it was quite a surprise for me, too. But, he’s really great and I’m excited to marry him.”

“Wow.” The surprise in her voice is muted but her expression screams her shock.

“Why, wow?” I ask, hating myself for pretending not to understand.

She blinks a few times like she’s got something in her eyes and she purses her lips.

“It’s just…he must have done a complete 180 for you to be into him. He was kind of an asshole when we were in high school. I mean, we all thought he was hot, but he wasn’t nice.” She grimaces.

“That was a long time ago. I’m not the same girl I was then, either.” I say as casually as I can. But, I hate the reminder of how ridiculous it must seem to everyone else, too.

She doesn’t look away from the road and I can feel her holding back whatever she really wants to say.

“Aren’t you going to sayanything?” I ask after the silence yawns between us.

“Well… I’m buying dinner, I guess,” she says but she sounds shell shocked.

I pretend not to notice.

“Oh, Dina. You don’t have to do that.” I give her shoulder a quick, grateful squeeze.

She looks at me briefly, her smile is forced, but I’m so relieved to see it. I don’t want to talk about this any longer.

“Of course I do. My best friend is in love. I think I can swing some wings and beer.”

Carter’s face pops into my head when she says the word love and I groan inwardly. I wish I could stop thinking about him. The swift tightening in my belly when he invades my thoughts is irritating.

Maybe it was silly to think that after months of silence a man like that would still be waiting to hear from me.

But, I did think it.

BecauseIwas waiting for him.

And I thought he felt the same way,

No, I wassureof it.

Built my hopes on it.

I’d been so desperate for someone to look at me the way he did that I made it into something it wasn’t. It’s a painful lesson, but one I’m glad I learned.

I’ve always known that I wasn’t the girl fairytales were written about. Carter made me forget that.

I won’t ever forget it again.

I can’t if I’m going to break the cycle that’s turned the women in my family into nothing more than bargaining chips. That stops with me. Cameron will know something different.

“We’re here,” Dina says with genuine excitement that I wish was catching.

I can’t muster the energy to fake smile, so I turn my face away and peer out the window instead.

I gasp in horror.

A squat, crumbling brick building sits isolated in the middle of a huge field that seems to be moonlighting as a parking lot. The blinking orange neon sign slapped haphazardly on the roof declares it “Corks Wine Bar.”

The name is an insult to wine bars. Itlookslike a rest stop.

“What is this place?” I demand.

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