Page 105 of Champagne Nights

“Bye, Kenny.”

I sighed. When I finished my cigarette, I picked up Romeo and went back inside to sit at my computer and finish up the questions I so desperately didn’t want to answer. The doorbellrang just as I finished typing the last word and hit the save button. I got up and looked out the window to see my darling brother Keaton standing there.

“Keaton, how nice of you to drop by,” I said as I rolled my eyes, knowing who had sent him.

He held up the large brown bag in his hand. “Don’t hate. Mom just asked that if I weren’t doing anything tonight to stop over and see how you were doing. I brought some Pad Thai and spring rolls.” He smiled.

“Get in here.” I smiled as I took the bag from him and took it to the kitchen.

Romeo came out of hiding and rubbed up against Keaton’s leg.

“Hey, Romeo,” he said as he picked him up and gave him a kiss.

I took a couple of plates from the cabinet and set them on the table. “What have you been doing since the last time I saw you three days ago?” I smiled.

“The usual. Surfing, building some websites, picking up chicks.”

“I take it you and Elena are over?”

“I like to think we’re on a break,” he said as he put Romeo down.

I brought the food to the table, and we both sat down. “I like Elena. Why are you taking a break?”

“I don’t know. We’ve been fighting a lot.”

“About what?” I asked as I scooped some Pad Thai onto my plate.

“Is this where you’re going to give me some love advice?”

“Nah, I’m off the clock.” I smiled as I bit into the spring roll.

With his six-foot stature, neutral brown hair, dreamy hazel eyes, and a ripped surfer’s body, Keaton made women gravitate toward him as if he were some kind of magnet.

“Good, because I don’t want any. I’m living life free, sis. I don’t want to be tied down to one person. There are a whole lot of women out there to explore.”

I rolled my eyes.

“How about you?”

“How about me what?” I got up and grabbed a bottle of merlot and two glasses.

“There are a lot of men out there to explore.”

My family’s very existence these days consisted of trying to get me to find someone. What they didn’t understand was that I didn’t want anyone else. I wanted my husband back, and I wanted what we had back. The only thing I saw right now for me was a future of being alone.

“No thanks. I had my guy, and he was ripped away from me in a matter of seconds.”

Keaton never looked at me with the sadness that the rest of the family did. He saw me as something else. Not just a woman who lost her husband but a survivor. At least, that was what he called me.

“You know, Paisley, there are other guys out there for you.”

“I don’t want to talk about this!” I said in a raised voice.

“You never want to talk about it, but you have to. You have to accept what happened.”

“I have.”

“No, you haven’t. Because if you did, you wouldn’t stay locked up in this house day after day and night after night. Damn, it’s been almost a year.”

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