Page 108 of The Invitation

“So what now?” Abbie asks.

“I don’t know,” I admit, getting up and following my feet to the dressing room. I open the end door and swallow when I see the green mules. “He’s said he’s only interested in me.” Closing the door, I go into the bathroom.

“And you believe him?”

Are they right? Am I being a complete, foolish dickhead?Again.But then, it’s easy for them to draw unattractive conclusions. They’re not the ones feeling what I’m feeling. “I believe him.” If they’d seen the way he looked at me last night, they would too. “Look, I don’t know what to tell you guys.” I flip on the shower. “But I do know that I can’t walk away, so here I am waiting to find out where this goes.”

“Marriage?” Charley asks.

“What? No!”

“Babies?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“So this is purely sex, is it?”

“What’s your point?” My irritation is real. Because I know what her fucking point is.

“My point is that you just walked out on Nick after five years because he wanted to get very serious, and all I’m hearing right now are clues that you might think this thing you’ve got going on with Jude Fuckboy Harrison could be very serious.”

“And you don’t want serious,” Abbie chimes in, shoving a marshmallow in her mouth and smiling sarcastically around the giant lump of pure sugar.

I stare at my best friends, at a loss. “What’s the plan for tonight?”

Both of their heads drop back, and both of them groan their exasperation.

“Look, let me figure this out as I go along,” I say, dumping the sheet in the wicker wash basket. “Why do I even have to put a name on it?”

“Because I feel like both parties in a situationship like this should know what each other’s expectations are.” Charley, ever the sensible one, starts bobbing on the screen, walking somewhere in her house. “I’ve got to go. We have a poonami happening. Meet here at six?”

“Six,” I confirm, giving my attention to Abbie when Charley leaves the call. “I’ll be back soon. We can get ready together.”

“Be careful, Amelia.”

“You’ve changed your tune,” I say, laughing.

“Yes, well, now I have opinion-changing information. Don’t be a mug, okay?”

I smile before I hang up, lowering to the edge of the tub, spinning my mobile in my hand. Trying not to overthink. What are my expectations? What are Jude’s? And after last night, the tension, the anger, the yelling, shouldn’t we have discussed that?

Or did we?

I groan, dragging myself up from the side of the tub, wincing when my phone starts ringing. Nick. “Oh God,” I whisper, flipping the shower on to drown out the sound of my ex trying to call meagain.

Chapter 27

The lobby is buzzing with weekend guests arriving as I pass through, luggage and golf bags being carried in by the staff, and glasses of welcome drinks being handed out. I dip and weave my way to the Library Bar, halting on the threshold when I see him at the end of the bar on his mobile. The exact spot Jude Harrison was in the first time I laid eyes on him. He’s slightly to the left of the smoky-blue, ribbed glass shade, giving me clear sight to him. And I’m as shook as I was on that day, my stomach fluttering.

“Oh, you beautiful, confusing man,” I whisper, as he looks up and spots me. He places his phone down, sitting back on the stool, arms crossing, studying me studying him.Doomed.

“Get your arse over here,” he says seriously, jerking his head in order. “Now.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Are you arguing with me?”

I chew my lip, uncharacteristically coquettish. “Maybe.”

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