Page 92 of The Rules

Dani laughed. It wassogood to have her back. “That was Ryan. One of my pre-Dylan dates from the website.”

Cat scrunched her nose.

“What?”

“Did you know he worked in this building? Don’t you think that’s kind of awkward? What if he and Dylan know each other?”

“Yeah, well, this thing has already made awkward an understatement. Besides, if it wasn’t for Dylan and his piss-poor attempt at being an adult, maybe Ryan and I would have done this a long time ago. It’s not fair that I should have to ruin that chance when Dylan and I barely had a thing.” Her voice caught, but she cleared her throat to hide it. “I need to move on.”

Cat’s brow creased. “I understand that. I do. But I don’t think he thought of it that way. He was completely the asshole here, but I don’t think Dylan thinks what you had was barely a thing.”

Dani’s chest felt that familiar tightness. It traveled up her neck and tingled at the back of her throat. It didn’t matter what was or wasn’t. Dylan made his bed. Now she was moving on to Ryan’s. “Well, I do.”

“Okay,” Cat said. “Whatever you need to do, I support you. Listen, Josh is going out of town soon for a conference he’s presenting. Maybe we can get Sonya and Emma together and do something fun.”

“Oh! Movies and pizza?”

“Uh...yes!”

Dani smiled, curbing the urge to smother Cat with a huge bear hug. Her love life might be a disaster, but she had the best friends in the world.

Thirty-five

Apparently Cat wasn’t speaking toDylan either.

Dylan climbed out of the back of Josh’s new Grand Cherokee—the baby-friendly version of his old ride—and Josh handed the keys to the valet. Cat hadn’t said a word since they’d left the island, making for an extremely uncomfortable hour ride into the city, now she had her back turned to him while she waited for Josh.

Dylan opened the door for her, and she brushed past him without even looking.

She looked so innocent in her little black maternity dress, her hair in one of those buns ballerinas wear. With her flat shoes, she barely made it past his shoulder, but Cat could shoot daggers just like Dani, and right now, Dylan was dodging them all around.

Josh patted his shoulder and gave Dylan ashe’ll come aroundlook as they entered behind her.

“Dylan!” Mrs. Jansen spotted him immediately, waving a heavily-ringed hand across the lobby. Her heels clunked on the floor as she came to greet them. “And Josh. So good to see you both.” She turned to Cat after dousing them both with perfumed air kisses. “And who’s this?”

“This is my wife, Catia,” Josh said. “Cat, this is Mrs. Jansen.”

“How lovely to meet you,” Mrs. Jansen said. Her eyes dropped to the basketball Cat had grown over the last few weeks. “And a future Rideout, I see.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Josh said, smiling at Cat’s face.

Mrs. Jansen looked like she was going to cry as she clutched the actual pearls she wore.For fuck’s sake.

Behind his annoyance, though, was a pain he hadn’t felt since he was a kid—the kind that comes from wanting something you can’t have. This… this optimism. He’d felt it with Dani, and then like a kid’s balloon, it had popped. Now what was he in for? What was the future of Pierce? Dylan, old and grey-haired, running the business with Josh’s brood of offspring after Josh took off with Cat to some retirement paradise? He’d keep working because what else was he going to do? He’d be alone. Maybe he’d take a couple weeks vacation a year and travel. Alone. Or maybe he’d pick up some old person hobby… alone.

He’d play favorite uncle to Shawn and Josh’s kids. Mattie loved him. Josh and Cat’s kids would be the same. Unless Cat still wasn’t speaking to him ten years from now. What if they had an army of mini-Cats to hate him? Josh would eventually be overpowered and he’d hate Dylan too. Whatever guy Dani ended up with would be their new favorite uncle, while Dylan clung to what? Freedom? Whatever it was, he’d get it alone.

He needed a fucking drink.

“Dylan, love, where’s Dani tonight?” Mrs. Jansen turned her sights on him now and his stomach lurched. Hadn’t he come up with a cover story for this? He couldn’t remember it for the life of him. All three sets of eyes bore into his face and he opened his mouth to reply. “Ah…” was all that came out.

“She had another commitment,” Cat said. It was half save, half dig as she emphasized the word commitment like it was in a foreign language.

Mrs. Jansen smiled and patted Dylan’s arm. “Too bad. I was looking forward to seeing her again. You all must be so close,” she said to Cat. “With Dylan and Josh being business partners.”

“Yes,” Cat said. “We’re very close. Dani and I have actually known each other since we were kids. Long before we met these two. She’s my best friend in the world.” Another dagger flew by his head.

“Oh, what an interesting story! You’ll have to tell me all about it over dinner.”

---