Page 93 of With a Cherry On Top

I make a show of turning around and walking away, but he calls after me. “Where the hell are you going?”

“To talk to someone older than four.”

“Like who?” He waits for me to turn before he says, “Not your bestie, since she’s married to your boss. Not your brother, since he’s the one who got you the job. Would your ex-wife have anything insightful to say?”

My jaw clenches. “I get it.”

He steps closer, slapping a hand on my shoulder. “Look, I love this.Loveit. It’s so fucking messy—I’m having the time of my life. But I gotta say, man, it’s good that you’re getting used to shit exploding in your face.”

My shoulders tighten. “This isn’t going to end well, is it?”

“Nope. Eventually, her mom’s going to find out she’s been paying you to tongue-fuck her daughter.”

I glare at him.

He widens his eyes dramatically. “Ooh. The vibrator’s protective of his human.” His voice takes on a more serious timbre. “Dude, Logan’s not going to give you another chance. He’s just not. And you worked too hard to find your footing after Josie.”

Iknow.Ifucking know.But she’s a siren, and I’m lost at sea. All I hear is her call. All I can do is respond.

“She makes me feel alive.” Besides Sadie, I’ve been so miserable. “My life has been a seven-year-long funeral. And now I feel like I’m back. Like I’m myself.”

He studies me, for once serious. He doesn’t have an answer—because there isn’t one. Either I keep going and let this inevitable train wreck hit me at full speed, or I end it and return to existing in a lifeless limbo.

I don’t know what’s worse.

“Hey, maybe you’ll meet someone else at the bachelor party.”

I blink at him. “Bachelor party?”

“Yeah. For Logan.”

Oh boy. “Let me stop you right there, Kyle. He’s not going to want that. And if he does, it’ll be at the farm. Us and the cows.”

“Or he doesn’t know that what he actually wants is a party. In a strip club. With lap dances, and drinks.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “Huh?”

“He’s going to make you wear your ass like a hat.”

Kyle sighs dramatically. “What did you do for your bachelor party?”

Mywhat?Josie and I got married in a rush after we found out about Sadie, not because we wanted to, but because her ultra-religious and old-fashioned family wouldn’t accept her having a child out of wedlock. “I didn’t have a bachelor party.”

“Seriously?” he screeches.

I flinch, bringing a hand to my chest. “Jesus Christ. You raise your voice like that only if there’s someone holding a gun to the back of my head.”

“What do you mean you didn’t have one?”

“I mean, my girlfriend was seven months pregnant, and neither my brother nor my best friends were speaking to me, so I didn’t have one.”

“Well, that’s unacceptable.” He claps. “We’ll just have a double bachelor party.”

“But I’m not a bachelor.”

He tilts his head. “Well . . . technically . . .”

“I’m a divorcé, not a bachelor. Oh, and also, I don’t want a bachelor party.”

“All right, then we’ll have a divorce party.”

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