Page 90 of Ignite

“Baby, I luuuuuuve you.” Darin whimpered into the carpet.

Shit. I had to deal with Darin tonight, and then my love life tomorrow.

As for sleep, paraphrasing the song, I’d find time to sleep when I was dead.

I spent the night pouring coffee into Darin, listening as he talked.

Over the next hours, we had the conversations we probably should have had before he cheated. At least they were better late than never. He’d fallen in love with Trixi, but hadn’t been able to emotionally commit to her without moving on from me. After our breakup, I’d been caught up in my humiliation and grief, but talking with Darin gave me perspective. We’d fallen in love too early and without questioning if we were right for each other.

Now, we could both move on.

Before he crashed on my lounge, I used his phone to call his fiancée. I wanted to be the bigger person and just send her a text to say where he was and that she was welcome to come and crash the night to be with him.

But, I wasn’t.

She’d known about me before she hooked up with my boyfriend. She knew we lived together, and she’d had her furniture and belongings in a truck on the street outside my old home, waiting for me to move out before she moved in.

I wanted to be above pettiness.

But hearing her shock at my voice telling her where Darin would be spending the night, was all the payback I needed.

Before midnight, I’d calmed down and sent her a text.

Rylee to Trixi:Darin loves you.

Those words should have been harder to type than they were.

Rylee to Trixi:Darin loves you but needed to do the whole closure thing with me. We talked and now he’s sleeping off whatever he drank before he got to my place.

Rylee to Trixi:You’re welcome to pick him up in the morning or come over now.

Trixi:Thank you.

Watching Darin’s face light up when she arrived to find him awake and set up with blankets on my lounge, I knew the ends had justified the means.

Yes, he’d cheated. She’d always know him as a cheater.

But, at least he’d freed me to find someone who’d never cheat.

Someone like Ethan?I sighed, unable to believe in miracles.

“So, you and the new Captain-Coach?” Darin teased, his hand firmly in his fiancé‘s lap.

“Don’t think it’s gonna happen, not now.” I set down cups of tea for Trixi and me, and black coffee for Darin. Sitting with them in my lounge room should have felt weirder than it was. Sitting with them and talking about my non-relationship with Ethan felt … comfortable. My female friends weren’t objective, they thought I was mad for jumping his bones and then leaving the ride. My male friends were all now Ethan’s friends and hardly going to be any more objective than the women.

“We had our chance, and you watched him leave.” I finished with faux steel eyes before getting up and quickly tossing together the makings of chocolate fudge brownies. We needed chocolate to get through this conversation. Okay, I needed chocolate.

“If he’s gonna back off because I turned up, he’s not the guy for you.” Darin’s smile was brotherly and Trixi got up to help me grease and line the baking dish. The world had gone mad.

“Like you’d know?” I didn’t bother to grace him with a crooked eyebrow.

“You need someone who’s not gonna jump when you tell him how high.”

“He hasn’t signed up for the RFS. You know how much the bushfire brigade means to the town, and to me.”

I turned towards the stove, not letting either of them see my wet eyes. My brother was five years older than me and had left home shortly after mum died. I’d been a daddy’s girl. Dad’s life had revolved around his business, this town, and the RFS.

Darin knew dad. Darin knew how much I loved my dad, and how I’d never do anything to disrespect my father’s memory.

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