Page 145 of Text Me Baby One More Time

“What kind?” He drags a third slab of dough from the fridge. “Toppings—which ones do you want?”

I grin.

Pizza is Zach’s peace offering.

In that moment, I know everything with these two is going to be just fine.

If only I was so sure about things with Denny…

Thirty-Three

Denver

“I miss Steve.”

“You mean Shep?”

Yes.“No, I totally meant Steve.”

It feels so wrong to miss Shep when he did something so horrible, but I can’t help it. I’ve tried not to miss him. I’ve tried not to miss him with ice cream and chips and all the Oreos I could stomach, but none of it works. Not even binge-watching my favorite teenagers who use words that are way too advanced for their vocabulary to be realistic worked.

I still miss him.

It’s that it feels so right, which means it can’t be wrong…I think.

Monty crinkles her nose at me. “Steve’s the pug, right?”

“The cutest pug in the whole freakin’ world, yes.”

“She totally means Shep,” Zoe says, squeezing back between me and Monty on the couch. “Doesn’t she, Delia?”

“She does!” Delia calls from the kitchen.

We’re having a girls’ night, sans Allie, who isstillon her honeymoon. How that lucky bitch can afford two weeks away on her salary is beyond me.

“It doesn’t make you a bad person, Denny,” Delia says, popping into the living room from around the corner. “It makes you human. You’re allowed to miss him.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

She sits cross-legged on the floor, a bowl of cereal balanced precariously on her lap. “If you’re harboring feelings of hatred toward Shep because of me then you’re harboring those feelings for the wrong reasons. I don’t hate Shep. I hate what he did, but I don’t hate him. We had a long talk over the weekend and we’re in a better place now.”

I sit forward. “You talked to him?”

“He came over for personal pizzas and finally gave me a real apology. It was…actually kind of nice. He was nice. Letting go of that hurt was nice. I mean, I’ll never forget what he did, but I can be adult enough to move on from it.”

She shovels a few bites of cereal into her mouth and shrugs.

“He…apologized?”

“Vwep,” she answers, milk dribbling out of her full mouth.

“In case you were wondering, that’s Delia speak foryes.” Zoe pinches her arm. “You pig.”

Looking embarrassed, Delia swallows and uses her t-shirt to wipe her chin off. “Sorry, I mean, yes, he did. He made sure to tell me he wasn’t doing it for you or himself, but for me.”

“Did he mean it?”

“You know, back when he first apologized, it was the most awkward thing of my life. It was completely half-assed and he wouldn’t even make eye contact with me.” She sets her bowl aside and pulls her knees up to her chest. “But when he was sitting in our kitchen, he faced me straight on, and it wasn’t like the first time at all. It wasn’t rehearsed or forced. It was genuine.”

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