Page 85 of Summer Affair
“It was item twenty-seven of my bucket list.” She pulled out a folded-up sheet of paper, worn around the edges and fragile at the creases. It was a leftover from her time before Dirk. Her time before skinny-dipping. Her time before heartache. She carefully unfolded it and passed the paper to Darcy. “Right betweenPull an all-nighterandFinish bucket list.”
Darcy looked down and read the list from top to bottom, front to back. “Finishing your list might be a little difficult to do in one night since you haveDo the polar plunge,Reenact the boombox scene fromSay Anything, and,” Darcy bit back a smile, “Kiss Nick Lachey?”
“I made the list when I was in college.” She took the paper and scanned to the good stuff. “Here we go.” She cleared her throat. “Item seventeen,Sing karaoke with my best friends. Item eighteen,Spin like Julie Andrews at the top of Mount Hood, with my best friends. Item nineteen,Make a hashtag with my best friends.”
“Hashtag I’mPregnantAndMyFeetAreSwollenSoAMoutainIsOut.” To hammer that home, Piper made the hashtag sign with her fingers.
Jillian ignored this. “Item twenty,Start a book club with my best friends. And I’d like our first book to beStupid Boy. An insightful story about a man trying to change his life for the better, only to screw it up. Item twenty-one,Go on an epic road trip with my best friends.”
“I’m sensing a theme here,” Darcy said with a smile.
“Oh, it gets better,” Piper said.
“Item twenty-two,Capture a fugitive.” Her mind went back to the one man she wanted to capture. He’d already captured her heart and then she’d let him go. “Item twenty-three,Go skydiving naked with my best friends.”
Piper rolled her eyes. “Eddie said he’d drive us to that one.”
“I’m game,” Gage said, and the flirty wink he sent his wife had Jillian looking away before she embarrassed herself.
“This is out of order, but item two,Get a tattoo on my as—”
“Aaaand, that’s my cue,” Gage said, and then, like the unicorn he was, leaned down and kissed his beautiful wife. And Darcy was beautiful with her choppy blonde hair, cute pert nose, and warm glow. She looked like a woman in love. “You go be a friend, I’ve got Kylie.”
Jillian made a gagging noise, then went back to her list. “Item F.”
“I thought we were using numbers,” Piper pointed out. “Are you making this up as you go along?”
“Unlike some people, I don’t make things up as I go. I stick to my life plan even when someone tries to derail it. Which brings us back to item F.Egg Dirk’s house. Well, I want to egg Clay’s house, but that’s my house and …”
This time, when her tears fell, she didn’t bother to stop them. Couldn’t even if she wanted to. Because this time it wasn’t her heart that was weeping, it was her soul. “I don’t want to egg Clay.”
Darcy moved closer and put her arms around Jillian’s shoulder and tugged her close. “We know you don’t, honey.”
“Because I love him,” she whispered. “And he broke my heart.”
“I can slash his tires,” Piper offered, then slung her hands over Jillian’s other shoulder until they were a big bestie sandwich with Jillian in the middle. “You say the word and it’s done. I can’t believe he broke it off.”
“He didn’t.” She felt her eyes fill. “I did.”
“I bet he deserved it,” Piper said.
“He didn’t. Not really.”
“Why don’t you tell us what happened,” Darcy said softly.
“He totally steamrolled me.”
“Is that some kind of sex position?” Piper asked.
“No, it’s what men do when you tell them what you need, and they ignore you and do what they want.”
“And we aren’t talkin’ about sex?”
“No! We’re talking about how Clay bought us a home.”
Her friends looked confused.
“So he bought you a house and you broke it off?” Darcy asked tentatively.
