Page 34 of Bachelor

He chuckled as I left his office, closing the door behind me.

I leaned against it for a moment, trying to catch my breath. For the first time in a long time, being around Rhys felt easy again even though the hurt was still there.

Could we be friends eventually? Would we look back on this time and laugh together, just like he’d done?

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out, finding a text from Jessica reminding me of book club later tonight.

Book club. Rhys would be there. Maybe I could gauge if we were really over this tonight.

And if we weren’t? What then?

Chapter Twelve

Rhys

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“DID YOU FINISH THEbook?” Tyler asked as we walk toward the bookshop.

“Unfortunately.” I tucked my hands in my jacket pocket against the cold chill in the air.

Tyler was light on his feet, excited for another book club meeting. Every time we ran into each other at the gym, it was all he could talk about. We reached the bookstore, but only Bill greeted us. In the dusty, ill-lit entryway, I shed my jacket and hung it on a hook.

“Beer, wine?” Bill asked, motioning to the stairs leading up to his loft apartment above the store. “It’s all up here.”

“Where’re the girls?” Tyler asked, looking around as he followed Bill upstairs.

I followed behind them, the steps creaking under our weight.

“Something about picking up some Chinese food on the way, got held up at the restaurant.” Bill waved a hand in dismissal. “It’s just us for a while. What do you want to drink?”

I accepted a can of beer and leaned my weight against the railing overlooking the shop below. Bill and Tyler dropped into easy conversation, but my mind was elsewhere, stuck on the conversation I’d had with Whitney. She really thought I had a thing with Cassandra. That had taken me off guard. I thought I’d been clear that I had no interest in Cassandra, but the idea of Whitney being jealous filled me with a sense of hope that hadn’t been there before.

I sipped my beer, smiling to myself at the memory of the look in her eyes when she called me an asshole.

The shop bell rang, and two female voices drifting toward us in the loft.

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