Page 65 of Sundown Somewhere

“You didn’t have to; we can see it on your face.”

“I’ve had an orgasm in the last six years,” I hiss.

“One that Jeff gave you?” Rose questions. “Or were they all self-inflicted?”

She has me there.

“Can we order?” I change the subject. “I’m hungry.”

We flag down Susan, who scurries over with her head hung so that her bangs cover her eyes. She’s been this way for so long, I don’t know that I would recognize her if she were to look at us straight on. At least I know it’s not us, since I’ve watched her greet every other table this way as well.

“Okay, but back to my original question,” Alice demands. “How?”

Errr….good question…

“It just happened?” I shrug, hoping I stuck the landing.

I didn’t.

“Just happened? What? Did you trip and land on his dick? These things don’t just happen.”

“Sure they do,” Rose defends. “Look at Pierce and me.”

I hold out my arm, gesturing toward Rose, who makes a damn good point right about now. Our very own Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She and her fiancé are one of the happiest couples I’ve ever seen, and fate brought them together via a freak snowstorm, trapping them inside Pierce’s mountain cabin over Christmas. A fairy tale if there ever was one.

“You could have just as easily encountered a serial killer as you did Prince Charming,” Emily points out. “Actually, I think odds were probably in your favor that your story would have gone Hitchcock rather than Disney.”

“Now you sound like my mother,” Rose retorts.

“Back to Dolly!” Alice says. Reaching across the table, she takes my hand, squeezing it. “Judgment free zone, so please don’t think I’m trying to be that person. Because I’m not. But I also want to make sure that you don’t get hurt here. You were left at the altar a month ago. After six years. Is jumping into bed with someone else really a good idea?”

I let out a long, ragged breath, squeezing her hand in return, thankful that my heart is what she’s concerned about most right now. And I know deep down that it truly is. I can see it in her eyes. All the hesitation and worry that hovers right under the surface, warring with the desire to be excited.

I’m right there with her.

“You think I haven’t thought about that? Because this isn’t just anyone else. It’s Hux!”

“There are worse people to rebound with,” Emily points out.

That’s not what I want. I don’t think…

“Except Hux isn’t rebound material, is he?” Margeaux says.

I shake my head. “No. Hux Hayes isn’t rebound material. He’s endgame.”

“Squeeeeee! OMG!” Rose keens, balling her fists and pressing her lips together to stop herself from all-out shrieking.

Our food appears, Susan, still hiding behind her bangs, sliding the plates in between the appetizers we haven’t touched. My pulse speeds up, insecurity creeping in about all my feelings. Everything made so much sense at the beach—when it was just Hux and me cocooned away from the real world. But now, I’m reminded of how messy it all is. Of what’s at stake.

“Dolly, I’m dying here. Please spill,” Rose says, digging into the food.

I follow her lead, serving myself, then launching into the tale of our weekend on Somerset Island. Or at least a high-level overview, giving them the rundown of how one thing led to another, to tequila, and then to an admission out of both of us that neither saw coming.

“I don’t know what happens next. All I know is that he is making me feel things that Jeff never did. And it might just be the happiest I’ve ever been. But also the most scared.”

“Scared? Why?” Alice questions.

I scoff around a pot sticker, not sure where to begin. “He’s Hux, the Clyde to my Bonnie. The yee to my haw. The milk to my cookies. He’s never not been there, and if this goes south and messes it all up, I don’t know what I’ll do.”