Page 99 of Keeping Score

And then, lips were on mine—light and airy.

My stomach hardened like lead because they felt wrong. It took one second to realize these weren’t Maggie’s lips, soft and tasting like cocoa butter. And this wasn’t the way she felt against my chest.

The whole moment had lasted two seconds, maybe three, and then I was opening my eyes, trying to figure out what the hell was going on when I saw her.

My Maggie—not in my arms, but still several feet away where I’d last spotted her. Her green eyes frozen in heartbreak that I already knew would haunt me the rest of my life.

“Maggie?” I said, not sure if it was loud enough. Not sure if it even came out at all.

But she had already turned on her heel and ran.

“Maggie, wait!” Cassie said, running after her.

Needing to understand what was happening, I finally looked down at the imposter next to me, freezing when my brain finally made sense of the situation.

“Abbey?” I reeled back, dumbstruck and furious all at once.

“Hey.” She smiled up at me, as if she hadn’t just made the overstep of a lifetime. “I’ve missed you.”

In a daze, I stepped around her trying to get to Maggie, but she was already gone.

“What’s the matter?” Abbey frowned, her familiar voice sounding wildly out of place in its current setting. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”

“Why are you here?” I asked, probably more harshly than she deserved, but I couldn’t find it in me to care.

I’d known the girl since kindergarten, dated her all through high school and then some. She was as familiar to me as a memory from childhood, or a room in my parents’ house—but right now, I couldn’t see her as anything other than the obstacle standing between me and my girl.

“Tara invited me,” she said, brows furrowing in confusion. “She thought you might want to catch up.”

I spun toward my sister, finally registering what the hell was actually happening.

My sister was here. For the dinner we agreed on. Just like she told me she’d be. What she didn’t mention was the fact that she was dragging my ex-girlfriend across state lines to pay me a visit.

I didn’t blame Tara. Abbey and I had never been on bad terms, which I guess was why we’d always toed the line between friends and friends plus a little more, even after the breakup.

It had worked for us, for a while. It had been easy. I’d just been a kid, going off to college, taking comfort in what was familiar to me whenever the opportunity arose.

But we hadn’t been that way in a very long time, and damn if it wasn’t inconvenient timing for her to pop up now.

“I don’t have time—” I said, frantic with each passing moment. “I have to go get Maggie—”

“Maggie?” Abbey shot a look at Tara. “I thought you said they—”

“Broke up?” Tara finished. “They did.”

“First of all, we never clarified that,” I said. “Second, why are you spreading my business around to random people from high school?”

“Hey,” Abbey said, affronted.

“I’m not,” Tara countered. “I just wanted to cheer you up with some familiar faces.”

“Faces?” I asked. “As in, plural?”

“It was supposed to be a surprise.” Tara bit her lip. “But everyone’s here… Sean, Aiden, Matt.”

“Matt T. or Matt C.?” I asked, slightly interested.

“Both,” she said. “They’re all meeting us at the restaurant. They can’t wait to see you. I thought you’d be excited.”