“See you around,” I sigh, sliding into the car and watching him in the mirror as we drive away.
CHAPTER 4
ERIC
My body melted into a heap of sadness right there on the curb. I hated that she was acting so differently around me now. Part of me thought it was because Hanna was her friend, and she felt like it was her duty to write me off now, but the other part knew that it was because she felt that spark the other night, too.
I feel my phone vibrating against my thigh in my pocket, and I dig it out, hoping for Karly, but it is just my sister calling me from inside the restaurant.
“Yeah?” I answer.
“Where did you go?”
I sigh, “I think I’m gonna head home. Kiss mom for me. Tell them I’ll see them soon.”
“Eric,” She snaps, “What’s going on?”
I don’t immediately respond, using my strength to pick myself up off the curb instead.
“Nothing, Em.”
“Bullshit!” She growls, “Do you like Karly? And don’t lie to me because I know when you’re lying.”
“No… I mean, yes. Damn it, Emma, of course, I like her.”
“Do youlike herlike her, though?”
I take a deep breath, “I was just in a tux a week ago about to marry her best friend, and I loved Hanna, Em.”
“Hanna is great, Eric, but she’s gone, and I’m your sister. I want you to be happy.”
“I almost kissed her.” I admit, “The night of the wedding. Karly found me on the beach. I got shit faced drunk, and I tried to kiss her.”
“That explains a lot.”
“I totally ruined everything. She’ll barely look at me now. I tried to apologize, but she–”
Emma cuts me off, “Shut up! I saw the way she was looking at you at dinner. She’s not mad, Eric. She adores you.”
My mind wanders from the conversation with my sister to somewhere entirely different. The first time I met Karly.
Hanna and I had been dating for a few weeks, and Karly came barreling into her house with a pint of chunky monkey and mascara-stained cheeks. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it sure as hell wasn’t a feisty redhead saying her boyfriend was in jail for hitting a guy over the head with his guitar. When Hanna mentioned having a best friend, I expected her to be like Hanna.
I was wrong.
Karly wasn’t anything like Hanna.
Where Hanna was a bit reserved, Karly was a firecracker.
Hanna was quiet, and Karly was loud.
Hanna was careful, and Karly was impulsive.
And while Karly scared the shit out of me, she was fiercely loyal. She wasn’t like anyone else I’d ever met. She didn’t feel the need to make up some story or pretend to be someone she wasn’t to get people to like her. She was unapologetically herself, well, for a while.
I’d be lying if I said her flame didn’t slowly die every second she was around that asshole, Ashton.
“You there?” Emma asks, pulling my attention back to the phone against my ear.