I shake my head in defeat, “You obviously don’t know everything.”
His brows furrow with uncertainty, “Obviously not.”
Hesitantly, I tell him everything. Starting with the night of the wedding and ending with Hanna showing up four days ago.
“Holy shit. I never saw that one coming.”
I swallow the lump in my throat, “Neither did I. Blindsided would be putting it lightly.”
“Have you talked to either of them?”
“Karly has the silent treatment down to an art, and Hanna is pissed. She’s convinced we were involved while I was with her, and I swear to you, dude, I wasn’t. I would never.”
He sits Jackson up against his shoulder to burp him. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, “I just know that I need to make everything right for everyone.”
“And what about you?” He asks.
“I’ll be okay.”
A half-hour later, Blake calls and says she needs Judson to pick up something from the grocery store that she’d forgotten, so they leave, and I’m left to sit and think more. At this point, thinking has become dangerous.
The more I think, the more I want to rush to Karly’s apartment and spill my guts to her. Instead, I sleep before the sun has a chance to set because my dreams are better than reality.
CHAPTER 21
KARLY
7 Years Ago
"What are you doing!" Hanna yells from the tiny kitchen of my two-bedroom apartment.
"I'm looking for the baby maker!" I scream, digging through a drawer full of bikinis.
She swings around the doorframe, "The what?"
"Agh!" I yell, tossing bikini after bikini over my shoulder into the floor. "The holy grail of string bikinis!"
"That is stupid," She says, sifting through a plethora of neon madness, "any of these are fine. You look good in anything."
I think back to Ashton hovering over me as I would puke up what I ate for dinner, telling me it's how I can remain in control. I also remember how Ashton would tell me that yellow was my color and how it made me look powerful.
"Ah ha!" I grin, "I found it!"
I dangle the yellow strings in front of her, waving them around like it's something sacred. "This," I grin, "Is my secret weapon."
She wraps her cover-up tighter around her midsection, "Thought your tits were your secret weapon."
I wink, "Those are my endgame."
"When was the last time you talked to Ashton? You just horny?"
I can't help but giggle, "Ashton and I are done… again, and so what if I am?"
She moves all the clothes on my bed out of her way so she can sit, "What's your plan? To go down on the beach and perform a mating call?"
Picking up on her snippy attitude, I sit next to her. Her boyfriend had just left for the Air Force, and they didn't really end on the greatest of terms, and she's been walking around like a lost dog for weeks.