Chapter 48
Forty-Eight
Eloise
The front door shuts, and I hold the pillow that still smells like Conor up to my nose.
Five minutes later, my phone rings, and a knock sounds on the condo door. I glance at my phone screen and see that it’s Jade. I slide my thumb across it to answer and pad across the condo to the front door.
“I’m fine,” I say as I open the door and answer the phone at the same time.
Kyleigh walks in. “I have her. Get here as soon as you can,” she says loudly enough for Jade to hear her.
“We’ll be there in ten,” Jade says before she hangs up.
I walk into the kitchen and put my phone on the counter. “I take it he told you.”
“He’s up at my place. I told him he’s an idiot.” She moves to the counter and grabs the measuring spoons and cups, reading over the recipe that’s still sitting there.
“What are you doing?” I say, climbing up on a breakfast stool.
“I’m making the frosting and finishing your cake.” She looks at me over her shoulder. “So we can eat it.”
“It probably sucks.” I sound like a whiner.
“I’m sure it’s great. Now let’s finish this. I assume you don’t want to tell the story twice, so we’ll save the talk about my shithead brother and finish this thing so it’s ready with three forks when Jade gets here.” Kyleigh smiles at me, and when I join her on the other side of the counter, she opens her arms and hugs me. “He’s a good guy. But sometimes good guys do some really stupid shit.” She squeezes me tightly. “I told him I’m going to knee him in the nuts if you’re not my sister-in-law one day because you can’t put up with his idiotic behavior.”
I laugh. “Thanks. I know he’s a good guy, but I’m so sick of men acting like I’m some delicate flower.”
She nods. “I gotcha.”
Fifteen minutes later, there’s another knock on the door. Kyleigh opens it, sticking her head out into the stairway while Jade walks in.
“You’re the only one who can talk sense into him,” Kyleigh shouts up the stairs.
“Thanks for the confidence, babe,” Rowan shouts back.
Jade drops her purse on the floor and sheds her coat, tossing it on the back of the chair before she wraps me up in a hug. “Men are assholes. I told Henry he better make sure I don’t follow him up there and punch Conor in the gut.”
I smile at both my oldest best friend and my newest best friend. “Thanks, girls. I really appreciate the girl power.”
“Cake?” Jade’s eyes bug out of her head.
“It was supposed to be for Conor, so I say we smash it in his bed.” Kyleigh gets an evil look in her eye.
“You’re very destructive,” I say.
“Hey, I have a lifetime of noogies to pay him back for.” She scoops up another heap of frosting and spreads it on the two-layer cake. “I’m kidding anyway. We’re going to eat it of course.”
“You made a cake. Cross it off your list.” Jade pats me on the back.
When she says list, all I can think of is Conor bringing home those cake supplies so I could cross it off my list. God, I already miss him, but I’m so mad at him.
Once the caked is iced, Kyleigh digs three forks out of the drawer and hands them out to us. “Now tell us what happened and who this girl is.”
We circle the cake on the stools, and I tell them the entire story Conor told me about Florida and how she’s tracked him down here.
Afterward, Jade runs her hand down my upper arm. “I get it. I do. And you definitely need to have a conversation, but…” She looks at Kyleigh.
“What?”
“You’re his first,” Kyleigh says, raising her fork. “Which is no excuse. I’m not making excuses for him lying to you and not trusting you with the information, but he’s new to this whole girlfriend thing.”
“I’m really shocked at how well he’s been doing,” Jade says more to Kyleigh than me.
“The jersey thing floored me.” Kyleigh pierces the cake with her fork and takes another bite.
“Just the whole way he’s been with you. You didn’t see him before.” Jade takes another bite. “Honestly, this is a good cake, Eloise.”
I shrug, but it’s edible, so that’s an improvement at least. “What do you mean I didn’t see him before?”
They look at one another again, and I groan.
“He wasn’t looking for a girlfriend. It’s not like he had a rotating door of women, but he gave no one a chance. Then one night under the stars with you, and bam, he’s ready to buy a ring.” Kyleigh smiles. “He has good taste though. You’re marriage material. The others, I’m not so sure.”
“My problem is that he broke my trust. I felt his anxiety with the season starting. He was so worried what his schedule would do to us, and I took that as a lack of trust on my part.”
Jade shakes her head. “That’s not it. I think they feel the distance more than us sometimes. Not to say we don’t miss them, but we’re living our lives while they’re at away games in a hotel or on a plane or a bus. We all have careers, I have Bodhi, a house that’s being renovated. But to them, we’re just sitting here twiddling our thumbs waiting for them to return.”
We all laugh.
“Jade’s right. You know how many times Rowan calls me while he’s away? Sometimes if he struggles napping, he expects me to talk to him until he has to get on the bus to go to the rink. As though I don’t have things to do.” Kyleigh shakes her head.
“I think it’s because they miss us so much more than we miss them.” Jade cringes. “Which sounds horrible, but it’s different when you’re the one away from the comforts of your everyday life. Can we really complain though? They’re faithful men who aren’t into going to the clubs and hooking up with random women. They’re there to play a game, and once it’s over, they want to get home to us.” Jade digs her fork in again.
She has a point.
My mind goes back to when Conor returned home last night. The way he cuddled up to me and kissed my neck, whispering how much he’d missed me. And it felt so good to have him back, but I did get more done setting up my new business while he was gone.
“I just need him to understand that we’re in this together. Side by side. Not him in front of me pushing a lawnmower, mowing down any obstacles.”
They nod and continue eating the cake.
Eventually, we talk about Bodhi and how he’s loving second grade, and Kyleigh talks about a client who’s driving her nuts.
I appreciate them coming here to make sure I’m okay, but I have to clear this up with Conor. I wonder what he’s talking about upstairs with the boys and what their take is on all of this.