Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
A nnie was the one who picked Riley up from the gas station parking lot. Delancey had gone to a movie with her sister and wasn’t back yet.
“So,” Annie said when Riley climbed into her car. “I’m guessing Nick is off your possible wedding dates list.”
Riley snapped her seatbelt on with extra force. “Yep. When your date ends with the guy in the back of a police car, it’s the universe’s way of saying he’s not the one. I’m going to repress his phone number along with the rest of the night.” Nick’s point count had bottomed out right about the time he started trading drunken threats with parking lot hoodlums.
Annie shook her head and made sad tsking sounds. “Poor guy. His fate was sealed as soon as Lucas saw you were his date.”
“Possibly. Lucas enjoys making my life harder.” And tonight, he’d been in high form. Riley tilted her head back against the seat. “I haven’t driven over the speed limit since we broke up because I know Officer Ex-boyfriend would love a chance to give me a ticket.”
“I meant because Lucas isn’t over you yet.” Annie, for some reason, was convinced his lack of a girlfriend indicated something.
Riley didn’t buy it. “He was clearly over me before we broke up. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have started seeing Winter while he was still dating me.”
“He might have been telling you the truth that nothing was going on between them.”
Right. And maybe a Nigerian prince really was trying to give her money through an email. “He lied to me about being with her that night. Why should I think he was telling the truth about the rest of it?”
Outside, the last of downtown rolled by, buildings and lights, huddling in the cold. The gas station had faded into the distance. Eventually, this night would too. “I’ve had a lot of experience with liars. I don’t need more.”
She meant her mother. As a kid, how many times had Riley wanted something—clothes, a treat from the grocery store, money for school field trips—and her mother had promised that next paycheck she’d have the funds? Next month, things would improve.
Her mother always had an excuse for why she couldn’t pay for whatever Riley needed, but there was plenty of booze in the cupboard.
Riley stopped going to birthday parties in third grade. She didn’t want to be known as the girl who came without a present.
Annie sent her a sympathetic look. “You can’t judge everyone by your mother.” Annie had heard Riley and Olivia trade stories about their parents. She’d been sufficiently traumatized by them and frequently called her own parents to thank them for not screwing up her childhood.
“If Lucas had a real excuse,” Riley said, “he would’ve given it to me. Instead, he stopped by my apartment, gave me a lame apology, and told me Winter was having issues he couldn’t discuss—like that made it okay for him to lie about being with her.”
It wasn’t a discussion she would ever forget. After he apologized for lying—and only for lying—he’d looked at her straight in the eyes and said, “I have a job where I’m required to keep people’s secrets. Are you going to demand to know all of those too? Are you going to be upset every time I offer help to a woman when you’re not around?”
He’d cheated, and she was the bad guy.
Riley shut her eyes, trying to block the scene from her mind. “And that’s when I decided dating police officers and lawyers was a bad idea. A normal guy would’ve come up with a convoluted story that I could shoot holes through. Lucas knew better than that. You can’t prove an explanation is false when a guy doesn’t give you one.”
Just thinking about Lucas made her cross and emotional. This night had already been too long, and she hated that he could swoop in, ruin whatever she was doing, and make her feel like an idiot for being a part of it. Irritatingly, tears pressed at the back of her eyes.
Crying over this night was not allowed.
Annie didn’t say anything else for a minute. Riley watched a group of rundown townhouses give way to a row of newer condos. They’d be at their apartment soon.
“I’m sure your next date will be better,” Annie said. Another long pause. “And if not, you can always do what I plan on doing. I’m going to tell Olivia I don’t have a date to the wedding and ask her to set me up with one of Carson’s hot teammates.” A dreamy smile spread across her lips. “Have you seen the men on his team?”
“There are some cute ones,” Riley agreed but didn’t consider the idea for herself. She didn’t want Lucas to think she couldn’t get a date. She could. She just needed some time to find the right guy. Fortunately, the nuptials wouldn’t be any time soon.
While Annie went on about her favorite Broncos and wondered how many of the players Carson knew from the other teams, Riley considered online dating sites and whether they were as bad as everybody said.
Sure, sometimes the guys were serial killers, but not always.
Annie had just pulled into the parking lot when Olivia video-called Riley. Her dark hair was piled on her head, and she wore red lipstick that matched her red dress. She must have been at some formal event.
“Are you with Annie?” she asked right off. “I want to talk to both of you.” Her voice was excited and breathless.
“Annie’s sitting beside me,” Riley said. No need to go into the details of her ill-fated date.
“You’ll never believe this,” Olivia chimed, all breathless excitement. “I still can’t believe it myself. Guess what just happened!”
Carson wouldn’t have proposed yet. Riley had only sent him the link to Olivia’s wedding ideas Pinterest board a week ago. Finding the right ring took time. “Are the Broncos trading Carson?”
Annie leaned over to see the phone screen better. She took one look at Olivia’s radiant expression and said, “Did Carson propose?”
“Yes!” Olivia squealed. “Can you believe it?”
Wow. Carson hadn’t wasted any time.
“That’s wonderful!” Annie gushed. “Congratulations!”
“Congratulations,” Riley repeated. “He’s a lucky man to have you.”
Olivia held up her hand to show off a large diamond. Apparently finding the right type wasn’t as hard as Riley had supposed.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” Olivia trilled. “It’s loose, so we have to resize it. I almost don’t want to because I don’t want to take it off my hand.”
She went on to tell them how she and Carson had been out to dinner, and he ordered some apple pie for dessert. Apple pie had become their dessert because of an inside joke. The diamond ring sat on top of her slice.
“I practically launched myself over the table to hug him,” Olivia said. “Everyone in the restaurant stopped what they were doing and clapped for us.” She laughed, her eyes lit with the memory. “He really shouldn’t have sprung that on me in a public place. I had to walk out of the restaurant with an ice cream stain on my dress.”
Annie clapped her hands together. “I’m so excited for you.”
“So am I,” Riley said. And she was. She absolutely was. But another part of her couldn’t help marveling that if things had worked out between her and Lucas, Olivia and she would’ve been sisters-in-law, proudly standing with the Clark family in the annual Christmas card photo.
Riley didn’t have any sisters. A sister-in-law was the best she could hope for.
But someone else would be Olivia’s sister-in-law.
Would Olivia become so busy with her new family and friends that little by little she’d stop caring about her Lark Springs roots? Would Riley be just someone that Olivia outgrew?
“When’s the date?” Riley asked. Her chest felt too tight, like something was pushing on it—impending reality, probably.
“Either January thirtieth or February fifteenth.” Olivia gave her ring one last appreciative twist and lowered her hand. “We have to be flexible on the off chance the Broncos go to the Superbowl, but no one expects them to this year, so probably January thirtieth.”
January thirtieth was only three months away. Was it possible to plan a wedding that quickly? “This January?” Riley asked.
“Yes,” Olivia said. “Carson doesn’t want to wait. We’ll have something simple in Lark Springs. A church ceremony with family and a few friends. Good thing he can afford to pay for rush delivery on a wedding dress.”
This meant Riley had less than three months to find a date for the event. How was she going to manage that? Well, she probably wasn’t, and Lucas would know that no decent guys were interested in her. She was the type of woman who had to rely on a roommate to set her up with guys who had sketchy backgrounds.
Was that the type of woman she actually was? Pathetic and unappealing. Hopeless.
Her future spread out before her in dismal detail. Her friends would find love and settle down. Riley would spend her life at work, come home to an increasing number of stray animals, and then die alone.
Olivia stopped in the middle of describing their honeymoon plans in the Caribbean. “Are you okay, Riley? You look like you’re crying.”
Riley had hoped that the tears about to spill over her lashes weren’t noticeable over the video call. “Yeah. I’m fine. I’m just so happy for you.”
Olivia cocked her head in question. “Are you sure?”
“Yep,” Riley said. “This is what happiness looks like.” She wiped her eyes.
Annie put her arm around Riley’s shoulder and gave her a squeeze. “Riley’s just had a lot of, um, happiness tonight.”
That didn’t even make sense, but Riley nodded and tried to smile. She didn’t want to tarnish Olivia’s moment . “You and Carson are the perfect couple. The wedding is going to be so beautiful.” She wiped her eyes again.
Annie patted Riley’s shoulder and sent Olivia a wide-eyed look. “Sometimes you have to practice crying for the event beforehand. I’ll probably break into tears soon myself.”
Nice attempt at a save.
Olivia didn’t buy it. “What’s really wrong with Riley?”
“It’s nothing,” Riley said. “You’ve got great news, and that’s what I want to talk about. I have nothing to complain about except for a stupid bad date. We shouldn’t waste one minute discussing that.”
“How bad was it?” Olivia asked.
Annie leaned forward to see Olivia better. “Lucas arrested her date.”
Olivia pursed her lips and considered this. “I think we could waste a few minutes on that topic.”
So Riley had to tell her what happened.
Olivia made the appropriate number of exclamations during the story, assured Riley that she wouldn’t end up living with a dozen cats, and said, “Don’t worry about finding a date to the wedding. Carson has lots of single friends coming. I’ll tell them they all have to ask you for a dance.”
“Tell them to ask me too,” Annie put in. “I’m also dateless and on the crazy cat lady watch list.”
“As far as Lucas goes,” Olivia said, ignoring Annie’s point, “you should talk to him. Have a normal conversation. Once you do that, all the awkwardness will be gone between you, and you can both move on.”
“Or,” Riley said, “I can ignore him at your wedding, keep obsessively obeying all the traffic laws, and thus avoid him for the rest of my life. That seems like the easier option.”
Olivia shook her head and sighed. “Riley…”
“No, it’s fine,” Riley said. “Constantly obeying the speed limit has given me time to slow down and appreciate the scenery. It’s a good thing. Usually, the other drivers don’t flip me off for delaying traffic.”
“Talk to him,” Olivia said.
Riley had absolutely no intention of doing so.
Especially after tonight.