Chapter 14
Sherry
Ben took forever to pull out of my driveway, but as soon as he did, I grabbed my keys and jumped in my own car. Anxious energy flooded through me, making me wonder if I had finally gone off the deep end. Everything had been going so well. Then he got weird.
I pulled into Lainey’s driveway and hopped out of the car, making my way to her front door. I knocked hard several times, desperate for girl talk with my best friend. The door flung open, but instead of the bright smile of my best friend, I was faced with my brother’s ugly mug.
“Sher—?”
I grabbed his arm and yanked him out the door.
“Hey!” he exclaimed. “What the hell?”
“I need my best friend right now! You've been hogging her. Go hang out with Brady at the distillery or with the vets at the VFW.” While Nero wasn’t a vet himself, he had a strong bond with the men who were and who had strong ties to our grandfather.
He glanced at his bare feet. “Can I at least grab my shoes?”
“Oh Sherry!” Lainey appeared in the doorway. Her blonde hair was pulled into a loose ponytail, her cheeks pink, and a smile curved her lips. “I was just going to text you about the Carmichael wedding. I scheduled a tasting with her for next week.”
“Oh good,” I said, trying to keep my sanity in front of Nero.
“What’s going on?” Lainey’s blue eyes filled with a mix of curiosity and concern. I should have known there was no fooling her.
“Your best friend is kicking me out,” Nero said.
Lainey met my gaze, and without a single word, she nodded, turned toward the house and came back with Nero’s shoes. She tossed them at him, and he scrambled to catch the pair.
“What the hell?”
Lainey hurried toward Nero, raised on her tiptoes, and he bent his six-foot frame to meet her five foot-one. She kissed his cheek, then patted the other one. “Love you, but please leave.”
“But I just opened a bottle of wine,” Nero protested.
“And it’ll be waiting for you. Later. Much later.”
“Or you can bring it with you,” I suggested.
“When am I allowed back?” He pouted.
“I’ll text you.” Lainey gave him another quick kiss, then pushed away and waved as he stood there, looking like an abandoned puppy.
It was hard to imagine this was the same man who used to have a string of one-night stands and refused to settle down. Now it was as if Lainey was an extension of him. Like he didn’t quite know what to do with himself if she wasn’t nearby.
Nero lingered for a second longer before turning with a huff toward his truck. Before he opened the door, he stopped and turned to me. “You just miss Lanes, right? Like you’re good?”
“I’m good,” I assured him. “Just need some girl talk.”
“And that’s my cue to leave.”
“ That’s your cue?” Lainey exclaimed. “Sherry yanking you outside and me throwing you your shoes wasn’t enough?”
“What can I say?” Nero shrugged. “I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, even when they’re clearly staging a coup.”
“It’s not a coup. It’s a code red. Best friend emergency. Your services are no longer required.”
“Code red? I didn’t see any alarms go off. Hell, Sherry barely even said a word.”
Lainey smiled. “She didn’t have to.”
“That’s why she’s my best friend,” I said. “And she was my best friend long before she let you into her pants, so off with you.”
Nero sighed and stepped into his shoes. “I’ll be at the distillery. Text me when I’m allowed to come back.”
“I’ll think about it.” Lainey winked with all the sass someone her stature could muster.
“And Sher, if you need anything…”
“I know,” I said.
Then he was off, taillights fading into the night as I turned to Lainey. Before I could utter a word, she flung her arms around me and squeezed me tight. I sunk into her hug, realizing how desperately I needed it. My perfectly tight emotions started to unravel.
She grabbed my wrist and dragged me into the house. With the slam of the door, she spun toward me, folding her arms over her ample chest. “Start talking.”
The lump in my throat since Ben rejected me rose faster than I could swallow it. I didn’t want to cry. I wasn’t some pathetic sap who let men have that much control of my emotions. As soon as I opened my mouth, the words spilled out, along with a sob and maybe a tear or three.
“One minute, everything was perfect. He opened up to me, and he was sweet and honest and vulnerable. Then it was like someone flipped a switch.”
“Like Vampire Diaries where they turn their emotions off?”
“Kind of. He became distant and almost cold. It was weird.”
“So you don’t think he actually had something to do?”
I raised my eyebrows and blinked slowly. “Seriously?”
“I had to ask.” Lainey spun toward the kitchen and returned a moment later with Nero’s opened bottle of wine and two glasses.
She sat on the couch beside me, poured the wine, handed me a glass and crisscrossed her legs.
“Okay. Let’s rewind. Start at the beginning and tell me everything. Word for word.”
So I did. I started all the way when I agreed to go to dinner with him all the way to those final moments in front of my house. When I was done, Lainey was refilling my empty wineglass.
“I don’t know. Maybe after talking to me, he realized without sex, I had nothing else to offer him.”
“That’s ridiculous, and you know it.”
“Is it, though?”
“Sher, you’re the kindest, sweetest person on this planet. You’re gorgeous and talented and smart and successful. You, my friend, are the entire package. If he can’t see that, then he’s the one who’s lacking, not you.”
I dragged my finger along the rim of my glass, blinking back the sting in my eyes. “Then why did it feel like I got everything I wanted, only for it to disappear the second I allowed myself to believe it was real? That we could actually be… I don’t know, good for each other.”
Lainey squeezed my hand, her eyes meeting mine. “It was real. That’s what makes it so hard. You let your guard down, you let him in, and he pulled away. That doesn’t mean you weren’t enough, that just means he’s not ready for something real. And also that he’s an idiot.”
I laughed, but because I had been crying, it sounded like a drowning seal. “That was attractive. No wonder I can’t keep a guy.”
Lainey handed me a tissue, and I gratefully accepted. “Still cuter than Nero when he cries at Pixar movies.”
“Let me guess, he cried during Up, didn’t he?”
“Like a baby. Wouldn’t stop dwelling on the fact that Disney stripped Carl of his happy ending. I tried explaining to him he got his happily ever after, but all good things have to come to an end. Then he told me I’m not allowed to die first.”
A laugh rumbled out of me, shaky but genuine. The ache was still there, too deep to even touch, but the edges were a little less sharp.
“You really think he’s just not ready?” I asked, my voice just above a whisper.
“I think whatever happened between the making of the plans and the actual plans has nothing to do with you. Once he gets his head back on straight, he’s going to hate himself for rejecting you.” Lainey took a sip of her wine. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes crawling back.”
“He can crawl all he wants. I’m not handing him my heart again just for him to stomp on it.
” I was the one who didn’t want to take whatever happened between us past that one night.
He was the one who pushed. Then when I finally opened up to him, and invited him to continue the night, whether it was sex, conversation or both, he turned me down without hesitation.
Now I was kicking myself for being so dumb.
Ben only wanted what he couldn’t have. Once I became unforbidden, the appeal vanished. The only person I had to blame was myself.
Lainey placed her glass on the coffee table. “I wouldn’t consider myself an expert on men. I’d been in love with Nero for so long, I didn’t see his flaws. But sweetie, everyone has flaws. People make mistakes, but don’t let their mistakes close you off from your own happiness.”
“I liked you better when you weren’t deliriously happy. At least then you would offer to make a voodoo cake and let me stab it to my heart’s content.”
Lainey grinned. “I have the ingredients. I’m just more subtle about my rage baking now.”
I laughed. “That sounds about on brand for you. What exactly does that entail?”
She lifted her chin proudly. “Oh, you know, delicately piping passive-aggressive phrases on cupcakes. Baking scones filled with spite. Yesterday I made a lemon tart so sharp it could end a man.”
“And Nero loved it, didn’t he?”
“Ate three slices and thanked me for putting my soul into it. Poor man didn’t even realize he was the soul I was sacrificing.”
“You’re terrifying.”
“And you love it.”
“I do.” I couldn’t deny it. To look at Lainey, she was about as terrifying as a quokka, though when it came down to it, she wouldn’t throw her baby to save herself. She would fight for those she loved, and she would fight dirty.
“What do you want me to bake? Something for you to stab? Something cursed we leave on his doorstep? Something good for your soul?”
I tapped my chin, pretending to think it over. “What pairs best with heartbreak and self-doubt?”
“Chocolate molten lava cake,” she said without skipping a beat. “It’s the drama of the gooey center.”
“Sounds perfect.”
She stood, snatched her wineglass and the bottle, and headed toward the kitchen. “Come on, let’s bake the pain away. If we have to set the oven to boil for symbolic reasons, so be it. I have some leftover lava cakes in the freezer.”
My mouth lifted at the edges, and I followed her into the kitchen. My heart was still a little wounded, but for the first time since Ben turned down my offer, I thought maybe I’d be okay.
And if not… voodoo cakes were not off the menu just yet.