Chapter 3
Chapter Three
ELENA
“Hey, Sweetness.” A tall, broad man slid into the side of the booth Tessa had just vacated. He had a head of thick, dark hair and blazing blue eyes. “You new in town?”
As if the aforementioned features weren’t enough, he flashed me a dazzling smile of straight, white teeth. If I were any other woman, I’m sure I would be downright melting for this man.
But I was Elena Ventura—Elena Stone.
Harvard Medical School graduate.
Accomplished emergency medicine physician.
And someone else’s wife.
But he didn’t need to know that. Tonight, I could be anyone. Here, in the small town of Sable Point, I didn’t have to think about any of the events of the past five years. I didn’t have to think about what was waiting for me back home in Detroit.
The dingy little dive bar Tessa brought me to was unlike any establishment I’d been to since we lived together during our undergraduate years at UC Davis.
Seems like an entirely different life.
Perhaps tonight I could channel twenty-year-old Elena, who was driven in her pre-med studies but also knew how to have a good time when her best friend twisted her arm just enough to leave the library.
“Does that line usually work on women?” I asked as I took a small sip from my glass of Sauvignon Blanc and raised a brow.
A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed my suspicion.
He looked strikingly similar to the man Tessa was speaking with on the other side of the bar.
She’d just gone into business with the Evertons to get out from under her father’s thumb, and I knew she had a thing for one of the twins she’d graduated high school with in this thimble-sized town.
Chaz, maybe?
“It does.” He threw back his beer. My gaze zeroed in on his throat as it worked through a swallow. He set his bottle on the table between us and continued. “But if it doesn’t, this”—he circled his index finger around his face—“usually does the trick.” Chaz grinned.
I scowled.
“Or this.” He flexed a bicep.
I had to hand it to him. He was pretty. Perhaps a little too perfect. He lacked character.
“It’s Chaz, right?”
His smile fell and morphed into a frown. The smidge of triumph I felt instantly lifted my endlessly pissy mood.
“Chase, actually.”
Oops. The giggle that escaped my throat couldn’t be helped. I shrugged a shoulder. “I was close.”
One corner of Chase’s mouth quirked up, drawing my attention. “And what’s your name, baby?”
“Definitely not baby, but maybe if you try out a few more useless endearments, you’ll get a little warmer.”
He opened his mouth with what I was sure would have been a comical retort but was interrupted.
“Sorry, Chase,” Tessa said from where she was standing at the end of our booth. She hitched a thumb in my direction. “This one’s married.”
Surprise flashed across his face, and his eyes flicked to my ring finger as my entire hand twitched around the stem of my wine glass.
So much for pretending to be someone else.
“That so?” Chase asked.
I forced a smile that likely appeared more like a grimace.
I owed this man nothing; I didn’t even know him.
Yet somehow, it still felt like a betrayal—and not of my husband, but of Chase.
The small sliver of attention this man had gifted me—one I didn’t have to hide from prying eyes for fear of the repercussions—touched some long-starved part of my soul.
I wouldn’t examine it more closely than that.
“Well, I’ll let you ladies get back to your evening. Nice to meet you…” He raised a brow in my direction.
“Elena.” Giving him this one tidbit of information about me felt like the least I could do.
“Nice to meet you, Elena.” His smile was warm. Genuine, if not a little defeated. When was the last time a man smiled like that at me?
Chase nodded at Tessa as he rose from the booth, returning to his spot at the bar with his brother and their friend.
“Brown Eyed Girl” filtered through the conversations and laughter in the dimly lit bar, and I struggled to hold back the tears that were fighting to break free.
“Alright, lady. Out with it,” my best friend said. “What’s with the face?”
“What face?” I pointed at myself, hoping to deflect with humor. But my hand trembled, betraying my struggle. “This face?”
“That’s the one. Beautiful though it may be”—Tessa granted me a soft, melancholy smile—“it’s looking all sorts of sad. What’s going on?”
She knew me too damn well. That’s what happened when you spent so many years attached to someone’s hip. When they were your person—the one you called when you were happy or sad, excited, or scared.
Some women were daddy’s girls. Some were husband’s girls.
I was Tessa’s girl. And she was mine.
That was part of what had made these last few years so damn hard.
She knew so little about what my life looked like now.
And it was my own fault.
I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders. It was time to start sharing my truths with my friend—even if I had to take small steps to start. “I’m leaving Peter.”
Tessa’s jaw dropped, and she stared at me in utter disbelief. “What?!”
Oh god. She’s going to cause a scene. People are already looking our way. “Please don’t make a big deal out of this, Tess.”
She scoffed and shook her head. “Um, I’d venture to say leaving the man you’ve been with for twelve years is a big deal, Lane.”
“Tessa.” There was warning in my tone, but I should have known better. Tessa wasn’t one to back down.
“Elena.” She matched my tone, raising a perfectly arched blonde brow.
There was only so much I was ready to share. Telling her everything? I knew how she’d look at me—with pity. She’d also demand that I never go back, that I never set foot in that house again.
But I had a plan, and if it was going to work, I needed a little more time to get everything in order. I needed Tessa to stay in the dark for a little while longer.
She’d know everything soon enough.
Guess it’s time to turn on the waterworks.
I averted my watery gaze and forced a trembled to my lower lip. “I can’t talk about it.” My voice shook deliberately. “Not yet.”
Her pretty face softened in an instant. She reached out and placed a gentle hand on my forearm, hopefully feeling the slight tremors. They weren’t entirely fake, but amping them up a notch had the desired effect. “Okay. We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to...”
Mission accomplished.
“Thank you. Tonight, I just need to... forget for a little while. Can we do that?”
“Kai,” she shouted, catching the bartender’s eye.
He looked up from where he was mixing a drink.
“Four shots of tequila!”
Turned out, all four shots were for me, myself, and I.
Tessa was sober.
Me?
Not sober.
“I love you so much,” I slurred.
What was it about alcohol that made you feel like you were looking at yourself from the outside with little-to-no control over your faculties?
I could hear that I was slurring my speech. I could see that I was wobbling on my four-inch black, pointy-toed pumps. I just couldn’t do anything about the hot mess I’d been reduced to.
Tessa took it in stride. “I love you, too, bestie. Now let’s get you back to the hotel.”
“Thank god we’re not staying at your house. Can you imagine your mother, Judgy McJudgerson, taking one look at me? Pffft.”
“Agreed,” Tessa said with a giggle. “We’ll be safe at the resort—far, far away from Margaret Belmonte.”
She was such a good friend.
I had asked very specifically if I could come visit today, December thirteenth, and Tessa rearranged her whole life for me. She had no clue why she rearranged her whole life for me, but I didn’t want to get her hopes up.
Mine were up enough for the both of us.
If everything went according to plan, I’d be getting drunk with my bestie a lot more often. And lord knew I was gonna need it in the coming months.
“Okay, Dr. Stone.” Tessa opened the door to her big, black SUV. It looked like a mobster’s vehicle. But nope. Belonged to a pretty, petite blonde who liked wine and was way too sassy for her own good. “In you go.”
“Yes, ma’am!” I stepped off the curb—or, tried to—but the next thing I knew, my butt slammed against the concrete sidewalk.
“Oh shit.” Tessa crouched down next to me and gripped my elbow. “Are you okay?”
My head fell back in a fit of hysterical laughter. My ass hurt and my palm may have been bleeding, but god, I felt good.
Light.
Free.
Happy.
Perhaps I should become a drunk.
“She okay?” a rough voice asked from behind me.
“Hard to tell,” Tessa replied over my head.
“Here, let me help.”
Strong arms banded around my back and under my legs as I was scooped off the sidewalk.
“Wheee!”
“Oh my god, Lane,” Tessa snorted. “You are shitfaced.”
I looked up into the mesmerizing blue eyes of Chaz Chase. “You’re so pretty.”
He chuckled. “Back at ya, Sweetness.”
Chase gently sat me on the passenger seat in Tessa’s car before grabbing the belt, reaching across my lap, and buckling me in.
What a ridiculously sweet gesture.
“I’ll see ya around.” Chase winked at me and closed the door, stepping back to briefly chat with my chauffeur.
“Alright, bestie,” Tessa said when she climbed in the driver’s side. “Let’s hit the road.”
Hopefully, soon enough, I’d be doing just that.