Page 93 of The Write Track
Bree, however, wasn’t going to keep her mouth shut. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“For someone who prides herself on being so observant, you’re missing the biggest problem here,” Hayley replied in her patented “I know best so don’t argue with me” voice. “Nathan has never been in love before, and he’s primed to do something stupid. That’s not what’s worrying Bella, though. No, she’s worried because she thought she was in love with Preston Martin Narcissist III, but she’s realized now that she never was.
“That should be an epiphany of the highest order, but she’s still worried that she has a bad picker,” she continued. “Nathan has turned into a dream of a boyfriend, something we were all expecting, just not this soon. Bella is used to the bottom falling out of her boat, so she’s still leery. There’s still the potential for a mishap here.”
Bree pulled an oversized red blouse with flower buttons off the rack and held it up in front of me, her eyebrows practically hopping off her forehead. “Yikes,” she said. “That thing is long enough to look like a dress on you.”
“Yeah, I have to be careful,” I agreed, recognizing I was talking about more than the blouse even as Bree returned it to the rack. “It’s hard to find the right fit.”
Bree looked exasperated. She’d picked up on my not-so-subtle code. “Okay, obviously we should have started with drinks and then proceeded to shopping. I can rectify that.” She waved at the clerk. “We’ll be back. Bella here needs some lubrication to unclench.”
The clerk was clearly used to Bree’s brand of crazy because she merely nodded. “See you in a couple hours.”
BREE DECIDED ON OUR LUNCH DESTINATION—she was a woman on a mission—so I wasn’t surprised when she chose to drive to The Pirates’ House.
“The author event is at The Shrimp Factory tonight, so we can keep the car down here,” she said. “Let’s focus on drinks for now, huh?”
“What about the shopping?” I asked dully. I knew there was a Bree rant in my future, and I wasn’t looking forward to it.
“You can buy a peg leg for Nathan in the gift shop and make him wear it for whatever weird roleplay the two of you get up to,” she replied, not missing a beat. “Before you deny that you do that, you should know we really did spy on you guys in the woods.”
“That’s weird,” I complained.
“I don’t find nearly as much joy at being in the middle of nowhere as the rest of you.”
We got a table and placed our orders. I was feeling meek, so Bree handled the ordering for everybody. She really was bossy.
“We will have three Skull Crushers to drink,” she started.
“That’s a lot of alcohol early in the day,” Hayley complained.
Bree pinned her with a death glare before continuing. “Everybody will have the crab soup as the first course, and we’ll split an order of the corn fritters as an appetizer.”
I made a protesting sound. “It’s too early for heavy food.”
She jabbed a finger at me and continued. “We’ll all have the Steak Caprese Salad for our main entrees.”
My first instinct was to argue, but when I thought about it, she’d made good choices. Her smile was smug when I snapped my mouth shut.
She waited until our Skull Crushers had been delivered, along with the soup, to speak.
“I’m sorry about Preston,” she started. “I cannot imagine how difficult he was to live with.”
I leaned back in my chair and regarded her. Did she really want an honest conversation? Well, she was going to get one.
“That’s just it, I made myself invisible to live with him.” Things had been bothering me about the Preston situation for years now, from way before I left him. “I didn’t realize it at first. It happened, though. I was afraid to be seen when I was with him because I thought he would realize I wasn’t good enough.”
Bree made a growling sound. “That you weren’t good enough?” She was enraged. “What the hell?”
“Language,” Hayley warned, raising her hand. “Also, let her speak. She’s allowed to tell us what she’s feeling. Not everything is about you.”
Bree made a disgruntled noise then shut her mouth.
“I don’t know how it happened,” I said in a soft voice. This was the part I was struggling with. “I wasn’t raised to be the sort of person who ended up with a Preston. It somehow happened, though, and I’m afraid it might happen again.”
“Nathan is nothing like Preston,” Hayley noted.
“Oh, I know.” I was rueful. “The thing is, there are warnings about him being a dog all over the writer boards. I’ve seen a completely different man. It’s just… there were rumors about Preston too, back then, and I ignored them.”
