Page 94 of The One You Want

I sighed and told her everything. About running into Bradford in town and realizing that my grandparents knew everything long before they should have. I even told her about Jerry and the cats and how Sherry and Sadie had cheered me on. When I told her about confronting my grandparents, she actually stood up andcheered.

“God, I’ve been waiting for that,” she said, grinning huge. Then she sobered. “But Jesus, Jenny. I can’t believe they would dothat.”

I nodded, the familiar lump lodging itself in my throat once again. “Is it terrible that I have no trouble believing it? I swear, I knew what she was going to say before I even got there.” I glanced over at Lady and smiled. “I’m pretty sure Lady didtoo.”

“Okay, we’re going to have a discussion about this sudden kinship with the cats,” Riley said. “But let’s focus. You really think Grant agreed to break up with you because your grandparents offered him acontract?”

I shrugged. “What else am I supposed to think? They offered it. He broke up withme.”

She frowned. “It just…it doesn’t seem like him.” She looked up at me. “I know I don’t know him all that well, and I totally want to stab this asshole in the shin, but still…do you really think he would dothat?”

“No,” I whispered, feeling a rush of shame at the little word. Because I didn’t really think Grant could do that. And didn’t that just prove how naive I stillwas?

“What are you thinking?” sheasked.

I pulled the blanket from around my shoulders, suddenly overly warm. “My instinct is that there must be more to the story,” I admitted, and Riley held out ahand.

“Well there you go then. You should talk tohim.”

I was shaking my head before she finished. “But that’s the thing—my instincts are totalshit.”

She frowned. “Why would you saythat?”

“Pretty much every guy I ever dated only wanted me for my family’s connection,” I told her. “I could never see the truth with any of them—why is thisdifferent?”

“Um, because you’re older? Because you were in high school and college then, and none of us know what we’re doing at thatage?”

“I still don’t know what I’m doing,” I shot back. “I mean, look atme.”

She scowled. “Iamlooking at you, Jenny Hillman. And I see someone I’m really proud toknow.”

I swallowed, overwhelmed with no idea how to respond to that. “Do you remember at the beginning of the summer, when I got that terrible haircut?”

She winced. “God, yes. What were you thinking? Never go to Sherry’s HairBarn.”

I managed a weak smile. “I was, um, actually trying this whole self-improvementthing.”

Her eyebrows went up. “Like with the lionessbook?”

I thought of all the self-help books I’d barely skimmed before losing interest. “Um, kind of? I had a crush on this guy and I thought if I could get my lifetogether—”

“You’re talking about Dr. Miller, right? Thevet?”

I gaped at her. “How did youknowthat?”

She rolled her eyes. “Come on, Jenny. You adoptedthreecats.”

“Fostered them,” I muttered, and my friendlaughed.

“I figured there must be a reason why you suddenly wanted to walk dogs and clean up their crap. Dr. Miller is hot. It made sense.” She studied me. “But the other stuff—the haircut and the blind dates—that was about himtoo?”

So my forays into dating hadn’t gone unnoticed either. “Yeah. I guess I thought that if I tried hard enough, I could make myself into someone he wouldlike.”

She frowned at that but before she could say anything, I went on. “But then I ended up walking in on him halfway to hooking up with Robin. In the middle of theshelter.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Gross!”

“Uh, yeah. Not my most pleasant moment. But it was also a wake up call—I was never going to be like Robin, no matter what I did. And that’s obviously the kind of woman he goes for. So everything I told myself—that he was my type, that I stood a chance—it was all a bunch of crap.” I sighed. “Like I said. My instinctssuck.”