Page 40 of One Mistake

Felicity nodded. “Didn’t expect Ryder?” I’d been away for a very long time, and we hadn’t really been all that close before I left, but they knew me. So well. Maybe because they’d been where I am—in love with one of the Alphas that we shouldn’t have even liked.

I nodded. “Yeah. Or that I might…want to stay here.” Might want to was such an understatement. I wanted to buy this house, live in it. Probably with Ryder. And another understatement for my collection. Not that I wanted to think about that one.

“You should!”

“You totally should.” There was nodding and planning, redecorating and celebrating advice while my head shifted back and forth between them. It was like a tennis match with my life as the ball.

“They sold the house, guys.”

“It’s not the only house for sale in Glouster.” Avery shrugged one shoulder as if it didn’t matter whether I lived in this house or a different one. And it probably didn’t but…why make a lateral move to continue to live alone?

“I don’t have a job here.”

“And only California needs cops.” Felicity threw in an eye roll and I chuckled and shook my head. This was my whole life we were uprooting, and she was diminishing the importance of my decision to an eye roll.

“It would cost a lot to move across the country.”

“I heard private security pays bank, and I happen to know…someone who needs new private security.” She nudged Avery. “Which brings me around to my gossip.”

I sighed. Now we weren’t going to get back around to me until I heard this week’s version of the Glouster Entertainment News. “What is it?”

She looked at Avery and nodded. A look passed between them. “Ryder’s folks are getting divorced. It’s a whole thing.” She tucked her hair behind her ear and blew out a breath. “Word on the street”—translation: from a bunch of college coeds who should be more concerned about their grades—“is that Mrs. Kennedy found out something about Mr. Kennedy that didn’t sit well. Something so big, she just couldn’t forgive.”

I loved Avery, but I could’ve done without added drama. “Like what?”

“You’re really not going to believe it.” They looked at each other again. “I can’t believe it.” She shrugged a shoulder. Hemming and hawing. “It doesn’t change what they did. Except Ryder.”

Now I perked up. “What are you talking about?”

She gulped and sat up straighter. “Well, it seems that back in the day when the Glouster Four was being crucified by Beth Cooper in the press, she was getting down with none other than Ryder’s dad.”

Oh, shit. “Oh, shit.”

Avery nodded and Felicity picked the story up. “At the boat. The frat house. That big old mansion of theirs. If you would’ve married Ryder, she would’ve ended up as your mother-in-law. Because now, they’re getting married.”

I ignored everything else she’d said because self-preservation required it. “He’s already married.” Not to point out the obvious, but his current marriage wasn’t likely to be one he could just walk away from for Beth Cooper.

“Not for long. Apparently, and I have no confirmed reports about this part, but apparently, he skimmed off of client accounts. A lot of money, and it’s going to take the entire family fucking fortune to pay that shit back. She’s broke as a joke and he’s on the run with roving reporter Beth Cooper.” She shrugged and smug-smiled. “And that’s not all.”

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer lady than Mrs. Kennedy. “When did all this happen?” I thought of Ryder. These were the people who’d abandoned him, who’d left him to live in the best way he could find without any thought that they’d pampered him all his life and left him without too many real life skills. Still, he’d managed, but that wasn’t the point. And their marital issues weren’t really a source for celebration, but I was kind of glad that old bat was getting hers.

“I guess she found out recently, but…it gets better.” Avery smiled again. “Ryder didn’t upload the videos.”

“What?” I tilted my head. I couldn’t have heard her correctly. He’d admitted it. Taken all the blame for it. Paid the restitution determined by the court. “What did you say?”

“Oh yeah. Ryder’s dad was at the frat house getting his freak on with Beth Cooper—wasn’t she your roommate in college? Anyway, getting his freak on. And afterward, he was hanging around waiting for Ryder to give him the weekly allowance, and he wanted to look at his bank account. He opened the laptop and found the videos. Videos of him and Beth. And he was trying to delete them, but he ended up posting the whole folder to the website that Ryder set up to use to make money off the pledges. So Ryder isn’t wholly innocent.” Apparently, it was important that I knew that. “But his dad is the one who posted the videos.”

“Holy crap.” It didn’t absolve him from the impact he’d caused by taking the videos in the first place. Still, he shouldn’t have kept the videos he did. I flipped back and forth. He’d been punished. So much. When would it be enough?

And this was so much to process. And no one brought wine.

One Decade Ago

I stared into her eyes. This wasn’t the Beth Cooper who’d been my friend since…I couldn’t remember a time she wasn’t my friend. It had always been me and Beth. Beth and me. But now…

She adjusted her shirt and pulled her cardigan tighter around her. Her yoga pants were inside out and it didn’t take a genius to know she’d pulled them on in a big hurry. “Who’s in there, Beth?”

For the last few months, she’d been sketchy about so many things. Sneaking men or maybe just the one man in and out of the house at all hours of the day and night. “Just a guy.”