Ross 01 Unleashed (2 page)

“It’s not that. I know Evan’s a good guy. Can’t seem to sustain a relationship, though. And except with Courtney, he’s usually been the one to cut and run.”

“Uh-huh.” Lisa smoothed a hand over her very pregnant belly. They’d had to pull the table closer to Kelsey so Lisa could squeeze into the booth, the only available seating. It had been hilarious to witness. “I’m waiting.”

Kelsey shrugged, picking through her barely touched Caesar salad. “What? I caught his fiancée screwing my husband. You know this. I didn’t hesitate to call Evan and scream into his ear about it. I didn’t handle the situation well. It’s a miracle he still speaks to me at all.”

“But he does. He invited you on vacation with him. It sounds like the man is eternally grateful. He knows you probably saved him from a very expensive divorce on down the road.”

“Maybe.”

“And I thought you handled the situation exceptionally well, given that I’d have plucked every blonde hair from Courtney’s head, if I’d caught her with Daniel.” Lisa leaned forward—as much as she was able—and placed her hand over Kelsey’s on the tabletop. “
Please
go. I promise you, it’ll be all right. Could be just what you both need. He wouldn’t have invited you if he held anything against you. Or if he didn’t care.”

“I know he cares. But the way I see it, there’s only a couple of possible outcomes here. One: nothing will change, and it really is two friends just getting away together, though I’m sure I’ll fall hard for him again. Two: we’ll have a week of wild sex during which I’ll fall even harder and end up getting my heart broken. Neither one is very appealing right now.”

“Three: you have a week of wild sex and live happily ever after. Or four: you get him out of your system and you’re totally free from the burden, end of story. Or! Five: you meet the man of your dreams in
Hawaii, and send Evan home to tell us you’re never coming back.”

“It’s far more likely that
he’ll
find a girl and send
me
back alone. I didn’t even think of that. Thanks a lot.”

“Shut up. You don’t have to buy a pair of shoes just because you tried them on. They may look great sitting on the shelf, but that doesn’t mean they won’t feel like medieval torture devices on your feet once you wear them around for a few days. It’s the same thing with men.”

“I know me, though. If I sleep with him, I’m done for.”

“You think too much. And you’d really better go to Hawaii or I’m giving up on you. Your divorce is final. You look great. You’re
ripe
, girl, and we’ll go shopping for a new bikini, and you’ll look gorgeous in it and I’ll hate your guts. Don’t you dare hesitate to let him take it off you, should he feel so inclined. You’re over He Who Shall No Longer Be Named and you’re ready to have fun. Right?”

“Yeah, I’m over it. Not sure about the fun part.”

“Sweetie, you had such a long, cold winter, but it’s over. It’s summer. You’ll never have a better opportunity to get half naked around Evan Ross.” Lisa lowered her voice and leaned farther across the table. “Come on, Kelsey. You know as well as I do that your vibrator can only do so much until you start craving a warm body to hang on to again.”

For the second time that day, Kelsey nearly spit out her drink. “Yeah, well I don’t even own one of those.”

“Now I know what to get you for your birthday. Unless Evan removes all need for one between now and then. I
demand
that you go and get laid. Get drunk and have sensational toe-curling sex on the beach while I freaking sit at home and gestate.”

Kelsey barked with laughter. “You’re crazy. I’d rather sit at home gestating with a wonderful husband than go through this turmoil. You don’t know how lucky you are.”

Lisa sat back, an utterly satisfied smile on her face. She patted her swelling belly again. Her friend was the most adorable pregnant woman Kelsey had ever seen. She had such fun with it. “Well, you’re not behaving in a manner conducive to landing a husband, woman. You generally have to leave your house for that. Evan is certainly a keeper. Maybe someday…”

“Oh, okay, he’s invited me on one trip, he hasn’t proposed.”

“Yet.”

“Lisa!”

Too late; the girl was having way too much fun. Whenever Lisa laughed now, her belly bounced in a way that only made her giggle harder. And Kelsey’s earlier words had rung as true as any she’d ever spoken. Lisa had a fantastic marriage, a beautiful family. It was all Kelsey had ever wanted, and the very thing she’d been denied on a cold, dreary day six months ago—only a week before Christmas. Her world had crumbled during an ill-timed trip home from work for some Advil.

It was heavy on her mind as she drove back to the office. Evan’s phone call had brought it all crashing back. For months she’d considered it a stroke of fate that she’d been lost in her thoughts that day and driven right past the drugstore, her intended destination. Instead of turning around, she’d decided it would be easier to continue on the few extra blocks to her house. Maybe she could even lie down for fifteen minutes or so to see if her head would quit its dull, nagging ache. Looking back she wondered if that damn headache had been an omen.

Todd’s car parked in their driveway in the middle of the day had been an odd sight, but she didn’t think anything of it…until she heard their muffled cries when she entered her front door. She staggered to her bedroom in a blind rage to find her husband lying beneath his best friend’s fiancée in Kelsey’s own bed.

She couldn’t remember much after that. She just knew it had been ugly. Evan came to get the scandalized girl after Kelsey’s hysterical and utterly embarrassing phone call, since Todd’s car keys—both sets—had mysteriously wound up at the bottom of the swimming pool when he tried to leave with Courtney.

The look on Evan’s face when he got there, the raw fury and devastated betrayal, was etched into her memory and would remain there from now on. Even in the throes of her own anger, she’d wanted to comfort him, but from the moment she saw him she knew he was beyond it. She and Courtney had been too busy calling an unspoken truce long enough to pull him and Todd apart in the front yard.

Kelsey would have been more than happy to let them go at it, because Evan had been so furious he’d have given Todd exactly what he deserved. But Todd clearly wasn’t worth Evan getting slapped with an assault charge and jeopardizing the career he’d worked so hard to attain. Evan had refused to leave Kelsey alone with Todd until she had some backup. Lisa and Daniel had come to her rescue in that regard. She’d nearly collapsed in relief when they showed up and Evan hustled a mouthing, cursing Courtney to his truck, depositing her in the passenger seat. She would never forget the last searing glance he’d thrown her before he got in and drove away. She didn’t know to this day what she’d read in that gaze.

Lisa and Daniel—God bless them—had finally taken her home with them, where she was left to stare helplessly at the broken, irreparable pieces of her marriage, her life. The moment she’d slammed open the bedroom door to see Todd and Courtney in all their naked glory…that moment had been the end, but more for her husband than for her. In the days that followed, he’d told her he was sorry it came to this, that he knew he should have done the right thing, but he wasn’t happy anymore. Life was too short. Simple as that.

And she’d been dismissed.

She couldn’t fool herself…she’d seen his unhappiness. He’d rejected all her suggestions to make it better, and finally she’d given up, hoping it would work itself out.

Not a good choice, obviously.

Chapter Two

“It’s just one week, Lisa. I don’t need to pack my entire closet.”

“Hey, you never know when you might need this stuff.”

“They have stores in Honolulu. I’m almost certain of it.”

Lisa giggled and pulled yet another strappy top from Kelsey’s closet. “See? He’ll want to eat you alive in this. God, to have your figure. Of course, I shouldn’t complain. I keep deliberately wrecking mine.” She patted her tummy. Kelsey had spent all day last weekend helping her arrange the nursery while Daniel was away on business, and now Lisa was returning the favor by helping Kelsey pack for her trip…and giving commentary on every item in her suitcase.

“I’m going to ban you from the closet. Get away.” Kelsey laughed, pulling the shirt away and sticking it back in. “We’re done, I have more than enough. I don’t want to give him a hernia if he tries to lift my bags.”

Lisa continued her perusal of Kelsey’s clothes, shoes and purses. “Oh, he looks capable enough. You did pack condoms, right?”

“No way.”

Lisa whirled on her. “Are you freaking insane?”

“If he happens to see them in my bag, what will he think?”

“That he’s about to get laid! Or
you
are, with or without him.”

Kelsey erupted into a fit of giggles, her heart slamming in her chest at the thought. Her fingers clenched hard on the pink legal pad she held, the one with her packing list…and a dozen other lists that pertained to more mundane, less panic-inducing things. During the two weeks since she’d given in and accepted Evan’s offer she’d felt like a schoolgirl nursing her first crush. It wasn’t healthy to feel this way, not about him.

Lisa was going on. “Say you’re both thinking along that line. Then you unconsciously grope for one another in the middle of the night and you’re a hot inch away from doing the nasty and suddenly it hits you that you have no protection. That
sucks
, Kelsey. How do you think I ended up like this for the third freaking time?”

She decided it best not to inform her friend that in that scenario, nary a responsible thought would cross her mind. “We’re both clean and I’m on the pill. We got checked out after our significant others decided they liked one another better than they liked us. We talked about it.”

“Okay, well if you trust him…but where’s he been since? Didn’t you say he was a bit of a player?”

“He was never a
player
… He was more like…a serial monogamist. But it’s not like any of this is going to matter. If there’s anything I know, it’s my relationship with Evan. He thinks of me as his kid sister or something. Even though we’re the same age.”

“After everything you’ve told me I can’t believe you two never got in on in college. How did you fall so fast into the friend trap?”

“We met when we were partnered on a project in one of our classes and hit it off. I fell madly in love but he had a girlfriend. Then summer break happened. We came back in the fall and he had a different girlfriend. And so on and so forth until I met Todd. We had the worst timing imaginable. Not that it mattered. He was never interested in me like that.”

“Did he tell you that?”

“Well, no. Because we never
talked
about these things, because I’m like his kid
sister
. Remember?”

“Don’t let this hurt your feelings, Kels, but you thought you knew everything about that whoring bastard you married, too. You’re going to be immersed in this tropical, romantic atmosphere with Evan and it’s going to happen. Mark my words.”

Kelsey chewed the tip of the pen she’d been using to check off list items. Lisa’s first words had cut her; she couldn’t deny it. She also couldn’t deny the truth in them. “I almost want to prove you wrong, just to be a bitch.”

Lisa laughed. “We need a code word. Because if—no, when—something goes down, I just want to know I was right. That way I can still get the goods even if other people are hovering.”

“Whatever. What’s the code?”

“Hmm. How about
waves
.”

“Waves?”

“Yeah, I’ll just ask you how the waves are. The enthusiasm of your answer will tell me all a best friend needs to know.”

“What if I don’t kiss and tell?”

Lisa only barked with laughter, choosing not to dignify that with a response. “What did your mom say when you finally told her what you were doing?”

Kelsey took on her mom’s screech. “‘Kelsey Ann! Wasn’t he the best man at
your wedding
!’ You’d think I was planning a bank heist.”

“Oooh, scandal! I love it!” Lisa froze for a moment, then grabbed Kelsey’s hand to place on her stomach. “Feel this. She’s turning cartwheels.”

Kelsey smiled at the sensation pushing insistently under her palm. Emotion welled up in her, not just from her own maternal longings—God, she would probably never get to have kids—but for Lisa and her family, who had been her rock over these past several months. Lisa was the only person Kelsey talked to every day. Most of the friends she’d made here had been Todd’s friends and had followed him after their split……all except for Evan.

Her heart warmed at the thought of him. And then turned so cold it burned. He wasn’t hers, never had been, probably never would be, no matter how many Hawaiian vacations they took together.

She pulled her hand away and impulsively hugged her friend. It was heartfelt, but also an attempt to hide a sudden glimmer of tears. “That’s awesome. I’m so happy for you guys.”

“You’ll get your turn, chick. I know it. You deserve it too much.”

Kelsey blinked away the wetness and pulled back, promptly turning to walk over to her bed where her suitcase lay open. “Well, I only hope you can hold on for a week until I get home. I’d love to be there. You’d better call me, even if I’m still in Hawaii.”

“You know it.”

Lisa left soon after, and she took all pretenses of Kelsey’s good humor with her. Deflated, she turned on her TV for company and began feverishly cleaning her already spotless apartment. There wasn’t much of it to clean. She didn’t want to think, didn’t want to consider what she might have gotten herself into by accepting Evan’s offer. As she’d told Lisa, there couldn’t be a good outcome either way it went.

She straightened the bedcovers she would just mess up again in a couple of hours, dusted her knickknacks, surveyed her closet and contemplated which outfits she could spare to the women’s shelter. There certainly were people in the world suffering far worse situations than she, and helping them in any way never failed to lift her spirits when she was down. Maybe she could go volunteer for a while tomorrow. She desperately needed that lift now, and she needed something to occupy her time on the last full day before she and Evan jetted off.