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Ouch. I chewed my inner cheek. “Working on a game plan right now.”
“You always needed a little push in the right direction.” A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “Admit it, Dot, my pep talks were your fuel.”
“Yeah, well, I was short on those in the past five years.” My nose twitched. There was an awkward pause. My mother drifted to a nearby group of people to give us some privacy.
“Whatever, you know?” Dylan blew out air. “I mean, you were a shitbag for screwing my brother. But…maybe the timing was convenient for me too.”
“How do you mean?” I frowned.
“It was a great excuse to cut ties with you before you cut ties with me.” Dylan stared down at her Adidas Superstars, biting hard on her lower lip. “Once you realized the big city was full of supercool people you could hang out with. I didn’t want to deal with the rejection. Didn’t want to feel like I wasn’t good enough for you anymore.”
She was crazy if she thought anyone I’d met in NYC could rival the awesomeness of her, but I could tell she didn’t want to talk about us. I grabbed her hands. They were limp against my own. It was time to change the subject.
“You’re pregnant!” I announced.
She looked up, her face awash with mockery. “Whoa. What gave it away?”
I chewed on the side of my lip. “Tucker’s?”
She nodded sheepishly before awarding me with her signature eye roll. “It’s lobster season, so he’s away on the boat for three to four weeks. Depending on the catch.”
“Tucker is a fisherman?” My eyebrows jumped to my hairline. I was so far out of the loop.
“Well, NASA reached out for the aerospace surgeon position, but he said the Texas weather didn’t agree with him.” She waved her hand to her face, fighting her pregnancy sweat. Dammit, I’d missed her sense of humor. “I mean, he’s a hunk, but not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. I’m pretty sure half the lobsters he catches are smarter than him.”
“I’m sorry,” I blurted out.
“Don’t be.” She ran a hand over her belly. “Remember when we did those exams in ninth grade? My IQ is above average, so I think the baby will be fine.”
“I meant I’m sorry he is out in the ocean, risking his life.”
“Oh. I’m not,” she answered airily. “All he does when he’s around is watch football, drink beer, and complain I don’t fulfill my ‘womanly’ duties. Team Ocean all the way.”
There was a beat of silence as we both stared at each other. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I mouthed, You had sex with Tucker Reid, Dylan. Ohmigod.
That made her snort out a laugh. She slapped a hand over her mouth, frowning sternly. “Shut up. I’m still mad at you. I’m not here to make amends.”
“Not even if I beg really hard?” I wiggled my brows.
“Ask again after I eat. I’m hangry.” She glanced around the room, taking inventory of the people and dishes. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to make myself a pregnant lady plate and devour it while listening to a complete stranger reciting horror birth stories to me. Last time I socialized, Melissa told me about her two inductions, steroids shots, and emergency C-section. Hard to top that, but I have faith.”
She sauntered away, leaving me with my heart in my throat and a pathetic determination to make things right between us. I had let her down once, but I wasn’t gonna do it again. A Dylan-less life was unthinkable now that I had another taste of her presence in my universe.
“Dot.” A husky voice drifted straight into my bloodstream, and I knew exactly who it belonged to. “My sincere condolences.”
Reluctantly, I sloped my head all the way up, extending my neck to stare Row in the eye. He was nearly a foot taller than me. Nausea twisted my stomach upside down.
He was so gorgeous. I was so screwed.
Row Casablancas had always been a showstopper, but this? This was the face of my feminism leaving my body permanently, buying a one-way ticket to Bora Bora.
The chiseled planes of his jawline, the dent in the center of his lower lip, the crinkles fanning his heavily lashed eyes. What business did he have being so attractive?
His lips moved, and that was when I realized he was talking to me while I was imagining myself riding that mouth like the future of the nation depended on it.
“Can you say that again?” I cleared my throat, thunderstruck by his features.
“Sorry about Artem,” he drawled in a tone normally used to announce first-degree murder verdicts. “My aversion to his daughter aside, he was truly one of a kind.”
