Page 69 of Sweet Spot

For some reason, hearing her say that felt like my own personal victory.

“I’m so proud of you, Lia,” I whispered before letting her friends swallow her with hugs and congratulations and questions.

It was Lyssa who eventually came up with the idea to pop open the sparkling wine they had upstairs in the fridge. “We bought it for the day Ritchie sells the house but fuck it, this is worth celebrating even more!” she said, taking Bree’s hand, the two of them running to follow Ritchie upstairs. It left Lia and me with Stephen and Gina, who hadn’t really stopped smiling at us since the second we sat down.

“You guys seem so nice,” she said. “I love seeing happy couples.”

With a groan, Stephen went upstairs, too. Lia snorted as I nodded politely. “Thanks. Are you… with Ritchie?”

“Oh God, no!” she laughed. “I just work with him at the bowling alley. He asked me to come over tonight. He said he was having a party but I got here and everyone was talking about this Lia girl and investment deals and money and blah, blah, blah,” she giggled, throwing her hands in the air. “I’m glad you guys are here now, because it feels like an actual party!” she said.

As she and Lia got to figuring out if they were even in high school at the same time, I excused myself and slipped upstairs. I wasn’t the meddling type. I was usually far too apathetic to get involved in anyone’s drama but I for some reason felt slightly off about what the other four were doing upstairs in the kitchen. It was a vague hunch but the assholes proved me right the second I got up there.

Leaning just outside the kitchen door, I listened to their bitter mutterings to each other.

“Honestly, those chocolates were okay, at best. They weren’t even that fucking good,” Ritchie said.

“Guys. I swear to God, she’s not just making money through chocolate. There’s no way.” That voice was unmistakably Bree. “She’s definitely doing something shady on the side. She’s probably prostituting herself and her so-called boyfriend is probably some rich guy who only came up here because she said he could like, pee on her later. Or some other fucked up shit.”

Lyssa giggled. “Seriously. Those chocolates sucked ass. I don’t know how you could bring those here and think you’re so much better than us. I could buy that at the grocery store for like, two bucks.”

“Right? Like, good job, you get to live in the city because you’re okay with whoring yourself out. Sorry, girl, but I have standards.”

Ritchie’s laugh sounded like fucking wheezing. “God, I’m glad you guys agree. I knew there was no way any of this was real. And that call from her so-called investor?”

“Bullshit.”

“Total bullshit. She probably made one of her friends call her so she could fake that in front of us to make herself feel better,” Ritchie scoffed. “Fucking pathetic.”

Yeah, that’s it.

Walking into the kitchen, I watched with satisfaction as everyone’s faces went pale.

“Hey!” Bree finally said. “How long have you been there, Mr. Sneaky?”

“Long enough to hear you take your collective insecurities out on my girlfriend.”

They fell quiet. Ritchie scowled. “Look, dude, we didn’t mean it the way you heard it.”

“No, you did, but I get it,” I said. “You’ve got nothing to call your own and the only way to sleep at night is to tell yourself that others cheat their way ahead and your morals are just too high to succeed.” I glanced at Bree for a second before returning my eyes to Ritchie. “Of course, no one with morals takes a loan out in his girlfriend’s name and does nothing to try and pay it back,” I pointed out, satisfied with Ritchie’s dumb, open-mouthed silence. “I mean you dug her a pretty fucking impossible hole to climb out of and she still did, didn’t she?”

I paused for him to answer, not that I thought for a second his dumb mouth would have anything to say. After a good silence, I nodded.

“Yeah, it has to be tough watching the woman you didn’t believe in achieve everything she’s ever dreamed of. I’m sure that’s hard to live with, so you just gotta find some way to discredit her. Right?” I cocked an eyebrow. “I’d probably do the same if I were a piece of shit whose best talent was doubting others. Thank God I’m not or I’m pretty sure she’d have no interest in me, and that would be pretty goddamned depressing.” I let myself grin a bit. “Because in case you don’t remember or never realized, she’s a fucking incredible woman. And I’m taking her home now, so you guys can go ahead and drink to whatever delusions you think of next. Nice meeting you.”

I didn’t wait for a reaction before going downstairs and holding a hand out to Gina. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Gina. I’m sorry to take away the party, but we have to get going.” Turning to Lia, I grabbed her purse and held out my hand. “Come on. We’re leaving.”

Despite looking stunned, Lia nodded, saying a last goodbye to Gina before taking my hand and following me out, no questions asked.

26

LIA

“Don’t worry. I’ll get that box from Ritchie and I’ll ship it to you wrapped in lots of bubble wrap, so nothing breaks,” Dad said as I sat with him in the corner of the living room, both of us watching Lukas chat with Uncle Ted and Aunt Lynn at the dining table, which they’d covered with their “good” tablecloth. It was white linen with embroidery at the scalloped edges. Good Lord, I thought as I watched Uncle Ted and Lukas grinning wide at each other over whatever the heck they were talking about. Probably something embarrassing for me.

“Don’t worry, Dad,” I said quietly. “It’d be nice if you could ship the box, but you don’t have to. It’s probably just old cookware and stuff we used to make chocolates with.”

“If it’s stuff you need to make chocolates for the new… distributor?”