Page 207 of One Wild Wish

Until he answered the latter of Ainsley’s questions. “Gwen and I didn’t hook up because we had a misunderstanding in college, and she slept with my brother.”

Owen and Jimmy froze. Rachel and Ainsley’s eyes filled half their faces. My world tipped upside down, like I’d bungee jumped, my stomach remaining sky high while the rest of me plunged.

Ignoring the statue game going on around the table, August leisurely pulled out the chair opposite me. He slid my wineglass toward him and took a sip, licking his lips as he swallowed. He grinned at me.

Grinned.

At me.

If he were closer, I’d twist his nipple so hard, he’d see the Milky Way.

“Glad you could make it and turn my friends into stone,” I told him, my voice rising in pitch and aggravation. “The girls and I are going to the bathroom now. Together. Like girls do. We might be a while.”

My chair screeched on the concrete floor as I used my head and thumbs to gesture toward the back of the bar. Rachel and Ainsley picked up on my game of charades lickety-split and followed my hurried strides into the bathroom.

The space was decorated like a country porch, complete with cushioned seat, barn-style stalls, and sunflowers. “He’s insane,” I said as I fell onto the yellow cushion.

Rachel covered her mouth with her hand. “I can’t believe he blurted that.”

“He must want to torture me, slowly and painfully. It’s his form of retribution.” It was probably why he’d agreed to come out. To humiliate me. Make me look bad in front of my friends. Our friends. Whatever.

Ainsley’s eyebrows finally descended from her hairline. “I can’t weigh in on what went down until you fill me in.”

I contemplated putting her off, not reliving my teenage stupidity again , but there was no point. It was easier this time. The confession still shamed me, but the more often I spoke about it—to Rachel, with August, now Ainsley—the easier it got. “Do you think that’s why he aired our dirty laundry?”

Ainsley cocked her head. “What’s why? I don’t follow.”

“When he showed up, that ambush of his seemed—”

“Technically,” Rachel cut in, “it wasn’t an ambush. He was answering Ainsley’s question.”

I glowered at Ainsley. “Remind me to thank you for that later.”

She plucked a sunflower from a sink vase and offered it to me. “A token for my peccadillo .”

I accepted her gift and spun the massive flower. “Have you been playing crosswords again?”

“Yes, but I cheated for that word, which means a small transgression. Like August’s fumble now. But isn’t everything better out in the open?”

“Which brings me to the point I was trying to make.” This conversation was tangling as quickly as my thoughts. “I hadn’t spoken with anyone about that night for nine years, and I get the impression August hadn’t either. Even thinking about it before made me feel like I’d eaten one of Ainsley’s vegan desserts.” I mimed an upset stomach. Served her right for the accidental ambush.

She rolled her eyes. “You guys love my baking.”

We did not, but we ate the horrible efforts anyway.

“What about now?” Rachel asked me, avoiding the vegan discussion like the good friend she was. “Do you feel less pukey about the whole thing?”

“If I stop and relive the fiasco, I start to spiral, but it’s easier. So either August wants to torment me in front of you guys, or he’s trying to lighten our history, make it less of a big deal.”

Option A meant this reunion of ours would end shortly, no friendship maintained. Option B meant he might truly want to put our past to bed. He might want me in that bed with him.

The possibility excited and terrified me in equal measure.

Ainsley looked over my head, at the mirror behind me. Her purple wrap dress hugged her generous curves, her small stature elevated by matching stilettos. She adjusted the tie that hung at her side. “Judging by the way he looked at you, I’d say the only tormenting he wants to do involves ropes, hot wax, and silk sheets.”

That visual had heat flooding my neck. “How was he looking at me?” I fanned my face with the massive flower.

“Like you’re a supermodel, and he’s had your picture on his wall forever, like the skimpy bikini kind, and he just realized he gets to sex you up.”