Pure Wicked (Wicked Lovers #9.5)(41)
Author: Shayla Black

“Yeah.” Admitting that possibility seemed to take all of her breath. After that, she didn’t have any air for the rest of her body. Her shoulders slumped. She felt half dead inside. Last night, she’d had to change the sheets before she could sleep because they smelled like him.

And his absence had torn her in two.

“It’ll get better,” her friend promised.

“It’s just…he defended himself so vehemently. He swore that he loved me and wanted to get married. He said I was trying to make matters of the heart logical, and when I was drowning in my banana cream pie milkshake, I kind of wondered if he was right. I still do.”

“Hang in there.” Jayla hugged her, and Bristol reveled in her friend’s embrace for a silent moment. The woman might not be her biological sibling, but she was the sister of her heart. Bristol felt blessed every day to have her.

“I’ll try. Thanks.”

“I’m glad you’re here. I might have mentioned to Presleigh that Hayden came to see you after church on Sunday. Apparently, he told her he was going home to take a ‘nap.’” Jayla held up air quotes.

“He only stayed a few minutes, and nothing happened, except that he behaved like an ass.”

“That’s nothing new,” Jayla drawled.

“Nope. Besides, he’d been to see Corey before me.” Or that’s what he’d said. “He probably spent most of his time there.”

“What?” Jayla pulled a disapproving face. “Corey left on Sunday morning to go meet that girl he met on the Internet, the one who lives in Arkadelphia.”

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot. Maybe Hayden did, too.” She shrugged.

“Or he remembered that Corey’s lonely little sister quit University of Arkansas and moved back home.”

Bristol wanted to say that Hayden wouldn’t cheat on Presleigh…but she knew firsthand that he totally would.

“Whatever happened on Sunday, Presleigh is having one hell of a righteous snit right now. Hayden is trying to suck up but…”

“He’s terrible at it.”

“You know that’s right.” Jayla shook her head.

Bristol had to grin. She could just picture five-foot-two, eyes-of-blue Presleigh’s tizzy. Then she tried to imagine self-absorbed Hayden struggling to grasp why his fiancée might be upset. She rolled her eyes.

“Well, that’s something to look forward to.” Because Bristol certainly wasn’t eager for the rest of dinner and having to explain to everyone that her “boyfriend” had left. “Let’s get this over with.”

Jayla turned and started leading her toward the party. “I saw on one of the entertainment websites today that Jesse attended his bandmate’s funeral this morning. He spoke. It was really touching.”

Yeah, she’d look that right up on YouTube. Not. Well, all right…she probably would. “I’m glad he went. I think he needed that closure.”

And maybe that would enable him to start the rest of his life with a clean slate so he could find a way to be happy. Bristol wanted that for him more than anything.

As she and Jayla crossed the yard together and opened her mother’s bright-white front door, the wreath of silk daisies nearly bapped her in the face and stirred up a little cloud of dust. But as soon as she heard the shouting from inside, the sneeze burning in her nose dissipated.

“I’m going to kill you,” a man growled on the far side of the foyer wall, seemingly from inside the kitchen.

Bristol didn’t recognize that voice. She whirled on Jayla, her gaze asking if she knew who was making the threat.

Her friend shrugged.

“Wait a minute.” She recognized that insistent voice. Hayden’s pal, Corey.

Jayla absently smacked the front door shut, then grabbed her arm to haul her toward the action so they didn’t miss anything.

“Was this going on when you came out to get me?” Bristol whispered.

“No, girl. If it had been, you would have been on your own. You know how to find the door.” Jayla grinned.

Together, they rounded the corner to find a crowd gathered and Hayden up in Corey’s face, his shirt in her ex-boyfriend’s fists. “How the hell could you do this to me?”

Do what? Bristol couldn’t tell by looking at the two of them.

Then Presleigh ran across the room, tear-splattered mascara running down her face. “Bris… Help me.”

Automatically, she opened her arms to her younger sister, who crashed into her and began sobbing anew. Presleigh held her tightly, all but cutting off Bristol’s breath. Absently, she stroked her sibling’s blonde curls and slanted Jayla a confused glance.