Page 63 of The Best Man Problem
Affronted at the accusation, she gasped. “I didn’t slam the door!”
“Fine. You shut it very firmly. But it was obvious you were—and still are—upset. Spill. Did things not go well with Lincoln? Was the sex not as good as you remembered? Did he ask for weird stuff?”
“Oh please, Mo.” Pru chuckled. “Like you wouldn’t do weird stuff.”
“I would, but Lilly wouldn’t.”
Hey, she’d do weird stuff! Maybe. Depending on what it was and who asked. To be honest, she’d be open to a hell of a lot with Lincoln. She trusted the man. Or she had. Before she shared the worst moment of her life with him and he acted like she was the one to blame.
She glanced at the two women before her. Her business partners, her friends. These women who had stood by her side through thick and thin for more than a decade. They were closer than friends. They were sisters. They were family. A family of their choosing, and that made them bonded in a way unlike any other.
She knew they would always be there for her and vice versa. It hadn’t been fair of her to shut them out the past few days. She should have discussed things with them right away, but a small part of her felt ashamed. Worried she’d fallen into the trap of her mother.
Her friends weren’t here to judge her. They didn’t do that. They helped one another. The time had come for her to accept their help and start sharing. If nothing else, talking about it out loud might help her solve the hot-and-cold mystery that was Lincoln Reid.
“He didn’t ask for any weird stuff,” she started. “And, no, the sex wasn’t as good as I remembered.” Mo’s lips turned down into a little frown until Lilly added, “It was better.”
“Hot damn! I knew just by looking at him that man could set fire to a bed.”
He could indeed. He could also pour a giant bucket of ice-cold water all over it. Metaphorically speaking, of course.
“If things were so great, why the storm clouds?” Pru reached out to place a sympathetic hand over Lilly’s.
Of course, her friends would be able to tell she was under a gloom cloud. When you lived with someone for a decade—as they had done—you got to know a person really well. There was no sense in hiding anything from them.
“Everything was going great.” She lifted her shoulders, shaking her head as she recounted the weekend. “The wedding went off without a hitch. After everyone left, I went to Lincoln’s room to…um, you know.”
“Screw his brains out?”
“Classy, Mo.” Pru shook her head, motioning for Lilly to continue.
“Anyway, we had…an amazing night.” There was no other way to describe it without setting off the sprinklers. “Then, when we woke up, the storm had really rolled in.”
Pru gasped. “Did you get stuck up there?”
She nodded. Mo knew that from her text saying she wouldn’t be home, but Pru didn’t live with them anymore, since she got together with Finn. As happy as she was for her friend starting a family and getting married, a part of her grieved the loss of the tight-knit sisterhood the three of them once shared. But that was the way of life. Things changed, people moved on, relationships shifted.
“Oh, I get it now!” Mo exclaimed. “You all got stuck up there, but Lincoln only brought one condom and you couldn’t get your freak on anymore. Men are idiots. So unprepared. That’s why I always carry a box of condoms in my purse. Never rely on your partner for protection.”
“No.” Lilly bit her lip, cheeks flaming as memories of just how prepared Lincoln had been filled her mind. “We were very much covered in that department.”
“Oh really?” Mo bobbed her eyebrows. “Care to elaborate?”
“Ignore her.” Pru lifted a hand to block out their brazen friend. “Continue with your story.”
Skipping the more intimate details, she launched into the activities they’d done to keep themselves busy during the storm. How comfortable they’d been chatting, scrounging for food, playing games, watching movies. It amazed her how normal it had all felt. Like they’d been doing it for years. Hanging out with Lincoln, even when they weren’t having sex, felt good. Right. Like home.
Mo scrunched up her nose when Lilly finished. “Okay, soooo what happened? Why the Debbie Downer routine?”
“I told him.” She swallowed past the painful lump of emotion clogging her throat. “About what happened. The worst man we do not speak of.”
“That bastard,” Mo spat. “I still wish you would have let me kick him in the balls for what he did to you and his wife.”
She gave a watery laugh. “I’m over it, Mo. Really.”
And the odd thing was, she was telling the truth. For years, she’d blamed herself, thinking she should have seen the signs, but the truth was she’d believed a person she had no reason to doubt. That wasn’t being naive; it was just being human. She might always feel bad about what happened, but over the years, and with the constant support of her friends, Lilly now knew what happened wasn’t her fault. She’d simply chosen to trust the wrong person.
Happened to a lot of people.
