Page 105 of A Real Goode Time

“Harlow was here, then Rhys. But now Rhys is gone.”

“Oh? Where’d he go?”

“Home.”

That got her full attention. “Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. I liked him.”

“Me too,” I whispered. “But like isn’t the right L-word.”

She sighed. “I guess I thought he felt the same way.”

“He does.”

She blinked into a silence. “Then I’m confused.”

“He has to go back to sort out his life. He owns a company and property back in New Haven. He can’t just…say fuck it and stay here.”

“Oh. So…he’s coming back?”

“Someday, hopefully.”

“Do you have plans to stay in touch?”

I sniffled. “I dunno. We didn’t discuss that. Maybe. Probably. Maybe not. I don’t fucking know. Talking to him may be harder than just…not.” I held up the Jeep key. “He gave me the Jeep.”

“No shit. The big red pimped-out classic in Mom’s lot?”

I nodded. “That one.”

“No shit. That thing is cool as hell. He just…gaveit to you?”

“He sure did.”

Lexie set her mug down and twisted to face me. “Are you okay? You don’t seem okay.”

“I’m not. But I will be. I miss him. But he has things to figure out, and so do I.” I tried to brighten. “Plus, you’re getting married!”

She grinned. “When you said you’d find your own way here, I had no clue it would lead to all this.”

“Me either,” I said, laughing. “So. Where are you and Myles going on your honeymoon?”

“We’re not. We spent like two months in a hut on a remote Indonesian island owned by a billionaire friend of one of Myles’s friends. So now we’re getting married. We just did the honeymoon part first, is all.”

I snickered. “I wonder what you two did for two months alone in a hut in the middle of nowhere.”

“A lot of that. I mean, alota lot.” A pause. “We also talked. About…um. Some things in my past that…that kept me messed up for a long, long time.”

I held her eyes. “I see. And is this why you got so worked about my virginity?”

She nodded. “The short, simple version of a very long, painful story is that I was sexually abused by my voice teacher for several years.” She shrugged, clear-eyed, but still obviously affected by the telling. “He, uhhh…he was my first and my only sexual experience until I moved away for college. So…yeah. I just…I wanted your first time to be a different experience than mine.”

“It will be,” I said.

She stared at me. “Wait. You and Rhys didn’t fuck?”

I bobbed my head side to side. “No. Not really. We did other things, and I was going to, but then it was obvious we were falling for each other and if I’d slept with him and he had to leave I’d be even more upset. I’m still technically a virgin, in that I haven’t had sexual intercourse yet. And I won’t, not until I can share that with Rhys.”

“What if—”