Page 74 of Good at Being Bad (Rock Canyon, Idaho 8)

“Relax, Gabe was going out with the guys and I just wanted to make sure he’s okay.” She picked up her phone and slid her thumb across the screen. A second later, she gasped.

“What’s wrong?” Ellie asked.

“Gabe said that Mike got into a fight with some guy and got pulled out of Buck’s.”

“What?” Gracie shrieked. “Is he okay?”

Ellie’s heart hammered, as she’d been wondering the same thing.

Caroline’s fingers flew over the screen as she typed and then stilled. A few seconds later, another incoming message beeped. “Okay, Gabe said he is fine, just drunk and the other guy started it, but Mike finished it.”

“It had to be Forrest,” Ellie said.

Jenny’s eyes were huge. “Holy shit! Mike hates Forrest, but I bet dollars to doughnuts it was about you.”

Her face heated. “We don’t know that.”

“Trust me, I have known Mike for a long time and he is a goofball, but he’s not the violent type. If he lost his shit, it had something to do with you.”

“I was afraid this would happen,” Ellie whispered.

“Afraid what would happen?” he sister asked.

“That I’d hurt him.”

“How is this your fault?” Jenny asked.

“You just said it was about me!”

“But that doesn’t make it your fault.”

“It was stupid to think the two of us could be anything more. I mean, he is ready for the big settle-down and has his whole life together. I haven’t even figured out where I fit.”

“Yeah, but if he loves you, I guarantee that he’ll wait for you to figure it out,” Caroline said.

“He doesn’t love me, it’s too early for all of that,” Ellie said, ignoring the pinch in her chest. She knew she wasn’t in love with Mike, but if she let herself, she could fall and fall hard.

Only she was smarter than that now.

“I’m a firm believer that when you meet your soulmate, you just know, even before you’re ready to admit it,” Jenny said.

“Well, I’m a realist and no matter how much you might love someone, people are inherently selfish. There’s no such thing as soulmates, there are people you love until one of your screws the other over. Sometimes, it just takes longer.”

“Okay,” Caroline said loudly. “This conversation is quickly turning into an argument none of us will win, so how about we say good night before we say something we don’t mean?”

“Fine.” Jenny stood up and started picking up her stuff.

Ellie went to get a trash can, irritated with herself and Jenny. She often forgot how sheltered and naïve Jenny was. She’d grown up in a large, tight-knit family, and although her mother was a bit of an ogre to everyone else, she loved Jenny and the rest of her children.

Jenny could still wear her rose-colored glasses, while Ellie’s have been smashed to ribbons long ago.

When they had finished helping her clean up, Caroline gave her a hug at the door and headed down the porch to her car.

After she closed the door, Ellie accepted Jenny’s hug, but before she pulled away, the smaller woman whispered, “If you’re serious, then you need to stay away from him.”

Ellie bit her lip. “I don’t know if I can.”

“I just mean, if you really don’t believe that there is something worth fighting for between you, then let him go. Don’t hurt him.”