Page 97 of Keeping Guard

All she’d wanted were tingly kisses and someone intimidating enough to keep Dalton from hassling her. She’d gotten both those things along with a broken heart. She should have made Noah promise not to make her fall in love with him, but hindsight and all that. She crawled into her bed, pulled the covers over her head, and cried herself to sleep.

When she woke up, the sun was setting. Jeez, she’d slept the day away. Now what? This broken heart thing was new, something she’d never experienced before, and she didn’t know what to do with herself. In the romance books she’d read, brokenhearted women drank wine and ate ice cream. She didn’t have any wine in her kitchen and cheese beat ice cream any day, so there it was. Her one-woman pity party...beer and cheese.

She was headed for the kitchen when her doorbell rang. Noah? Her heart tried to dig its way out of her chest and race her to the door.

“Oh. Hi,” she said at seeing Nichole.

Nichole smiled, sympathy in her eyes. “Sorry I’m not Noah.” She held up an oversize bottle of wine and a brown bag. “Wine and ice cream, the go-to for all broken hearts.”

“Come in.” She wasn’t up for company, and she really wanted that beer and cheese. Yet she’d never had the kind of friend she could pour her heart out to. Nichole was here, offering that to her, and it was nice.

“This is a cool place.” Nichole set the wine on the kitchen island. “You doing okay, sweetie?”

“Yeah. No. Not really.”

“Well, I’m here to talk about how stupid men can be while we pig out. What’s your pity pick?” She took five different pints of ice cream out of the bag. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I got a variety.”

“Let’s give all five a go.” She got two spoons, handing one to Nichole.

“I like how you think. You got a wine opener?”

“Somewhere.” She found it, poured wine into wineglasses she’d never used before, and they settled on stools at the island, the pints lined up in front of them.

“I fell in love with him,” she blurted.

“Of course you did. It’s what we do. Fall in love with men who can’t get their heads out of their asses long enough to see the perfect woman right in front of them.”

Peyton giggled. “Ain’t that the truth?”

An hour later, a bit buzzed after finishing the bottle of wine and devouring half the ice cream, they’d compiled a list of all the ways men were stupid. “Even so, he has the sexiest butt,” Peyton said.

Nichole sighed. “He sure does.”

“Hey, you’re not supposed to be looking at Noah’s butt.”

“What? I thought we were talking about Jack.”

“Huh? Why would I be looking at Jack’s butt?”

“You better not.”

“I might have once, but it was on the way to searching for Noah’s butt when they were playing baseball.” She picked up the bottle and peered into it. “All gone. I need to go to sleep. You can’t drive home, ’cause of us drinking and all, so you can sleep in Noah’s room ’cause he’s gone and doesn’t need it anymore.” Why did she say his name? Now she was thinking about him again.

“Nope, Jack brought me so I wouldn’t be driving home after drinking this.” She picked up the wine bottle, waving it in front of Peyton’s face.

“Smart thinking.”

“I didn’t think it. Jack did.”

“Yeah, I meant him.”

“Oh. Well, I’ll call him.”

Peyton wasn’t sure how much time it took for Jack to arrive after Nichole called him. What she did know was that she wasn’t going to feel so great in the morning, and that she really, really liked her new friend.

She leaned over and hugged Nichole. “Thank you for sharing my first ever pity party with me.”

“My pleasure. There’s the doorbell. Think that’s Jack?”