Page 143 of Playing for Keeps

“I’ll be back in a minute,” I said to Ethan.

“No worries,” he said. He gave me a quick kiss then turned his attention back to Austin, who was in the middle of a story about something one of Jacob’s twins had done.

I pushed through the crowd until I reached my target.

“Hey, I’m glad you could make it,” I said to Jonathan.

Jonathan and I had kept in loose contact, and although I’d have loved to reach the stage where we could be friends, I hadn’t wanted to push too hard.

But he’d sent me a nice message when Ethan and I had announced our engagement, so I figured I should invite him to the party. Hell, if it hadn’t been for him having the courage to end our relationship, who knew where we all might’ve ended up.

“Thanks for inviting me,” Jonathan said.

“No problem.”

Ethan’s laugh reached us across the room. I immediately turned toward the sound.

Austin was doing some weird teapot motion, and Jacob and Ethan were both laughing. I couldn’t help grinning.

I turned back to Jonathan, who was watching me with a small smile.

“I’m glad everything worked out for you guys,” he said. His voice contained nothing but sincerity.

What could I say? Thanks for being smart enough to recognize I was hopelessly in love with my best friend, and honest enough to confront me about it, and brutal enough to break up with me so I could be free to act on that love.

It wasn’t exactly casual Saturday night pub conversation.

But if I’d learned anything over the last year or so, it was that sometimes things were better said than left unsaid, no matter how awkward they were.

So I had a stab at it now. “I appreciate…you know, your part in it all.”

A complex mix of emotions flickered across Jonathan’s face, but his expression was back to neutral before I had a chance to analyze them.

“You’re welcome,” he said. He took a sip of beer just as Hanson and Levi jostled past, bumping his elbow and sloshing beer onto his hand.

“Sorry, there’re a lot of boozy rugby players here tonight,” I said.

Jonathan huffed out a self-deprecating laugh, shaking drips of beer off his hand. “I’m trying to avoid rugby players at the moment, but I’m not doing a great job. Apparently I’m a magnet for them.”

My eyebrows shot up.

But before I could decide if it was appropriate to pry into my ex-boyfriend’s love life, my father arrived by my side. Whether it was coincidental timing or a deliberate rescue mission to help me out of an awkward conversation with my ex, I didn’t know.

“Jonathan, great to see you.” He shook Jonathan’s hand.

“Nice to see you too, Anthony.”

They started talking about Jonathan’s job. It turned out he’d been spending a lot of time in Australia recently, working on a project.

I glanced around the room as they talked.

Char was chatting to Reuban over by the bar, a large smile on her face. My shoulders stiffened, but then I made myself relax. Char was a grown woman. She didn’t need me to be her protector.

She’d worked with a therapist in the last year and seemed to have made good progress. She was happy, she was painting, she was being a great mum to Theo. She’d handled my increased role in Theo’s life without a stumble, although I was always careful not to do anything that would tread on her toes.

And I owed her for the fact there had been a slight thawing in my mother’s attitude toward Ethan.

I’d first noticed it when we’d gone around for a family barbecue a few weeks after Ethan and I got back together. Mum had thanked Ethan for the salad he’d brought and then asked a few stilted questions about how his university paper was going. She still wasn’t anyone’s definition of warm, but the fact she was making any kind of effort had left me blinking. I’d pulled Char aside when I had the chance.