Page 87 of Rock Bottom Girl

“Oh, shit,” she breathed.

But she wasn’t reacting to my expert level flirting. She was looking over my shoulder.

“What’s the problem?” I asked, twisting on my seat to see who was stealing my thunder here.

Amie Jo Hostetter, in icepick heels and fashion-forward baby blue sweatpants that probably cost more than my property taxes this month, strutted in. Her hair was big. Her makeup was troweled on. And she had a hand wrapped around her husband’s wrist.

He glanced our way, and I saw the second he recognized Marley.

“Figures he’d age well,” she muttered pretending to be enthralled with the table top.

“That the type you usually go for?” I didn’t much care for that. Travis was a clean-shaven, ironed-clothes kind of guy. He got his hair cut every three weeks and spent a small fortune on hair products and custom-tailored Oxford shirts to fit his narrow frame. His only hobby was golf. Talk about a snooze fest.

High school me would have—and probably had—referred to him as a pretty boy. He was soft and smooth. Nice guy, but a schmoozer. And I couldn’t imagine someone like Marley ending up with someone like him. She’d be bored to tears within a week.

“Are you forgetting the fact that I dumped him in high school foryou?” she hissed.

“You did not,” I argued. “You broke up with him because you were bored to death.”

“Just shut up and stop looking at him—them. Oh, God. Here they come. They’re coming over!”

I squeezed her hand. “Chill out. You’re here with me, yourboyfriend, remember?”

She straightened. “Right. Okay. Good. I forgot.”

She forgot she was dating me. That was a kick to the ol’ ego.

“Well, don’t you two look cozy?” Amie Jo cooed. She reeled Travis in and tucked herself under his arm, painting a picture of a happy couple right in front of us.

“Hey there, Hostetters,” I said, giving Marley’s hand a hard squeeze.

She snapped out of the deer in headlights expression and pasted on a smile as phony as Amie Jo’s tone.

“Travis, you remember Marley from high school, right?” his wife asked. Judging by his expression, he definitely remembered.

“It’s good to see you again, Marley,” he said pleasantly. “I heard you were back in town.”

“Uh. Hi. Yeah, I’m back for a little while,” she said, the words coming out in a rush. “I, um, I like your swan.”

I shot her a WTF look, and her eyeballs went half-dollar sized.

“Isn’t he just divine?” Amie Jo asked, laying a possessive hand on Travis’s stomach. “I saw Lady Gaga had swans at her Hamptons estate and just had to have one. Travis made it happen. He spoils me! Isn’t that right, sweetie?”

“Aren’t swans supposed to have a mate?” Marley asked suddenly. “I mean, don’t they get lonely when there’s just one of them?”

I slid off my stool and pulled Marley to her feet. “Well, we’ll leave you two to your dinner. We’ve got some private dessert plans,” I said with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle. “Great seeing you, Travis.”

Pulling Marley behind me, I wove my way through the high-top tables to the front door. In seconds, we were outside, and Marley breathed a sigh of relief.

“I likeyour swan?” I said when we were halfway down the block.

She covered her face with her hands. “Oh my God. I really said it? I didn’t know what to say to him! I haven’t seen him since high school graduation. He didn’t speak to me after Homecoming. After that whole broken leg thing.”

“Are you still into him?”

“No! I don’t know! I don’t think so.Ibroke up withhim, remember?”

“Yeah, and one look at him at Smitty’s, and you’re wondering if you’d be in Amie Jo’s shoes if you hadn’t dumped his ass.” I didn’t like that it annoyed me.