“So…”

“Right,” I said, and took a sip of my drink, so sweet my eyes fluttered as the sugar absorbed into my teeth and bloodstream. “Anyway, Frodo was giving some guy a tattoo and that guy happened to be leaving his job in San Clemente…and get this…” I laughed. “He apparently worked in a hotel running their café and restaurant, and, for some insane reason, decided he wants to relocate and open a place here in Laguna.”

“So, you told him fifty-fifty?” he asked.

I stuck my hand into the cherries and popped one in my mouth. “We haven’t gotten that far in negotiations yet. But he did give me a key to look around the place.”

Nick leaned in on his elbows. “So, what’s the problem?”

I looked at the near empty pink and brown remnants of soda and admitted, “He reminds me of the man who took my heart and never gave it back. That right there makes me kinda hate him. But then there’s this other part of me that…. I mean, that doesn’t happen twice in a lifetime, does it? Fate…she’s kind of an asshole. Like one of those mean bitches in high school that everyone hated, but were also terrified of her and the power she wielded over them.”

“Yeah. Fate’s a real bitch,” he agreed.

“Tori got engaged,” I explained.

“Losin’ your wing-woman.”

“She’s happy, and besides, I have a boyfriend now.”

Nick raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“Shut up. So, this guy shows up to meet me in person. He’s pretty enthusiastic about this café thing, and I don’t know what came over me, but he said black, I said white, and he didn’t take my shit. I mean, I was throwing full on attitude and it just slid right off of him.”

“Were you testing him?” he asked.

I ignored his question. “You know who he is?”

“Nope.” Nick chuckled.

I popped another cherry in my mouth. “He’s Clint Eastwood. He’s all calm and cool. Eastwood-Zen, that’s what he is… and he’s hot. He’s tall, which is a plus since I’m Katherine the Giantess in heels, and, Jesus! I don’t know why I’m even stressing about this. I have a boyfriend!” I yelled.

“Sounds like you have a real predicament.”

“I want to do this café thing. The plus side, I know all my neighbors. I’ve got a support team to keep my crazy in check all around me. Tori’s house is just a flight of stairs away. The tattoo shop is next door, and those guys are all right. Dee’s at the bridal shop upstairs, and Tori’s stationery shop is next to that. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?”

“Well,” he looked at my near empty glass of cherries, “if you’re lucky, you could keep up this diet of sugar-syrup soda and let your teeth rot. That’s bound to keep any potential business and pleasure mixing at bay. I mean, I hate to break it to you, Kath, but most guys aren’t into toothless women.”

“You’ve been a tremendous help, Nick.”

“I’m a listener.” he laughed. “Not a problem solver. ‘Eastwood-Zen’…I like that.”

Yeah, I like it, too.

And that scared the fuck outta me.

JULY

Katherine

“It all started with this dress.” Tori giggled as she explained her gown to some random wedding guest. One hand brushed the cascade of bright, peachy tulle; the other hand went to the chest of her new husband, Cam.

Me?

I was proudly clad in my maid-of-honor gear: solid blush pink from the little hat thing on top of my head to the matching satin, open toe shoes. From the front, it looked like a tailored suit with a simple cap sleeve, but the back was completely open…a definite undergarment challenge to hold up the girls.

My best friend, Tori, and her soulmate, Cam, had just celebrated their “formal” wedding. They’d been married a few months back when Tori did the chick thing and freaked, certain something would go wrong. In response, Cam rallied the troops—friends and family—and within three hours of Tori’s meltdown, we were at the county clerk’s office to make it official.

“You know,” I said to one of the catering staff. “There’s nothing about the groom I don’t like. Except, he doesn’t really seem to find my suggestion that Tori and I could be sister-wives nearly as entertaining as I do.”

“Kath.” Cam’s mom giggled at my comment. I’d learned this was a woman I could be straight with. “He’s so in love with her.”

“Yep,” I agreed. “That he is.” He adored Tori, and what more could I want for her? “I love this, I love how happy they both are, but, I gotta be honest with you, Paula. Sometimes, I look at them and kinda tilt my head and make that aww sound. You know the one you use for cute babies and puppies?”

“Yes.” She laughed. “I know the very one.”

“Then other times I’m like, ‘You know what? Fuck you.’”

We both laughed at my well delivered and good intentioned observations, but there was more truth to it than I wanted to admit to Paula Muir. That kind of happiness, though it was a beautiful thing, was completely and totally unfair to the rest of humanity. Not to mention unrealistic. It gave false hope to those who would either never have it, or people like me, who’d already had it, never to experience it again.

And that sucked.

“I’ll see ya later, Paula. You know how weddings are supposed to be the place you meet your future husband?”

She nodded and sipped her glass of champagne.

“Yeah, that’s a big lie. Anyone single at this shin-dig is looking to get laid. And since I already have a…person for that, I’m gonna drink instead.”

I’d been dating Mark “Goya” Espinoza. Total pain in my ass, but damn, the man was great in bed. I didn’t invite him as my date, and this pissed him off. I’d been completely straight with him from the beginning. There was no future between us. It was fun until it wasn’t, and then…that was it.

He didn’t like that answer.

I looked at all the people, smiling, laughing, happy, and grabbed a nearly full bottle of tequila off the bar. The caterers didn’t even blink since I’d made sure they were fed and got regular smoke breaks throughout the night. I found the bride and groom and tugged on Cam’s free arm, the one that wasn’t wrapped protectively around Tori’s waist.

“Hey.” I grinned as he smiled back at me. “Can I steal you a minute?” Damn, so good looking. I wasn’t hot for my bestie’s man or anything, but there was no other way around it; the man was fine.

“Fairy,” he said quietly in Tori’s ear. “Be right back.”

Cam respected the bond Tori and I shared, and because of that, I felt…I don’t know how to explain it…almost like he was an extension of that bond. I was glad, really, because it meant I’d gained another great friend.

He followed me down their front steps and through the green gate that opened to Pacific Coast Highway. There were two businesses to our left. One was Coastal Ink, the tattoo shop. Next to that was an old office, the site of the proposed café…the one I was apparently opening with a guy named Holst.

“You okay?” Cam asked.

“Yeah,” I lied through my teeth. “Can you tell the girls I had to go? I need to spend some time with this here bottle of José, and,” I leaned in to whisper, “he likes it to be just the two of us.”

Cam studied my face then turned his attention to the empty shop. “You gonna do it?”

I let out a long, dramatic sigh. I had so much shit to think about, it wasn’t even funny, so I gave Cam the short list.

“Well, part of the reason I need some alone time with the Cuervo, I have some shit to sort out. For one thing, I have a,” I cleared my throat, “boyfriend who wants to take things to the next level.”

“His art does not make me feel happy,” Cam interrupted. “I know he said we could have a painting as a wedding gift, but honey, let your gift to us be making that offer go away,” he pleaded with a smile and a furrowed brow.