Her Billionaires(24)

It had been one cell that mutated and mutated and mutated until finally it had taken over her body, the lymphoma wasting her away and neither of them had gotten over her death from eighteen months ago. In some ways Mike had gotten over Jill even faster than Dylan, though Dylan had been the first to go out and find somebody to sleep with. Mike hadn’t gone out and broken that physical barrier yet, replacing the memory of Jill’s body with someone else’s— he just hadn’t. Couldn’t.#p#分页标题#e#

Eighteen months, though. It had been a long dry spell and he was getting frustrated. Now he finally felt emotionally ready to at least give this a try, and he was more than physically ready. Who knew what the hike would bring? All he knew was that he had to try, and he had to try on his own. He couldn’t be the tag along with Dylan. That had complicated their relationship with Jill for far too long. It wasn’t until it was too late that Mike realized that it actually hadn’t mattered. He had loved Jill. Jill had loved him and they both loved Dylan. And the three of them had made it work, somehow, in their own crazy way.

Now the question was, could the three of them— this time with Laura— make it work? He was getting ahead of himself. All that mattered was having one hike with the woman. He just needed to see if this could be his future—their future.



She had never gone on a date like this—hiking? Meeting Dylan last night had been a very public affair, even if it ended in the very private way. She thought about it and realized that she needed to call in some reinforcements, so she texted Josie:

Hey, Josie, I have a date tonight. Can you help me?

Josie texted back:

Oh, cool, the firefighter? Awesome.

Laura winced and answered:

Well, no, not the firefighter. Someone different.

What?

Yeah, it turns out I’m popular on that online dating site.

Josie texted:

Hold on, I’m five minutes away from your house—why didn’t you tell me earlier? Thought you were late for work.

I am, but who cares. You have time?

There is no way you can have that kind of date like last night and now a new date and not give me the juicy details before work.

Laura walked over to the coffee maker, put the basket in, dumped in some grounds and started what she knew was going to be one of many cups of coffee today. As promised, Josie arrived within five minutes, barreling through the front door and plopping down her suitcase-sized purse on the kitchen table, eyes ablaze with curiosity.

“You slut!” Josie said it with a tone of admiration, not condemnation, and the expression on her face was so comical it made Laura burst into laughter.

“Well, thank you, I guess.”

“No, no, I just mean—damn. So, how does this work? What the hell happened with the firefighter?”

“He’s married. Or has a girlfriend.” Josie’s face fell, shifting from eager curiosity to self-righteous anger on Laura’s behalf. What a great friend. Laura almost laughed at how bulldoggish Josie looked.

“How do you know?”

“Because I woke up in his bed at three in the morning and there were pictures of her everywhere. It wasn’t hard to figure out.”

“Maybe it was his sister?” Josie asked, her voice going up high, as if hopeful and as if there was a snowball’s chance in hell it was true.

“In a bikini at the beach? Being kissed by him? Uh, no. Unless she’s Angelina Jolie and he routinely tongue-kisses his sister—”

“OK, ewww. Point taken. So the guy is a slimeball and took you home while his girlfriend’s out of town. Fucker.” She rubbed Laura’s shoulder. “How did you handle it?”

“I woke up, saw the pictures, freaked out on the inside but stayed quiet, got dressed and almost cried in the cab.” Laura gulped a hot mouthful of coffee down.

“So you sneak home after ditching a guy in his bed, after sleeping with him within what? Three hours, four—OK, four hours of knowing him. You find out he has a girlfriend, with pictures of her plastered all over his room, so you decide you’re going to come home and write him off and...now you have a date with another guy?” Josie’s expression was, to say the least, comical. It was like a graphic of a “what the fuck” emoticon.

Only in real life.

“It is pretty freaking amazing,” Laura agreed, nodding absentmindedly as she added two spoons of sugar to her coffee. She hadn’t consumed coffee with sugar since tenth grade. Since returning home from her date, though, she’d been doing a lot of out-of-character things, including dating two men on the same day.

“Spill it.”

“I woke up, was about to shower, and this guy IM’d me on the dating site. I had just blocked Dylan, actually, and made sure he wasn’t in my ‘Favorites’ anymore. So then Mike—”