Love Next Door (Lakeside #1) by Helena Hunting

“How bad are the bathrooms?” Tawny asks.

“Bad.” Allie grimaces. “I used the bushes. It blows my mind how gross girls can be when they’re trying to hover pee. And they ran out of toilet paper already, so these will have to do.” Allie pulls out a wad of napkins pilfered from the diner and passes us each a small handful, which we tuck into our purses.

“Fair warning: I saw Tucker hanging out by the keg on my way back over here.”

“Is Sue with him?” Tawny asks.

Allie arches a brow. “What do you think?”

“She’s probably stuck at home with the baby, while he goes out, gets wasted, and hits on whoever.”

I make a disgusted sound. “Baby? I didn’t know they had a baby.” It makes what he said about me ending up under him that much worse.

Allie looks to Tawny. “How old is the baby now? Maybe a couple of months?”

“Good grief. What a dog. He hasn’t changed, has he?”

“Nope. Just a heads-up that word got back to Sue that you were talking with him downtown, and that new guy who’s living at Bee’s showed up and they got into it.”

“Of course.” I roll my eyes. “I can’t say I miss the small-town gossip. And Van didn’t get into it with Tucker.” At least not while I was there.

“Maybe they did after you left? Anyway, apparently Sue lost her shit over it, and Tucker had to sleep in his car that night,” Tawny says with a sigh.

“Wow. Tucker’s made a real mess of things, hasn’t he?”

“I sort of feel bad for Sue. I mean, I know she always had her eye on him, even when the two of you were together and solid, but he’s way worse now than he was when he was with you.” Allie gives me a sympathetic look.

“I put up with more than I should have, and it sounds like she does too.”

“At least you smartened up and got the heck out of Dodge when you had the chance. Made a clean break and all that,” Tawny offers.

“As much as it sucked when you left, I’m glad it’s not you in Sue’s position. No one should be that miserable,” Allie adds.

“Well, let’s be real, she’s probably not hanging out with the baby on her own.” Tawny glances around before she leans in closer and drops her voice. “I heard she’s been taking her car to the garage the next town over lately—Carter’s Car Repairs. You remember that place, right? Run by old man Carter?”

Allie and I both nod and mm-hmm.

“Well, apparently his son took over. Used to be the star quarterback for our rival high school team. All golden hair and blue eyes and a seriously pretty face. You remember him, right? Sterling Carter?”

“He was the only reason I bothered with the pep rallies, since our team sucked the big one,” Allie mutters.

“Right?” Tawny looks over her shoulder before she continues. “Well, there was a rumor floating around a few days ago that a tow truck was parked down the street from Sue’s house that just happened to belong to the Carters. Now, I’m not saying it’s true, but Sue and Sterling had a thing back in high school, and then when you left, she broke it off with him and tried to get with Tucker. They hooked up, but nothing came of it. Until two summers ago. They met up at one of these parties, hooked up again, and starting dating on and off. Nothing serious at first, but she kept pushing for more, and he finally asked her to move in with him. Then she got pregnant, had the baby, and now they’re both miserable.”

“I still don’t get why she’d want to be with him in the first place, especially when she knew he’d been cheating on me.” Other than the fact that she always seemed to want what I had.

“Who knows? Maybe she thought she could do what no one else could and make him be faithful to her? He was pretty broken up about it when you left, and she basically threw herself at him. I used to think maybe the cheating was because he knew you were leaving, you know? Maybe trying to prove to himself that he didn’t need you. But it just seems to be how he is. It’s pretty sad.” Allie takes a sip of her drink and makes a face while she sloshes it around, maybe to mix it up some more.

“His parents had a shitty relationship, too, so poor modeling and all that,” Tawny says. “I read an article about that. How our parents’ relationships frame our own. Makes sense that what you see is what you emulate.”

“Yeah, doesn’t excuse the serial cheating, though. And we all have the ability to break the cycle if we want to. Anyway, I feel bad for Sue, but I’m glad he’s not my problem anymore.” I hold up my glass. “To putting the past behind us.” We all clink our tumblers together, tip our heads back, and make a face on the swallow.

“Is it me, or is this getting stronger the more we drink?” I ask.

“I don’t think it’s mixed very well.”

Simultaneously, we shake our glasses, the ice clinking against the stainless steel sides, and chuckle.

“It really is good to be back, though.”

I kick at a pebble on the ground. It skips a few feet, heading toward a group of guys I used to go to high school with, one of whom is Aaron Saunders. That’s not a surprise; he always loved a good beach party. It pings off another bigger rock and bounces up, hitting a guy with his back to us in the calf.