Room for You

Page 39

“What? No. No way,” I argued. “I just want to be blissfully unaware about the whole thing. I don’t want to know a thing about her, or her and Brody.”
“Oh yeah, blissfully unaware got you real far last time, didn’t it?”
Alexa’s words stung, but she was right. My relationship with Zach was filled with all shapes and sizes of red flags, but I put my blinders on and pushed through, determined to mold him into the family man I wanted and the dad the girls deserved.
“We just won’t tell you what we find, okay?” Lauren smiled at me, pulling her iPad out of her bag as Alexa scooted around to her side of the table with a wicked grin on her face.
“You’re probably not going to be able to find anything. I know nothing about her but her first name.” I folded my arms on the kitchen table and cradled my head in them. “I’m just going to nap here while you guys waste your time.”
“Found her!” Alexa exclaimed.
My head snapped up, and my pulse took off. “You did??”
She peered at me from the corner of her narrowed eye and smirked. “Nope, but nice to know you’re really interested.”
“Okay, what is Brody’s agent’s name?” Lauren had her game face on.
“Andy … Andy Shaw.”
“Let’s see if we can find his bitchy wife’s Facebook page and go from there.” Her eyes lit up as she typed away.
“Boom!” Alexa threw her hands up in the air in celebration. “There she is—at least I think that’s her. Fake boobs, fake hair and a picture of herself in a bikini as her profile pic. Shocker.”
“Is this her, Kacie?” Lauren turned the screen just enough for me to see Blaire’s obnoxious sneer looking back at me, taunting me. I really wish I had that night to do over again. I would’ve reacted so differently.
“Yep, that’s her.”
“Score!” Alexa said proudly, high-fiving Lauren. I just rolled my eyes. “Now let’s hope her friend’s list isn’t private … crap! It is.”
“Wait,” Lauren said, “she’s too vain to have her profile pics private. Let’s see if anyone named Kendall has commented on any of them.”
“You two need help, you know that?” I teased, secretly excited that they were on the trail of something. I didn’t want to know anything about them being together, but the morbid, overly obsessed girl side of me was dying to know what she looked like. Then I would hate myself for looking and wish that I could unsee it. That’s how my world worked.
“Look, look!” Alexa pointed at the screen and jumped up and down happily. “A Kendall liked that pic of her and … Andy, I’m assuming. He’s cute too! Why is he with her?”
“Gawk at Andy later, let’s check this chick out.” Lauren’s tongue ran along her lips as she concentrated, diving deep into her investigation.
“What are you looking up now?” I tried to sound nonchalant.
“I clicked on her page, but it’s private. I’m gonna Google her name and see what I come up with,” Lauren said. “Kendall Bauer … okay, Google, come to Mama.”
“Whoa.” They both said in unison, their eyes fixated on whatever came up.
“What?” Tension rose in my chest.
Please let her have three eyes … and green teeth … and huge, hairy moles all over her face.
“Nothing, she’s um … okay looking,” Alexa stuttered while Lauren sat wide-eyed, staring at their find.
We had been best friends for almost a decade. I could tell the very second Alexa was lying about something, and if that wasn’t enough, Lauren’s face was a dead giveaway. I jumped up from my chair and scrambled up behind them.
“That’s her?”
On the screen was one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen in my whole, entire life. She was crawling on the sand, her ultra-dark brown hair falling down around her face, strands of it plastered to her perfect cheekbones. Her wild eyes were an exotic shade of blue with a purple hue to them, while her pouty lips seduced the camera. A blue bikini swirled around her amazing body, accentuating every asset.
“What is this site?” I asked, scanning the screen for answers. “Oh my God, she’s a swimsuit model?”
“Wait, just hold on a sec. This is the first link that came up,” Lauren said, hitting the back button. “This might not be the Kendall that he was seeing. We need to look more.”
Right under her modeling website was a link to a news article. Lauren clicked on it and within seconds, the caption screamed at me.
AMERICA’S NEWEST COUPLE? SUPERMODEL AND HOCKEY SENSATION SEEN OUT FOR THE SECOND TIME IN A MONTH.
My heart sank when I saw the picture under the caption. Kendall and Brody were sitting together at a baseball game, a month ago, exactly two weeks before we met. A hunter green baseball cap that I’d become very familiar with the last couple weeks was perched comfortably on top of her head. They were laughing, sharing a soft pretzel. They weren’t overly affectionate to each other, but now I would never get the image of her wearing his hat and them having fun together out of my head. This was exactly why I didn’t want to look her up in the first place.
“Okay, I’m done. Can we please be done now?” I blurted out in frustration, spinning on my heels and marching down the hall to my room. I may have been a twenty-four-year-old mother of two, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t entitled to a hissy fit every now and then, and now was that time.
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Hey man, I’ve been meaning to call you,” I said into the phone.
Andy and I hadn’t talked in over a week since I told his wife off and walked out of their house. I definitely didn’t want to have this conversation while I walked up and down the aisles of the grocery store, but I didn’t want to put it off any longer either.
“I know, I should’ve called you too. This week is kicking my ass.” Andy sighed on the other end of the line. “Listen, Brody, I’m so sorry for Blaire. She clearly had way too much to drink and acted like a total bitch—not that the alcohol was all to blame.”
“It’s over, no big deal,” I said, wanting to put this behind us.
Listening to my best friend apologize and make up lame excuses for his wife’s ridiculous behavior made me uncomfortable, but he had to know I was serious about what I said.
“I meant that last part though about our relationship. I’m hoping to keep Kacie around for a long time, and if Blaire ever treats her like that again, our contract will take the hit.”
Froot Loops or Cap’n Crunch? Fuck it, I’ll get both.
“I know. I reamed her ass when you guys left, not about the contract though, more about being a decent human being. I hope it worked, I don’t know.”
He sounded defeated and for a moment, I pitied him, but he made the choice to marry her. She acted the same way in college, better than everyone, no filter, didn’t care how she treated people … if I were Andy, I would have transferred schools and gotten as far away from her as possible.
“I hope so too.”
“Listen, the other reason I’m calling … I have to make our reservations for that dinner in two weeks.” His tone instantly switched to all business; he was good at that. “You’re in for sure, right? You better be.”