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Must be nice The sarcastic thought remained safely in her head She wasn’t jealous of her friends, but ouldn’t love to have a gourmet buffet breakfast set out for the sandwich she’d eaten at the diner still sat in her stomach

“You don’t knohat you’re ave Nancy her blueberry-leolden brown muffin

Across the table from her, Charlie rolled her eyes in Lauren’s direction

“I see so Kevin’s house, the stress in her stomach lessened

“If anything, it has gotten worse since Ma started sending hioods” Charlie winked in her direction “I’”

“I told you, Charlie That was only one of the reasons” Jake popped the rest of his muffin in his mouth

In response, Charlie punched hi on the floor tonight”

Lauren sipped her tea and struggled to ignore the envy growing inside her From the outside at least, Jake and Charlie had the perfect e They teased each other, but at the same time showed affection for each other They appeared to be friends, partners, and lovers all rolled into one Sara and Christopher did as well That type of relationship hat she’d always thought she wanted

What Kevin offered her would be so much different Could she live with that? If she married him, the world would be at her feet As his wife, she could obtain so e of Nate sneaked its way into her head As soon as it did, a collage of eht not include love, at least not in the beginning, but that also meant he could never break her heart Unlike someone else Nate had the ability to not only break her heart but to crush it into a fine dust

“Lauren,” Callie said with surprise fro?”

She studied her friend as Dylan pulled out a chair for her While it could have been the lighting in the room, Callie appeared pale and tired “I need to talk to you I didn’t consider that you ht have company” In the past whenever they needed each other, there had been no need to call first Sos “But it can wait”

“They’re fao upstairs” Callie stood again and grabbed a cup of tea fro?” she asked when Lauren remained in her seat

“Really, Callie it can—”

“No, it can’t You wouldn’t have driven out here if it could wait”

Lauren didn’t bother with an argued her tea and followed Callie up the wide central staircase to her and Dylan’s suite

“Okay now, out with it, Lauren” Callie didn’t waste any time once they sat down “What’s the matter?”

“Kevin askedthe words aloudin her pocket, she had almost convinced herself she’d dreamed it all up “And I kissed Nate” She rushed out the second sentence

Callie’s eyes grew large “Wow! That’s great” She leaned closer as if to give Lauren a hug but then stopped “Wait, what? You kissed Nate? When?”

“Twice actually” Lauren stared down at her hands She hadn’t intended to tell anyone that Not even Callie

Callie nibbled her botto Nate?”

She had dated a lot while in college and a fair amount since then, but she’d never cheated on a boyfriend The way Callie said it, though, sounded as if she’d done just that “I’ht and again the other day That’s it”

“He spent the night?” Callie’s voice rose a few more octaves

Lauren griotten Callie didn’t know all the details about the night her car broke down “The night ot to erous for him to leave, so he slept in the spare bedroom”

“Okay,” Callie said, dragging out the words “And you kissed him?”

“It just happened One second ere arguing and the next kissing” She couldn’t put all the blame on him Yeah, he’d made the first move, but she’d reciprocated

“What about the second time?”