Tracy and Lily weren’t coming along for this initial encounter, and Jeannette thought that was just as well. No telling how the meeting would go.

  Still, Regan and Drake had patched up their friendship, and she’d almost achieved normalcy with Drake. She had her moments of embarrassment and regret, and she’d bet he did, too, but mostly they’d returned to the easy banter they used to enjoy.

  That left Regan, the injured party. Seven months ago he hadn’t given her the chance to apologize, or even to talk about what had happened. He’d left Virginia as if his tail had caught fire. She couldn’t blame him.

  But Drake said Regan was no longer bitter or angry, and she hoped to hell that was true. She was about to find out. She heard Drake’s SUV pulling up, and she took a deep breath.

  The sound of their laughter as they joked with each other outside made her smile. She used to love listening to them kid around. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed that until now.

  One of them rapped on the door, and she hurried over to open it. For one awful moment, they all stood and stared at each other. Then Regan stepped forward and gathered her into his arms. “It’s good to see you.” His voice was gruff with emotion as he gave her a tight hug.

  “Same here.” Relief brought tears to her eyes, but she blinked them away. Crying would make them all uncomfortable. As she and Regan moved apart, she took a quick survey of her ex and smiled. “You look good. Happy.”

  “I am.”

  She could see the joy shining in his eyes. “I’m so glad, Regan. So glad for you.”

  “Yeah, yeah, we’re all glad,” Drake said. “Life’s a bowl of cherries, but let’s don’t be standin’ in the door and lettin’ in flies.” He shooed them both inside. “We need to pop the top on some beers and get this party started.”

  She laughed. “I found some Cheetos at the Shoshone General Store.” Back in college that had been their favorite snack food.

  “Perfect.” Regan grinned at her. “Can’t beat Cheetos and beer.”

  And good friends. But she didn’t say that. Back in the day, they never would have indulged in sentimentality. She wasn’t about to screw up their reunion with embarrassing sappiness. Yet this was her chance to apologize, and she wasn’t going to chicken out on that. “Regan, please let me say that I am so—”

  “I know you are.” His gaze was filled with warmth and understanding. “Me, too. I wasn’t the right guy for you.”

  Her smile trembled. “I don’t know if there is one.”

  “Sure there is. Just keep looking.”

  “And we’ll help scout him out for you.” Drake passed around the beer as Jeannette dumped Cheetos into a bowl. “In the meantime, here’s to the Awesome Three from U of V.”

  Bottles clinked and they took hefty swallows of their beer, and then spread out in the tiny living room, like old times. They talked about movies and politics, about what books were worth reading and what TV shows should be canceled for their sheer stupidity.

  Jeannette soaked up the atmosphere of good cheer and knew that yes, everything would be okay. Their friendship would survive. As for her love life, she didn’t much care about that right now. She had her friends back, and that was more than enough.

  * * * * *

  ISBN-13: 9780369751119

  Riding Hard

  First published in 2014. This edition published in 2024.

  Copyright © 2024 by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher.

  Without limiting the author’s and publisher’s exclusive rights, any unauthorized use of this publication to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is expressly prohibited.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  ® and ™ are trademarks of Harlequin Enterprises ULC.

  Harlequin Enterprises ULC

  22 Adelaide St. West, 41st Floor

  Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3, Canada

  www.Harlequin.com

 

 

  Vicki Lewis Thompson, Riding Hard

 

 

  Thank you for reading books on GrayCity.Net
Share this book with friends