Now that she was home, I was helping her with everything possible, trying to enjoy spending time with her and the baby before I had to fly home. I wasn’t sure when the next time we’d get to see each other would be, but I’d bet it would be months. A lot of months.

“Enough about me, how’s everything with you?” Van whispered from her spot a couple of feet away.

I crossed one ankle over the other and kept my gaze on the rerun we were watching of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. “Good. Busy. The usual.”

“You’re a liar,” she muttered, rolling her head to the side to look at me since she couldn’t roll on to her hip to do it.

“No I’m not.”

“You’re rubbing your hand on your leg. You know I know you’re full of shit when you do that.”

My hand was frozen on my leg. Damn it! I hadn’t even realized I was doing it.

“Tell me,” my best friend whispered. “I know something’s up.”

Was something up?

Yeah, it was. Just an hour ago, my phone had rung, on the screen Dallas’s name had showed up.

The day before, he’d called me, too.

And the day before that.

I just hadn’t answered any of his calls. Or called him back. He hadn’t left voice mails, and honestly, it was a relief. I was being a wuss.

Did I know I was being immature? Yes, but every time I saw his name, I couldn’t help but think about what I had said to him in the restroom after the Christy incident.

I could say it: my feelings were still a little raw at her words. Then I felt dumb for opening my fat mouth and telling Dallas his wife was an idiot and hinting that I liked him. I felt stupid, and I hated feeling stupid unless I was doing it on purpose.

I also hated to admit feeling that way, but who else could I tell if I couldn’t tell Vanessa?

“I did something stupid,” I told her.

She went “I knew it!” before asking, “What’s new?”

“Shut up.” I reached over to poke her in the forehead. “Let me make a long story short. There’s this guy—this man, really—”

The pillow hit me in the face so fast I didn’t get a chance to dodge out of the way, and by some miracle managed to catch it before it hit the baby and woke him up. “What the hell, Van? You trying to wake him?”

“He sleeps like his dad. He’s fine. There’s a guy you didn’t tell me about?”

If this wasn’t the same person who I used to text STARTED MY PERIOD. PRAISE JESUS to, I would tell her that she didn’t need to be all in my business. But she was. I didn’t feel bad about not telling her everything because this hypocrite hadn’t always told me juicy gossip the moment it happened in her love life. She seemed to think I had a big mouth.

And she would be right because I did.

“It’s nothing, really,” I hissed over at her, eyeing Sammy to make sure he hadn’t woken up. “I mean, it shouldn’t be anything. He’s married—”

“Goddammit, Diana—”

“He’s separated. Jesus. Calm down. You know I wouldn’t mess around with a married man. He’s separated from his wife and has been for a while, either way, there’s nothing going on between us. He’s Ginny’s cousin and Josh’s coach. He’s really nice to me and the boys because his mom was a single mom….”

“But you like him.”

I sighed. “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone more honorable in my life, Vanny. I don’t want to like him. I have to tell myself all the time that he’s married, and he takes that shit seriously. When we first met, he thought I was trying to flirt with him and he got all weird and defensive on me until I told him I wasn’t, but the more I’ve gotten to know him… the more I like him.” I listed off all the things he’d helped me with, except Anita coming over. “And you don’t even know how hot he is in his own way. The first few times I saw him, I thought his face was nothing to write home about, but he is. He really is.” Unfortunately.

“So?”

I sighed. “So, you bitch, besides the fact that he isn’t single and that I know better, we became sort of friends. And I started to trust him.” This was the painful part. “And one day at Josh’s game, the day I left to come see you, that mom I got into an argument with a while back started saying some really mean shit to me, and I just broke down. I didn’t tell her anything back for once in my life. I cried and he gave me a hug to make me feel better, and I basically told him I liked him a lot and that his wife must have brain damage for not being with him.”

I paused. “And I live across the street from him.”

Vanessa’s silence didn’t unnerve me. She was either thinking about what to say, or knowing her, counting to ten multiple times. Finally, she went with, “As soon as I’m not dying, I can fly to Austin and do to that mom what we did to your boyfriend junior year.”

I had to throw my hand over my mouth so I wouldn’t bark out a laugh, remembering exactly what she was talking about. “He deserved that potato in his tail pipe.”

“You’re damn right he did,” she agreed. “We’ll do it to that lady this time.”

I grinned and she grinned back, looking so tired but just as pretty as always, even with her six-inch roots and the brassy orange left over from her last teal dye job that had faded over time. I needed to find her a hair stylist close by, and soon.