One Wild Wedding Night_ Three-Way - Leslie Kelly [2]
A few months ago, when Mia was busting the chops of every pimp, druggie and pusher in Pittsburgh , she wouldn’t have cared about something like rudeness. But she was back home now. All the niceties she’d let slide in her drive to succeed were oozing their way back into her life, whether she wanted them to or not.
Along with them had come regrets. There’d been moments when she’d wondered if she’d done the right thing in coming back. Maybe more than a few moments…especially this week. Reaching the date on which she’d pinned a lot of hopes and built a lot of sensual fantasies—and spending it alone—had been more painful than she’d anticipated.
She still couldn’t believe she’d stood Brandon Young up on the night they were supposed to become intimate in every way.
Don’t think about him. Fortunately, Gloria jabbered throughout the ride, so Mia couldn’t think about anything but how badly she wished she’d brought her drink from the bar. Ten bucks a shot or not, Mia was breaking into the minibar in her room the minute she got there.
Inside the hotel, Vanessa asked, “Want to hit the lounge?”
“I can’t,” Gloria said. “Tony and the brats are waiting.”
Mia made a snarky comment and got a snarky comeback. Typical sister stuff, part of their MO after all these years. Despite that, she knew her sister didn’t mean the word brats. Gloria’s adoration was plain; she was a born mother.
Mia couldn’t even imagine that. It was hard enough to do something as girlie as a girls’ night out. Though, she had to admit, tonight had been fun. But it hadn’t come naturally. She was exhausted from the effort to keep up with the conversations about sex, relationships and the three M’s: men, makeup and marriage. None of which she currently had in her life.
So, exhausted, she refused Vanessa’s offer. “But let’s meet for breakfast in the morning,” she said before heading for the other tower of the high-rise hotel. She just couldn’t socialize anymore. Weddings might bring out the jolly side of most women.
But Mia wasn’t most women.
She could have been. Could maybe even have had those things the other women had been talking about all evening. She’d come close to having them.
Six weeks ago she’d been involved with a great guy who’d made her totally happy. They’d planned to take their relationship to the next level this week, after he’d returned from a long overseas trip. Then, on their last day together, he’d told her he was falling in love with her.
Maybe that’s why she’d left.
Because Brandon Young had been too nice, too boy next door, too laid-back and thoughtful and wonderful. An easygoing software designer, he was liked by everybody.
And Mia was a cold, brass-balled bitch. Hadn’t everyone—her boss, defense attorneys, even the Pittsburgh media—said it?
As had her one serious lover. The only man she’d ever lived with, a colleague from the D.A.’s office, had accused her of having a heart of ice as he’d walked out the door.
Mia hadn’t opened herself up to another man again…not until Brandon had caught her off guard with his warmth and his self-deprecating charm. “You did the right thing ending things with him,” she reminded herself as she got on the elevator.
Maybe if she hadn’t been falling in love with him, too, she could have been ruthless enough to take what she could get. But she had been falling and falling hard. So she’d done the right thing—for him—and ended it before he got hurt.
The good intentions didn’t make her feel any less a witch for leaving town with nothing but a message on his machine while Brandon was out of the country. She could have at least called to make sure he got back okay and to wish him well.
She did wish him well. With someone…nice. Someone unassuming, gentle and kind. Someone with a big heart. Someone loving and maternal. Someone who was everything Mia was not.
That she already hated that unknown someone for