Interrupted Magic by Karla Brandenburg (best reads of all time .TXT) 📕

“You seem different.”

“Different how?” I opened the corner of the package of fenugreek and sniffed—maple, just like Ian said. No, I couldn’t blame what happened on the herbs.

“I know Kyle didn’t sleep here last night. I overheard him say the two of you hadn’t ‘slept together’ slept together in months. Then I heard him say you were pressuring him to shit or get off the pot, in a manner of speaking, and he wasn’t ready to do that.” She shrugged. “That’s when I figured I’d better come get the scoop.”

“You mean that’s when they left,” I guessed.

“Well, that, too.”

I continued to the dining table and pulled out a chair. “Do you want something to drink? Something to eat?”

“I vote we order a pizza and mix some margaritas. Seems like we need a girls’ night since the boys are having a night out.” She let out a gasp. “Oh, wait. Not margaritas. They’ll make me too sleepy. Do you have Coke?”

“I do. You order the pizza, I’ll get the drinks.”

Five minutes later, I handed her a can of Coke and a glass of ice.

“Okay,” Lisa started. “Let’s start with Kyle and his house. He says he doesn’t think he’s going to sell.”

I nodded.

“What happened?”

“I think you know what happened. He’s lost his place in this world, and if he isn’t in control, no one is.” I frowned.

“He’ll get over it.”

“Maybe, but I won’t. If this is a glimpse of a future with him, I’m out,” I said. “You should know how he is better than anyone. Didn’t you tell me your sister broke up with him in high school because he was so controlling?”

“He’s different now. He’s changed,” Lisa said. “The two of you just work.”

“Apparently not. Now that he isn’t on the force, he’s seems to think I don’t know how to do the most simple tasks, and we can’t get married unless it’s on his terms. This isn’t what I want, Lisa.”

She thumbed her glass. “Are you two breaking up?”

I paused to consider. “Pretty sure we broke up when he called off the wedding.” And after my afternoon with Ian, I’d discovered a relationship level I didn’t know existed. Infatuation?

“I don’t believe it,” Lisa said. She pushed out of her chair and marched up the stairs.

“Where are you going?”

“I want to see for myself that he’s moved out, that his clothes are gone,” she called down.

Ash stalked across the living from the workroom, stretched her front legs, and jumped into my lap. I stroked her fur, trying to make sense of today. The gentle rumbling of her purr did its thing, calming my mind.

I still felt like I’d cheated on Kyle.

Lisa descended the staircase more slowly, and when she came around the wall that separated the stairs from the living room, her eyes were wide. “I thought you were kidding.”

“His clothes are gone?” I asked.

“You didn’t know?”

Stupid of me not to have noticed. “I didn’t, but I guessed as much. He’s been withdrawing for months. He hasn’t slept here since he lost his job.” Did that give me permission to sleep with someone else? “He didn’t want to take a chance on an unwanted pregnancy since we couldn’t afford a baby right now.” Except there were other ways to avoid getting pregnant, not to mention the fact Nora believed I was sterile.

Ian hadn’t used protection.

My pulse raced. I hadn’t even thought about protection. The past two years without hadn’t yielded even a late period. Contraception hadn’t been an issue. A moment of outrage passed over me. What kind of man had unprotected sex with a stranger? What about disease? I didn’t know anything about Ian.

I hadn’t asked about protection either. Outrage was replaced by lust. Our chemistry was off the charts, as proven by our inability to control ourselves, and by our carelessness.

I knew he possessed the same hidden skills I did.

Why had it taken a traveling spell to acknowledge Kyle and I had reached the end of our relationship?

Lisa sat at the table and literally bounced in her seat, her eyes sparkling. “Speaking of which...”

I looked at her, at her glass of Coke—no margaritas. “You’re pregnant?”

She nodded, a huge grin on her face.

I hugged her. “Congratulations. Dylan must be over the moon.” I put a hand on my abdomen, thinking of all the times I’d thought about having a child with Kyle, something that obviously wasn’t meant to happen.

Lisa took my hand and I pulled away. “What’s going on with you?” she asked.

If I told Lisa about Ian, she’d tell Dylan, and Dylan would tell Kyle. Even if my relationship with Kyle was over, he didn’t need to find out about my moment of weakness.

“Brynn?”

Moment of weakness. The fenugreek had to be responsible. Ian probably wouldn’t even remember me away from its influence.

I remembered him. He’d said he wanted me again, and damn if I didn’t still want him.

“Earth to Brynn?” Lisa waved a hand in front of my face.

I blinked back to the conversation. “Kyle and I have one last thing to take care of, and then we’ll be moving on. Separately.”

“As in breaking up?”

“Lisa,” I groaned with exasperation. “Didn’t you say his clothes are gone? And he’s not selling his house. What will it take to convince you he and I don’t want the same things anymore?”

“This is just wrong,” Lisa said. “We’re family, the whole group of us.”

Tears welled in my eyes. I couldn’t argue. Before we’d become a couple, Kyle and I had been friends, and yet I’d known even then our relationship was more about being comfortable together than being in love. His friends had taken me in as an extension of him.

Romantic love was an ideal. I was a realist.

Nora and Fletcher were in love. Romantic love. An example of what I could have with Ian.

Ian? That was lust. A chemical reaction.

“Brynn, what is going on? I can see you worrying something in your head,” Lisa said. “Who are you going to talk to if not your