Starter Wife (The Jilted Wives Club Book 1) by Bethany Lopez (a court of thorns and roses ebook free TXT) 📕

you. He will never be happy in his life, because he’s always afraid he’s missing out on something. It sounds like he did you a favor by keeping your marriage brief. Imagine if you had to spend years trying to please a man who’s always going to be dissatisfied with his life. It’s impossible.”

I nodded because I agreed with everything Margo said and reached out to take Summer’s hand in mine.

“Maybe you should delete the app for a while, give yourself a break from it all,” I suggested.

“Yeah, maybe you guys are right. If I’m not enjoying myself, what’s the point? Other than to get out of the house and do something. But I don’t need a guy to do that … I can hang out with you guys or do some more things on my own. I’ve never been good at that, doing things by myself, but maybe it’s time.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I said, scooting closer to her in the booth and gathering her in my arms.

“Thanks,” Summer said as she wrapped her arms around me and held on tight.

“Is this a bad time?”

I looked up to see Luca standing next to the table, his eyes wary on Summers’s tear-stained face.

Twenty

Luca

I looked at the three women, who were obviously in the middle of a serious conversation and wondered if I should excuse myself to go to the bathroom or simply turn around and leave them to finish whatever I’d interrupted.

But when my gaze landed on Whitney’s face, which was alight with joy that I could only hope was from my arrival, I decided to wait and see what she wanted me to do.

“Not at all,” the woman sitting across from Whitney said. From her description of Margo being a gorgeous, dark-haired woman with a keen business sense and a no bullshit demeanor, I knew who had spoken.

I’d already met Summer, the pretty blonde currently crying in Whitney’s arms.

She blinked up at me and wiped at her eyes, while somehow beaming at me at the same time, as she eased herself back into sitting position.

“You could never interrupt,” Summer said happily, completely contradicting the sadness I’d walked in on. “We are so excited to finally spend some quality time with you.”

Margo looked less excited but nodded amicably.

“Yeah, Whit said you were coming for a drink and dessert. I hadn’t mentioned it to them yet, but there’s a great dessert bar a couple blocks away and I was thinking we could check it out,” Margo said, lowering her voice and looking around. “Not to say the desserts here wouldn’t be great, but this place is supposed to have a killer chocolate cake.”

“Ohhh, sign me up,” Summer said eagerly.

“That works for me, if it’s what you want,” I said, looking at Whitney.

She smiled prettily and nodded. “We have to pay our bill and get a couple to-go boxes and then we can head out.”

Not wanting to keep standing awkwardly while I waited, I glanced down at the seat next to Margo and gave her a questioning look.

“Oh, sorry,” she muttered, scooting over to give me some room.

Once the check was paid and the leftover food was in its containers, we set off on foot to our next destination.

As we walked, I took Whitney’s hand in mine and listened to the women share anecdotes from their week. It was nice to see Whitney in a new environment. One where she was with people she obviously enjoyed and seemed completely relaxed with. It gave me a glimpse at another side of her, one I found I enjoyed immensely.

“He totally did,” Summer was saying. “He showed up in sweatpants and a T-shirt that said, I’m with stupid … to our date!”

Their laughter drifted down the street as we walked, and I couldn’t help but smile in response.

Whitney squeezed my hand and gave me a little shoulder bump, so I looked down at her and asked, “All good?”

“Perfect,” she replied with a quirk of her lips and warmth flooded me.

I’d been pleased when she’d invited me to come along tonight. I knew how much these women meant to her and what a big step it was for her to not only open up and let me in but agree to be exclusive and start letting me be a part of her life. Not just the guy she was reluctantly spending time with anymore, but her boyfriend.

Out in public.

It feels great.

“Here we are,” Margo said, gesturing to the building, which stated Dessert and Social Bar.

I don’t know what I’d been expecting, maybe a bakery setup, or another restaurant, but when we walked into a large warehouse, I knew this was something different.

There was a full bar against the back wall, and some high-top tables scattered in that corner, but the rest of the warehouse was like a playground for adults. With ping pong tables, darts, pool tables, a section of bookshelves stocked with board games, corn hole, and even an area set up for putt putt golf, it was more than a dessert bar, it was an experience.

“Whoa, how have I never heard about this place?” Summer asked as she took it all in.

“They only opened a few weeks ago,” Margo replied. “One of the guys in my office was talking about it, because his sister is one of the owners, and I knew we needed to check it out.”

“The big Jenga is open,” Summer said before she hurried off to go claim the game.

“I guess we’re playing Jenga,” Whitney said with a laugh, before tugging on my hand and urging me through the large open space toward Summer.

The place wasn’t packed, which was a good thing, but had a pretty good turnout for a Thursday evening. I had a feeling it was the kind of place that got crazy around eleven at night, with a mix of the after-dinner crowd and the before-the-club crowd.

By the time we caught up with Summer, one of the servers in a bright-orange T-shirt was already there ready