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

the pick-up window called my name and I retrieved my hotdog and fries.

I couldn’t shake the memory of how Lisa had withdrawn from my life the last time Kyle and I had broken up, when Kyle had cheated on me. With me shouldering the blame this time, things promised to get worse. Lisa had been my first real friend but, I reminded myself, some friendships weren’t meant to last forever. People grew apart. Life took you different directions. At least that’s what the psychology books said.

I’d thought she and I would be BFFs. Forever didn’t appear to be as long as I’d imagined.

I squirted ketchup on the paper beside my hotdog and dipped a fry. If she had something to say, I’d let her say it, even as my heart hurt.

“It’s just that this complicates things,” she blurted.

I nodded.

“Who is this guy? Where did you meet him? Aren’t things moving a little fast?”

They were, but she was my friend and she deserved an answer. “I met him in a grocery store.” I ate my fry, took a sip of Coke and folded my hands on the table. “Kyle and I haven’t done more than share an occasional meal for four months. In retrospect, he bailed on me when he called off the wedding. I was just too stupid to notice.”

“He’s depressed after losing his job,” she said.

She was defending him. I’d done the same for four months, until I realized I had been alone in thinking I was still in a relationship. Lisa knew the truth as well as I did. I didn’t have to explain.

She leaned over the table and whispered. “Did this new man in your life really stay over last night? I’m your best friend. Why am I the last to hear about all this?”

This conversation wasn’t about her, and she knew it. Why did I think she was digging for information for Dylan to pass on to Kyle? I fought the urge to call her out.

“We spent a good portion of the night talking,” I said. “It’s nice not to have to walk on eggshells around someone. To be able to tell them everything and not be judged. Someone who gets me. Someone who shares himself with me until we discover we resonate on so many levels that we want to know more, to spend more time together.”

“I thought you and Kyle...”

She knew about me and Kyle, how he was always trying to rescue me from one thing or another. Her concern wasn’t for my relationship. “Kyle and I were friends. First. Always. There were a lot of things I was afraid to share with him, and he didn’t share much of himself with me. He helped me through some tough times, and I helped him through the business with his aunt—you remember, the one who tried to kill me?”

Lisa blushed.

“In the end,” I went on, “I think we both realized that wasn’t enough for a happily ever after.”

“Happily ever after is storybook stuff,” Lisa said.

“I thought so, too, until I met Ian.”

“How do you know this Ian person isn’t putting you on? He could be a con artist.”

I crossed my arms. “You really believe Kyle and I can move past this? Or is that Dylan talking?”

Tears welled in her eyes. “I don’t want things to change. I don’t want to lose my best friend.”

My throat tightened, too. “How does Kyle figure into our friendship?”

She shook her head. “I hate this.”

Proof Dylan was pressuring her. “I’d hoped you’d be happy I’ve moved on to someone who loves me for me.”

“How can he love you if he only just met you? If he’s told you he loves you already, I’m even more worried he’s taking advantage of you.”

“No, he hasn’t told me,” I said. “There are times when words aren’t necessary.”

“Every woman wants to hear those words from the man she loves, assuming you’ve fallen for him.”

Surprisingly, I didn’t need to hear words. Being with Ian felt right. Certainly, we were in lust, but the connection we’d forged went way past the physical. Unwilling to pursue the conversation at hand, I moved a different direction.

“I suppose you’ve heard we’re closing Windfall.”

“And that’s another thing,” she said, her voice breaking. “What are you going to do? How are you going to pay your mortgage? At least with Kyle there were two of you to share the bills.”

“Maybe you didn’t hear? He’s not selling his house. He has his own bills to pay, and I don’t plan to go into debt with a failing business.”

She frowned. “You never should have gone into business with Cassandra.”

Cassandra, my other real friend. Jealousy? “The shop’s failure isn’t Cassandra’s fault.”

“This feels so wrong.”

Yes, it did, but she had a husband she had to live with, and I wasn’t going to come between them. Lisa deserved to be happy, and to have the life she’d found with Dylan. Her conflict was obvious, and it tugged at my heart. She shouldn’t have to choose between me and her husband. I reached across the table and took her hand.

“We’ll always be friends,” I said. “You made my move to Hillendale so much easier, and for that I’m grateful.”

She sniffled and nodded.

I determined to change the tone of our lunch and avoid more heartburn. “How are things at the vet? You haven’t adopted any more strays, have you?”

She laughed and wiped at her eyes. “As if two giant dogs and a three-legged cat aren’t enough. If I dared to bring another animal home, Dylan would evict us all.”

I smiled. “He never would.”

Otis from the five and dime stopped by our table. “Heard you’re closing your doors,” he said to me. “Looking forward to that designer coffee. How soon before you leave?”

“Not soon enough,” someone from a nearby table muttered.

Lisa dipped her head, letting her hair fall across her face. So much for best friends forever.

Chapter 23

I shouldn’t have been surprised when Yvonne showed up at the boutique an hour later with Barry Waterman, the local