I Slept With My Ex's Best Friend novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Sunday

I called Jace before her car pulled away.

He picked up on the first ring.

"She threatened your mom," I said. "Tanner's mother. She sat on my couch and threatened your mom's job."

There was a long silence on the line.

"Okay," he said.

"Okay? Jace. Fifteen years."

"I'll call her."

He called me back forty minutes later.

"What did she say?" I asked.

"She said, and I quote, 'I've been doing that man's payroll since you were in diapers, I know where every body is buried, and if you let that woman's son decide your life for you I'll drive down there and smack you myself.'"

I sat down on the kitchen floor and laughed until I cried a little.

"I like your mom," I said.

"Everybody likes my mom. That's the problem. She's the only one who knows how to run that office." He paused. "Sunday's still on."

"I'm coming."

"You don't have to."

"I have to return his mini fridge."

Sunday at the Langdon house meant the Packers on the big TV and a crockpot of beer brats.

It also meant every guy who'd stood in that living room on the night of the dare.

Gretchen and I carried the mini fridge up the porch steps between us.

It was still full of Tanner's energy drinks.

We set it down in the middle of the living room, right in front of the TV, during a third down.

Twenty guys yelled at us.

"Delivery," Gretchen said. "Sign here."

Tanner was on the couch in a green jersey with Kenzie nowhere in sight.

He looked at the fridge. Then at me.

"Seriously, Linnie?"

"It was in my apartment," I said. "Gretchen needs the outlet."

Jace came in from the kitchen.

He had a beer in his hand he hadn't opened, and he set it down on the mantel.

Somebody muted the TV.

The guys had learned this week that when Jace and I were in the same room, something happened.

"Tanner," Jace said.

Tanner leaned back with his arms along the couch.

"Buddy. Grab a brat."

"I'm out."

"Out of what?"

"Your campaign. I'm not your campaign manager. I'm not making your flyers, I'm not running your phone bank, I'm not writing your town hall answers."

Jace said it the same way he said everything, even and plain.

"Find somebody else."

The room was so quiet I could hear the crockpot bubbling.

Tanner laughed.

"Over her? Come on. She's been my girlfriend for two years and yours for a week."

"Over you," Jace said.

Tanner's smile went thin.

"You know what my dad's going to do."

"He's going to pull the job."

"He's going to pull the job," Tanner agreed. "Rasmus Construction. Sixty-eight grand to start. You were going to buy your mom a new car."

"Tell him I said thanks for the offer," Jace said. "And no."

One of the guys by the TV said, "Damn," under his breath.

Tanner stood up off the couch.

He was a good three inches shorter than Jace, and he stood closer than he had to.

"And your mom?" he said quietly. "You thought about her?"

"She's thought about you," Jace said. "She says hi."

Tanner stared at him.

Then he looked at me, and for a second the campaign face slipped all the way off.

"You did this," he said.

"You did this," I said. "In this room. Last Friday. I was here."

I turned around and walked out.

Jace walked out behind me.

Gretchen stayed long enough to take one beer brat from the crockpot, because it was right there.

That night Gretchen had a twelve-hour night clinical at the hospital and left at six with her stethoscope around her neck.

"Apartment's yours," she said at the door, and winked so hard her whole face moved. "Wash the sheets. I'm serious. That's my couch too."

Jace came over at eight with a bag of groceries and made me dinner in my kitchen.

Real dinner. Chicken with lemon and some kind of potatoes he cut into tiny exact cubes.

"You cook," I said.

"My mom worked late. Somebody had to."

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