Choosing the Right Man - Nice Girl to Love, Vol 3 (Can't Resist #3)(14)

“Because by then, we’d all discovered that he wasn’t cheating on you. But he was stealing your panties along with a bunch of other girls’ panties in his dorm...and wearing them.”

Abby covered her face in embarrassment. “Oh god, I’d completely blocked that part out.” She peeked through her fingers as she remembered the rest of the story. “I called Beth to tell her about the whole thing and she must have showed up two minutes later, nine-months pregnant mind you, to drag me back over to your house with threats that we had to make-up or else.”

She chuckled over the reminder. “That was one hardcore intervention, too. She locked us in that spare room with no food or water or anything.”

“Yep.” Brian smiled. “She really wanted us to stop fighting because she was nearing the end of her third trimester and evidently, I was irritating the living daylights out of her.”

“Okay,” she pressed, utterly curious, “so now that it’s been more than ten years, tell me the truth, where did you find those panties and why didn’t you tell me about it back then?”

He sighed. “Because you’d have gotten legitimately pissed at me if I told you the whole story.” Sulking a bit, he added, “I don’t come across looking so hot in this particular story. But keep in mind, I was just trying to protect you. That guy really was a creep. Even before the panty thing, he was a major * that I really didn’t think you should be wasting your time on.”

At the time, she hadn’t seen it, but afterward, yes, she’d have concurred quite adamantly with that assessment. Still. Eyes narrowed in suspicion, she didn’t relent, “What exactly did you have planned out?”

Looking as though he was fighting a losing battle with laughing his ass off, he replied quickly, “I was just going to put a little itching powder in his jock strap on the day of your date with him so if you ended up at his place that night, he’d have a full-blown rash that would look like…you know.” Another stifled chuckle.

She gaped at him. “That’s horrible!”

“I was only going to put a tiny amount,” he defended weakly. “Just enough to turn you off of him so you wouldn’t sleep with him. But when I went through his gym bag to do it, that’s when I found that pair of panties. And since Beth said you and he hadn’t done anything yet, I knew it couldn’t have been yours.”

“And you couldn’t tell me where you found the panties without revealing your awful plan to begin with.” Now it all made sense.

“I’m sorry we fought, honey. But I’m not sorry about trying to keep you from sleeping with him. Can you imagine if you had?”

Abby shuddered.

“So what do you say…water under the bridge?” he asked hopefully.

She held back her smile. Well this was an interesting development. “I don’t know.” She sighed dramatically. “That was pretty invasive what you were planning on doing... And then you lied to me just to maintain your cover for all these years…”

One corner of his mouth tipped up in admiration. “Alright, what’s this going to cost me?”

She leaned forward in full-negotiation stance. “I want to hear some of the poker stories you and your buddies used to clam up over as soon as Beth and I would walk into the room.”

His brows drew together sharply. “The guys would kill me.”

“How would they ever find out? You did manage to keep the jockstrap thing a secret for a decade,” she reminded him, smiling as she made herself comfortable on the couch. She grabbed a throw pillow and rested her arms on it. “Okay, start talking.”

After a few dozen of the most unbelievable tales she’d ever heard, Abby was still holding her stomach and laughing so hard she was seeing stars.

No wonder the guys never wanted her and Beth to hear about these.

Every time she tried to catch her breath another image would pop in her head and cause another fit of endless giggles.

“Hey guys.” Skylar scuffle-shuffled out to the living room, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. “What’re you two cracking up about? I could hear you two from my room.”

Abby clapped a hand over her mouth but couldn’t smother her humor completely.

“I’m sorry munchkin,” chuckled Brian. “Did we wake you?”

She yawned. “No, I was having weird dreams all night. So I’ve been up for a while.”

A while? Peering over at the clock, Abby sat up, startled. “Brian, it’s 4:30 in the morning. We’ve been talking all night.”

“Another new record.” Grinning, he got one of his great-idea faces and stood to gather their jackets. “Since we’re all awake, what do think about having a 5 am meeting of your little donut club?”

Skylar perked up. “Really? A Krispy Kreme run?”

A warm nostalgic blanket enfolded Abby’s memories. Whenever Skylar hadn’t been able to sleep when she was a baby, Abby would take her to watch the donuts come out of the big conveyer belt machine at their local Krispy Kreme. For some reason, watching those huge machines used to work like a charm and lull her to sleep. Of course, as Skylar became older, the excursions became more about the donuts, but the fun times they’d have remained the same; it used to be one of their favorite ways to spend time together. Only, they’d stopped going after Beth passed away, and hadn’t been back since.