Free Collide by Juliana Stone

“In
front of your father and your sisters including the crazy one, who,
I would like to add was higher than a kite.”
    “That’s not true.”
    Both Gerald and Bobbi glanced toward the
stairs. Betty stepped off the last one and—thank god—was
respectfully covered up in a pair of sweat pants and a tank
top.
    “I wasn’t flying until much later,” Betty
continued with a wink before disappearing down the hall toward the
kitchen.
    Gerald cleared his throat and nailed Bobbi
with a dark look. “The point is I was there. Waiting for you
because I wanted to marry you and where were you?”
    His voice rose and Bobbi winced.
    “You were in a bar three counties over with
Shane fucking Gallagher.” He stepped inside the house and she moved
back. “You spent the night,” he ground out, “Our wedding night with
that loser.”
    His profanity bothered her and yet the thing
that twisted inside her was more to do with his attitude toward
Shane.
    “Shane isn’t a loser,” she blurted out.
    Gerald looked like he was going to blow his
top and wisely, Bobbi realized now was not the time to defend her
ex-boyfriend.
    “I’m sorry,” she whispered instead. There was
no use denying anything. The entire town knew what had happened
that night. Hell, Mrs. Beals, Shane’s neighbor, had watched her
leave his home clad in only a T-Shirt, clutching her ruined wedding
dress to her chest. That alone was as good as taking out an ad in
the freaking newspaper.
    “I didn’t sleep with him, Gerald.”
    “Not that I believe you, but even if I did it
doesn’t matter because I don’t care. You could have spent the
entire night engaging in all sorts of devious activities with
that…that criminal, but I don’t care. Not anymore.”
    His words were like stones. They fell fast
and hard and Bobbi stood before him, smoothing invisible wrinkles
in her dress pants over her hips as her mind turned in circles,
looking for a way to salvage things.
    “I’d like my ring back,” he said with his
hand held out. “It belongs in my family.”
    “Oh,” Bobbi managed as she pulled it off her
finger. “Of course.”
    Gerald slipped the ring into his pocket and
stepped outside. He paused for a moment, before leaving. “I’m sure
you understand that I need to replace you at the firm. So don’t
bother showing up for work tomorrow.”
    And then he was gone.
    Bobbi wasn’t sure how long she stared at the
closed door but it was long enough for Betty to fix herself a
peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Her sister ate it a few inches
away and when Bobbi glanced at her, for a moment she thought she
saw something other than the snotty,
I-don’t-give-a-shit-about-anything look in her eyes.
    If it was there, it was gone just as fast.
Betty stuffed the last bit of bread into her mouth and spoke,
barely managing to get the words out.
    “Wow, dumped and fired in one shot. Bet you
didn’t see that one coming.”

Chapter Eight
     
     
    By Friday, panic set in.
    It was a full-on, paralyzing kind of panic.
The kind that held you frozen in place. The kind that kept you in
the shadows and made you forget things. Important things. Like
eating. Or sleeping. Or bathing.
    She’d been fired. She’d been dumped. She had
nothing. She was twenty-five years old and her life was shit.
    Bobbi shuddered as she drew a green and black
plaid blanket up over her hips and stared out the window into the
early evening gloom. She was in the family room and a fire burned
in the stone hearth, but she just couldn’t get warm. It was just
past five and Gramps was in the kitchen. He’d whipped up a large
pot of chili and though she was sure the aroma was mouth-watering,
it did nothing for Bobbi.
    She was too depressed to eat. To down and out
to even think about taking one spoonful of Gramps delicious chili.
She listened to Betty giggle at something Gramps said and then she
heard her father’s answering laugh.
    For one brief, bittersweet moment, she felt
light. Her father’s days were