Free Selfless: A Relentless Series Novella (The Relentless Series Book 3) by Alyson Reynolds

He’s supposed to be taking it easy.”
    She smirked. “He didn’t do any of the work.”
    “Taylor! Can we move off the topic of you and Stephen having sex?”
    “Fine, we can talk about you and Rhys.”
    Damn it.
    “There’s not much to say.”
    She narrowed her eyes. The waitress chose then to come and take our drink orders. I was so grateful for the interruption I could have kissed her. When she left to go and get our drinks Taylor stared at me expectantly.
    “Go on with it.”
    “Seriously?”
    “Yes, damn it. I want to hear everything. I know you held back because you didn’t want Stephen to freak. You slept with him didn’t you?”
    “Do you have some freakish superpower that tells you when people have sex?”
    “I saw the sparks between you two even when you were so pissed at him you could have thrown him off the top floor of the hospital.”
    “Okay. So we may have had sex. It wasn’t the first time, so no big deal.”
    “How was it?”
    I couldn’t hold back my grin. “Phenomenal. But then he got all weird the next morning. I’ve talked to him once since then, but I’ve tried calling him several…times. Oh shit.”
    “What?”
    “I might have done something really stupid.”
    She stared at me blankly.
    “I got really, really wine drunk and called him.”
    “Is that why you looked like hell at brunch?”
    “Yep. Oh God.” I laid my head on the table. “I’m such an idiot.”
    “It can’t be that bad.”
    “I vividly remember calling him a pussy at some point in my drunken tirade.”
    She winced. “Ouch.”
    “Taylor, what am I going to do?”
    “You’re going to finish up dinner with me, then you’re going to go to Vegas. I know where he is. He checked on Stephen before he left the other day.”
    I took a deep breath. “I’m going to Vegas.”
    She nodded. “Okay.”
    “I have something else to come clean about.” I took a sip of water before continuing. “I’m going to retire from acting for a while. I want to have a baby.”
    “Wow.”
    I grimaced. “Too much?”
    “Nope. I want to hear everything.”
    “I’ve already accepted the last role I’m going to do for a while. It’s actually opposite of Connor in a romantic comedy.”
    “Wait, Jaxon’s brother, Connor?”
    “Yeah. I got the call when I was in Paris. We started filming last week. Things went…badly, while Rhys was on set. He threatened to punch Connor if he touched me again. We had a huge fight about it.”
    “When were you planning on telling me?”
    “You’ve been a little distracted,” I said pointedly.
    “Amanda, Stephen has been out of the hospital for almost two weeks. Not only that, but he’s been out of a coma for almost a week before that. I get that you’re a private person, but seriously, I could have used some good news to help cheer me up.”
    “I wasn’t trying to keep it from you.”
    She took my hand in hers. “I know that, sweetie. I just want you to know that you can come to me with stuff. You had exciting news and I don’t want you to think you couldn’t come to me with it. No matter what’s going on I’m still your friend. Now, back to the baby thing.”
    “I’m not getting any younger and I’m sick of waiting to fall in love. Obviously I’m cursed when it comes to men.”
    She snorted. “I’ve seen you with some devastatingly handsome men, Rhys included. If they aren’t what you want though, I think you should go for it.”
    “I’m debating what to do now that Rhys is back in the picture,” I admitted. Nervously, I ran my finger around the rim of my glass. “When we were younger we wanted a family, the whole American dream, two point five kids and a dog. We even had names picked out for our kids.”
    “Here’s the thing, he’s either going to be on board or he’s not. If he’s not, then that’s his issue, not yours. You need to make yourself happy. Be a little selfish on this one honey.”
    I nodded. She was right. I shouldn’t wait for Rhys on this