Read Online R Is for Rebel by Megan Mulry - Free Book Online

phone and not with each other in person or Bronte would have tortured Abby endlessly to extract every incipient emotion. “Bron! Stop! Of course I like him—”
    â€œOh, you stop! You know what I mean. This is too perfect. I saw you guys together at the wedding and over the past few months and all that, but, you know, you just seemed like such, I don’t know, best buddies. All that arm patting and back slapping.” Bronte laughed, “Hilarious! It must have been driving you crazy—all that fraternizing !”
    â€œBerserk.”
    â€œWell. What do you know?” Bronte’s voice was warm and kind, then serious. “He’s intense in his way, isn’t he?”
    â€œYeah, I got that. I’m not sure we’re pulling into the same station.”
    â€œWhy? What the hell happened?” Bronte’s voice switched gears from laughing friend to protective lioness so quickly that Abby almost didn’t recognize the sound of her.
    Since Abby’s only sister Claire was many years older and had been holed up in northern Scotland for the past twenty years, the big sister inquisition from Bronte was not entirely unwelcome. Despite Abby’s newfound détente with her mother, there were obvious topics that she would never in a million years broach with her. Topics like wanting sex on the beach.
    â€œThat’s the problem!” Abby laughed to break the tension. “Nothing happened. I mean, after you and Max and I were having drinks on the deck Saturday night, and then you and Max went back inside, I saw Eliot down on the beach and I went down and hung out with him for a little while, and then he walked me back to the villa and that was pretty much it.”
    â€œMm-hmm. Pretty much it, huh?” Bronte sounded theatrically skeptical. “I’m waiting.”
    â€œWell, I mean, I wanted to kiss him… I pretty much asked him… oh, this is mortifying…”
    â€œOh no! Was it disappointing? What a nightmare? Do you think he’s ambivalent? Were you not into it? Was it a turnoff because he was a guy? Do you miss Tully?”
    â€œNo!” Abby nearly shrieked, then laughed.
    â€œOka-a-a-ay,” Bronte smiled through her voice as she let the word string out a bit.
    â€œI mean, no.” Abby tried to keep her tone light. “He wanted to, you know, whatever—this is a ridiculous conversation.”
    â€œNo, it’s not! It’s fun! Don’t you ever squeal to your girlfriends about crushes?”
    â€œTo be perfectly honest, Eliot is sort of my first… real… crush…”
    â€œOh, sweet Abigail. You make me feel like such a harlot. First crush… just the words. You’re doomed, of course.” The lioness was gone and the brass-tacks businesswoman was back.
    â€œWell, thanks for the vote of confidence, Bron.”
    â€œYou know what I mean; they don’t call it a crush for nothing. Someone usually ends up crushed, you know, like a bug.”
    â€œI get it.” Abby gave a small laugh, but her gut turned a bit at the very real possibility that she would be the one who needed to be scraped off the rolled-up newspaper. Or worse, that she would do that to Eliot incidentally; did she really need a boatload of emotional ballast or just a light, sexual novelty?
    â€œYou might have started a little bit closer to the shallow end, Abby. He’s kind of all that and a bag of crisps, isn’t he?”
    â€œJesus, Bronte. Are you trying to make me feel better or terrify me?”
    â€œRight! Right. Um, do you have plans to see him anytime soon? How did you leave it in Bequia? Has he been in touch with you since Saturday night? Oh my god, you don’t even have a cell phone! This is hilarious. It’s like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court !” Bronte was now totally amusing herself.
    â€œWhenever you’re ready to come back to this conversation, just let me know,