Not Second Best by Christa Maurice Read Free Book Online

out of paper so had gone online and ordered some. And then because she was online, she’d started shopping. If she’d just confided to Candy on the phone, she could have saved herself a lot of paper and money. “Do you promise not to be horrified?”
    “Honey, I just watched you inhale a full plate of comfort food and ask for dessert. I don’t think I could get more shocked.” Candy leaned her chin on her hand. “Spill.”
    The waiter appeared with the dessert menu. Tessa looked it over. Chocolate cake would have chocolate icing, so that was out. Apple pie a la mode didn’t have chocolate in it, so it was out as well. “I’ll have the brownie sundae with hot fudge and extra whipped cream.” She handed the menu back. “Thank you.”
    “No, thank you,” the waiter said, walking away.
    “This must be good,” Candy said.
    “Do you know who BroRide is?”
    “Who are you talking to?”
    “And their lead singer, Brett Cherney?”
    “Again. Who are you talking to?”
    “I’ve been sleeping with him.”
    Candy sat back, wide-eyed. “Really? Good for you.”
    “No, not good for me.” Tessa folded her hands in her lap. She needed to tell someone and Candy knew more secrets than a priest. “Brett is really young and kinda on that rock star wild thing.”
    “How is young bad? How young?”
    “Twenty-three.”
    “Oooh!” Candy held up her hand for a high five, but Tessa only glared at her. “Okay, you’re going to have to fill me in on why this is a bad thing. I’m missing something.”
    “Brian and Suzi got married last week.”
    “I was there.”
    “Brian had a huge crush on me when he was younger, and now he’s married and I’m a spinster.”
    “You are not a spinster.”
    “Brett has a big thing for Suzi so he was a little upset, too.”
    “Check.”
    “So we took off together and went out to this place he goes to and had sex all weekend.”
    “Yeah, this is still not sounding like a bad thing.”
    The waiter arrived with Tessa’s dessert. The brownie was centered on a nine-inch plate and nearly hidden under the avalanche of ice cream, hot fudge, and whipped cream. To work this off, she’d have to move into the gym. “Brett gets his furniture cleaned weekly.”
    “Why?”
    Tessa gave her a pointed look.
    “Oh. Ewww.” Candy leaned back in her chair, staring enviously at Tessa’s dessert. “Still, what’s wrong with a little fun? You’re careful and smart. I bet he’s great in bed.”
    “When we bother with one.”
    “I don’t need any more reasons to be jealous of you. I say enjoy him while he lasts.”
    “We were supposed to go away again this weekend, but he stood me up.”
    Candy shrugged. “Then I hope you enjoyed him while he lasted.”
    “He showed up last night at two in the morning.”
    “And you let him in?”
    Tessa shoved a big bite into her mouth so she wouldn’t have to answer that question.
    “Okay, okay, I see the problem. He’s temptation, and you feel bad for giving in after he stood you up, right?”
    She wished! But she couldn’t tell Candy the truth. Falling in love with this boy toy? Unthinkable. Hurt because he walked out after she’d asked him to stay last night? Impossible.
    “It’s not any worse than giving in to the hot fudge brownie sundae. Can I have a bite?”
    Tessa shoved the plate to the middle of the table.
    Candy dug into the other side of the sundae. “I just read an article in some magazine about older women feeling really desperate in relationships and how they do things they wouldn’t normally to keep their man.”
    “Like let him in at two in the morning?”
    “Like let him in at two in the morning and then berate themselves. It’s a no win situation. You either second-guess yourself if he walks or hate yourself for being a doormat. And you—you’ve got a bigger problem than usual. You have a hot young rock star on your doorstep.” Candy carved off another slice of brownie sundae. “You just have to figure out what you can