The Wrong Girl Chapter 12 Part 1

Ellie

“Oh, shit.”

“What?” Tessa looked up from her huevos rancheros in surprise. 

We just finished dishing about our week, and I’d pulled out my phone to text Jake about Oktoberfest today. Only to discover a reminder for an event I’d completely forgotten about.

“I can’t hang out with Jake and his kids today. I have to be at Snowshoe for the golf tournament.”

Tessa’s face dropped. “Oh, shit.”

“Yeah.”

“Can’t you cancel? You hate golf anyway.”

“I can’t. My dad and I committed to it months ago. He’d definitely be pissed if I pulled out last minute to hang out with Jake at Oktoberfest.”

“You don’t think he’d understand?”

I leveled a glare at Tessa. “Are you kidding? You know how my dad is about these big charity events, and he doesn’t know we’re dating. No, he would not understand at all.” I flung my head back in frustration. “Ugh, this sucks. Jake told me about a dozen times this week how excited his kids are to see me.”

“Ouch. Blowing off a guy is one thing, but ditching the kids is rough. They take that shit personally.”

I glanced suspiciously at Tessa. “You know, this whole time you’ve been giving me a lot of advice about guys with kids, and I don’t recall you ever dating one. Is there something you’re not telling me?”

Tessa’s eyes widened, and she batted her lashes innocently. “Me? No. I just watch a lot of romcoms.”

“Tessa…” I held her gaze and waited.

My best friend could never be a spy. She cracked under the lightest pressure. “Okay, fine. I was seeing a guy who had kids for a while over the summer. I didn’t say anything because it never became a thing. He was super careful about keeping me separate from his kids and while at first I understood, it bothered me. When I said something, he admitted he didn’t see us working out long term, and that was why he didn’t introduce me to his kids. So, it ended after a couple of months.”

“Damn, Tessa, why didn’t you say anything? You know I’m always here for you. I don’t judge.”

“It’s not that. I liked him and I didn’t want to jinx it until it became a thing, and it never did. So, no point.” She took a long swig of her mimosa. “Trust me, I’m fine.”

“I just wish you’d told me. I feel like a terrible friend. I didn’t even know you went through that.”

“It’s all good. It clearly wasn’t meant to be. You, however… what are you going to do about Jake?”

“I have to rip the bandaid off. There’s no easy way to do it. I’ll text him.”

I took a steadying sip of mimosa, then shot the message off.

Hey Jake, I’m so sorry to do this, but I completely forgot I have a charity golf thing today with my dad.

Oh, no problem. What time? Maybe we can meet up after?

The tee off is at 3, and there’s a dinner after. I don’t think I’ll be able to. Could we meet up tomorrow? Oktoberfest is all weekend

Ethan and Olivia are already excited to head down today, I can’t push them off to tomorrow. And 2 days of festival is a bit much

I understand. Maybe we could do something else?

Maybe. Olivia has asked about the horses

Great! I can schedule another trail ride for us tomorrow, my treat

Ok, sounds good. We’ll see you tomorrow

Ok, have fun! Get a pretzel for me!

You got it.

“… Well?” Tessa had watched me texting furiously, but now she was out of mimosa and clearly overly curious.

“We’re going to take the kids on a trail ride tomorrow instead. Just a sec.” I shot off a text to the stable master, Rachel, and reserved three horses. “Okay, that’s done.”

“So, how’d he take it?”

I shrugged. “Good. He didn’t seem super upset.”

“It’s hard to read emotion over text.”

“Well, he didn’t say he was upset.”

“Do people normally say those sorts of things?”

A flicker of worry wormed through my chest. “He said he understood, and that the kids were excited. But he said Olivia brought up the horses, so I think they’ll be happy about that.”

“Yeah, it was a good save. Kids love horses.”

“See? Nothing to worry about.”

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