“I know. Oh God, I’m sweating. Look at him, he’s so pretty. And I can’t hardly see straight, I’m drunk.” Chloe sounded panicked. “What do I do?”

Summer had never seen her cousin look so open, so vulnerable in her life, and her heart swelled in sympathy. “Well, I think you should stay seated, for one thing.” She glanced at Braden, and her heart started to beat faster for Chloe. God, to be looked at like that. Joe had, when he’d been buried deep in her body, so deep she’d lost herself in him.

She’d loved it. Why hadn’t she told him she loved being with him like that?

“What do I do?” Chloe whispered desperately.

“Smile?”

“I don’t know if I can. I want to cry.”

“No. Crying would be a mistake. Don’t let him see how much this means to you. Suck it up,” Summer demanded.

“Okay.” Chloe forced a smile that hardly quivered at all. “How’s that?”

“Good.”

“I’ll just keep remembering he wants to throw me away simply because it’s time to move on.”

Summer didn’t respond because she’d thrown plenty of good people away simply because it was time to move on. The wrongness of that was something she’d have to live with.

Braden wound his way through the other customers and came close without so much as a glance at Summer. And the cool, bad, tough Chloe threw her arms around him and buried her face in his neck.

Braden stared down at her, his cool visage nowhere in sight as he hauled her up from her bar stool, wrapped his arms around her and held on tight.

“I thought you were leaving,” Chloe murmured.

“I couldn’t go without seeing you again.” The look on his face broke Summer’s heart. He did love Chloe. He loved her with everything he had.

So why was he leaving at all? Feeling like a voyeur, Summer slipped off her bar stool. She wobbled and had to blink to clear her vision. Wow. Strong drinks.

The bartender was watching her. She hitched her chin toward Chloe, who was now kissing Braden as if their tongues were fused. “Make sure he drives her home, okay?”

“Will do,” he promised. “How about you?”

“I’m going to call for a ride.”

“Good idea.”

She made her way outside. Night had fallen, and it was still drizzling. She leaned carefully against the building and pulled out her cell phone. It was midnight. Later than she’d thought.

Who to call? She hit the ON button and dialed Tina.

But the very male, sleepy “hello” that resonated through the phone into her ear and through her body was not Tina’s. It wasn’t Bill’s either.

It was Joe’s. Huh? Stupefied, Summer clicked the phone off. She glanced at the number she’d dialed and groaned.