Read Know Her, Love Her: Daisy & Belmont, Book ONE for Free Online

should’ve never left it up to Adrian to tell you about us. I should’ve invited you over for dinner, made your favorite meal, and told you myself. I just felt so ashamed.”
    I sigh deeply. “I know. It wasn’t losing Adrian that hurt. Oh goodness, he got on my nerves.”
    She chuckles. “What hurt? That I betrayed you?”
    I nod.  
    “Well… it was an unusual situation.”
    I bend over to cup her hand. “No, really, Maya. We don’t have to rehash the past. I understand how complicated it was.” I smile. “Plus you’re having a whole human being.”
    “Fuck—whoever puts it that way?”
    “Okay, you’re having a baby.”
    She smiles. “I am.”
    “You are.”
    We stare into each other’s eyes.  
    “I love you, Dais.”
    “I love you too.”
    “Don’t ever stop being my friend again, okay?”
    “Okay.”
    “Now…” She struggles to stand and stretches her back. “Get your ass out of bed and come to the clambake.”
    I groan and fall back onto my pillow.  
    “I’m not going to let you fall apart because life tossed an obstacle in your way. You deal with it by living, not crawling under a rock until you don’t feel the pain anymore.”
    I’m taken aback. “Did you just say that to me?”
    “Yes. I’m wiser now.” She snatches the blanket from my legs. “So get your ass out of bed.”

    I put on my blue bikini and a white crochet cover-up, and we walk down the bluffs near my house. The gathering isn’t far away. Out of the seventeen people in attendance, I haven’t seen most of them in ages.  
    Keeping with the theme of the day—which is facing my issues—I answer all their questions regarding what I’ve been up to. Married. Yes, Belmont Lord, the billionaire. Lost a baby. Separated. New job that involves traveling. My job is what interests them the most. They want to know which network and who I’m working with. A few people in “the business” have heard of Dexter.
    “He’s not an asshole, good at what he does, and is easy on the eyes,” Marla, a friend from our undergrad years at UCLA, says. “Don’t sleep with him though. I heard if you fuck him, he loses interest.”
    “I’m not going to have sex with him,” I say.
    She raises her eyebrows as if she’s doubtful.  
    Adrian avoids me like the ebola virus, although I feel him glaring in my direction from across the fire pit. The afternoon changes to evening, and everyone except Maya is liquored-up. I’ve even had a couple of glasses of wine. Instead of dancing, kicking up sand, and making fools out of ourselves, we sit around the fire and exchange memories of the wild, uninhibited Maya we used to know.  
    Trista raises her hand impatiently. “I remember when she talked me into posing as a stripper so we could give Guy Henley, the actor, a lap dance.”
    Justin Carp laughs. “We or she?”  
    “Sadly, we . She thought we’d get more out of him if we teamed up.”
    “Get what out of him?” Justin asks.
    “Shush,” Maya says, rubbing her belly. “Children are present—and so is my husband.”
    Adrian smiles when our gazes meet. I reciprocate the smile and raise my hand. “I have something to say.”  
    Adrian looks worried.  
    “This morning, some woman answered my husband’s phone.”
    There’s a round of exaggerated gasps.  
    “She said he wasn’t available because he was in the shower.”
    “Dick…”
    “Stupid ass…”
    “Man whore…”
    “Dummy,” Adrian says.
    “Idiot,” Maya says.
    I giggle, accepting the support. “I wasn’t going to get out of bed, but Maya came over, rubbed my feet, and said she wouldn’t let me fall apart. She dragged me out of bed, made me put on a bathing suit, and that’s why I’m sitting here now.”  
    Adrian starts clapping, and the others join in. I have two more glasses of a fruity alcoholic beverage—the sort that sneaks up on you. The stereo has been turned on and everyone is dancing, but I’m sitting because ducks are swimming around my