Rian smiled at her end of the call. Bette had teased her about Jade while they’d loosened up in the practice range before joining the charity golf tournament. She’d recounted a scene to Aerin wherein Jade was being hit on by various women while the three of them had hung out in a bar the night before Rian and Bette had left for Savannah. “Even with all that, though, from what I saw, it looked like all the attention Jade gets hasn’t been something you haven’t been able to handle, Miss cool-as-ice Rian. That’s how you should’ve been introduced earlier, by the way.”

“Personally, I think you two make for a perfect couple,” Bette had ribbed Rian back then. “The hot, sexy stud hooking up with the cool, beautiful, equally sexy babe.”

“You’re the last person who can be teasing me like this,” Rian pretended to grumble, now. “And we are far from just being a sexy hook-up.”

“Mnh – mnh,” Bette responded, still in a teasing tone.

Rian sighed. “C’mon, Bette. Trying to ask you something here.”

Sounds serious.

Bette cleared her throat. “Sorry, Rian. Must be all that sun I got today, while out on a with the kids, playing in the beach, swimming and everything …”

“Yeah. Ummm… can’t have you teasing me now, alright?”

“Promise. No teasing.”

“’Kay … I don’t know if you and I ever got to talk about how things were with me when Jade and I reconnected about four years ago …”

Bette’s voice softened, her pitch and timbre adjusted to communicate she was listening. “No, we never did. But I do know that you were in all kinds of pain – physically, emotionally, psychologically, Rian… ”

“Yeah, I was in pain,” Rian admitted. “There were days when I couldn’t eat; nights that I couldn’t sleep. I honestly thought I’d be incapable of being in a relationship. Especially with someone as special as Jade. Compared to the bad deal she was getting by being with me, it was obvious that she deserved to be with someone “better,” or better for her.”

“Come on, Rian …”

“No, really, Bette. I mean, I was a wreck, in every way you could imagine.”

“Umm…”

“And she had to look at what was happening, had to look at me everyday … every night,” Rian paused.  After a few beats, she said quietly, “Anyway … I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to start this way.”