Always With You: Part One by M. Leighton Page A

can’t trust her.”
    Although I love Ginger’s assessment of her, I wonder what makes her feel that way, other than womanly solidarity.
    “What makes you say that?”
    She shrugs again. “Intuition I suppose.  Something about her…those eyes maybe.  I can tell she’s up to something.  Something not good.”
    “But what?”
    “I can’t be sure yet, but the most obvious thing would be that she wants your man.”
    My heart stutters in my chest.  “And do you think that’s possible?”
    Please say no! Please say no!
    My gut tells me that Cash is mine—heart and soul, always and forever.  Like I am his.  But this whole thing with being unable to get pregnant has my emotions in such turmoil, my heart isn’t as certain as it once was.  I feel so insecure.  So inadequate.  Like I’ve disappointed him, even though he’s told me a thousand and one times that his life will be perfect, with or without a baby.
    But thinking about the look on his face when he saw Sophie…when he saw the little girl, Isabella…
    My stomach rolls over in a bout of nausea.
    Ginger sits up and grabs my arm.  “Hell. No.  That boy is so in love with you, I’m envious.  Me!  The girl of no-strings-attached, hot sex.  What you two have makes me want it, too.  And I wouldn’t want it if it wasn’t extraordinary.”  She settles back against the door before she continues. “I mean, do you think I’d take this off the market for anything less than the true, deep, everlasting kind of love?  I couldn’t do that to humanity and feel good about it.”
    She says this with a straight face.  Totally Ginger. I have to laugh, even though my heart doesn’t feel better yet.
    “I realize that’s a big deal and I really hope you can find it one day.  It’s only fair that you feel this kind of misery as well.”
    Ginger sighs.  “I don’t know if I’ll ever find what you have.”
    “Why don’t you just ask him out for God’s sake?”
    “Who?”
    I give her a withering look.  “Don’t even pretend that we’re not both talking about Gavin.”
    “He’s not interested, Liv, I’m telling ya.”  My best friend has tried to blow off her interest in Gavin, but I can tell by her expression that it hurts her. I’ve thought all along that she really likes Gavin.  Like, more than just a fling.  Nothing has ever happened, though.
    “I think you’re wrong.  That pat on the ass he gave you earlier was anything but disinterested.  What does he have to do, take you into a dark corner and rip your clothes off?”
    “Preferably.”
    “I think you should go for it. What do you have to lose?”
    Ginger closes her eyes and leans her head back against the thick wood of the door.  “My heart.  I…I don’t think I want just a fling with him.”
    This admission is hard for my friend, which is why she isn’t looking at me.  She’s unaccustomed to tenderness or unexpected weakness. She’s always been in charge, in complete control, and I’m sure this is a foreign feeling for her.
    “Maybe he doesn’t either, but there’s only one way to find out.”
    “And if it’s a bust?” she asks, her voice low and somber.
    “I’ve survived broken hearts. You will, too.  They’re all worth it when you find the real thing. The right one.”
    She opens her eyes and pins me with her stare. “Like what you have with Cash?”
    My stomach flips over. “Yes, like what I have with Cash.”
    “You realize that nothing will ever come between you two unless you let it, right?”
    I look into my friend’s wise blue eyes.  “So don’t let it, is that what you’re saying?”
    “That’s exactly what I’m saying.  He loves you, Liv.  And you love him.  This is just a bump in the road.  Don’t make it into something it’s not.  He didn’t marry her. He married you.”
    “But they have a child together,” I remind her, my throat closing over the words even as I utter them.
    “They might have a child together. I still don’t