She was really damn lucky. She—

“Edie?”

The familiar male voice made her stomach clench with dread. She looked up in surprise as a tanned, perfectly sculpted man with pale blond hair and a crisp white smile approached their table.

“Oh, shit,” Gretchen said. “Drake. You want me to scare him away?”

Edie’s ex. Damn it. “No, it’s all right.” She forced a smile to her face as her ex from six years ago approached their table. “Hi, Drake. You look well.” She was proud of herself for how calm and unaffected her voice sounded. Truth was, she still hurt from Drake’s retreat all those years ago. He’d caused her endless amounts of mental anguish when he dumped her after the accident with her leg. She’d thought it was her disability, her limp, that caused him to dump her.

Now, looking at his overly careful appearance, she figured he was just a jerk.

“Thanks,” he said, flashing her another over-whitened grin. “New workout regimen. CrossFit.”

“Gee, Edie,” Gretchen mocked. “You look fabulous, too.”

Drake flushed. “I . . . Of course you do. I was just, you know, trying to help. CrossFit is great. You should try it some time. I can hook you up with a trainer—”

“Why, so she can make her goddamn knee fall off entirely?” Gretchen snapped.

“It’s okay,” Edie interrupted, watching Drake’s expression turn deer-in-headlights. “I’ll pass, Drake, but thank you for thinking of me. What brings you to this part of town?” It was a good question to ask, so she’d never lunch in this direction again.

“I’m meeting a personal-training client,” Drake told her. His smile faltered a little. “How . . . how’s Bianca?”

Edie kept the smile on her face, though the warning bells went off in her head. “Bianca’s doing just fine. She’s working as my assistant now.”

“For the cat thing? That’s so cute. I can’t believe you make money doing that.”

Her smile grew tight. “Yes, the cat ‘thing.’”

“Ah.” An awkward silence fell, then he glanced around again. “So, um. I know that we parted because I was selfish.”

“We did.” She sounded so calm. That was good.

“I regret that. I really do.”

Edie softened a bit. Drake was a good guy. Just a bit . . . thoughtless. “Thanks. That means a lot to me.”

“I just want you to know that she never returned my calls . . . after.”

She processed this for a moment. Surely it sounded worse than it really was. “After?”

“After . . . you know. The skiing thing.” He looked uncomfortable. “We ended it.”

Ended it? Drake and Bianca had something that ended? Her entire body went cold. “Thanks,” she said automatically, voice hard. “You should leave now.”

“But I—”

“Jesus Christ, you fucking idiot,” Gretchen said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Can you just go already? We’re trying to have lunch here and you’re trying to absolve your guilty conscience and neither one of us gives a shit.”

“Oh. All right.” Drake looked at Edie again. “I’m sorry. It was good to see you again. I just . . . Yeah. Good to see you.”

“Good to see you, too,” she said woodenly, not able to meet his gaze. She felt frozen in place. She didn’t look up as he left, staring at her glass. She felt sick. Her knee throbbed in response, and she just wanted to run away.

“He’s gone,” Gretchen whispered in a low voice. “Did he just admit what I think he did?”

“Yeah,” Edie said. She . . . didn’t know what to think. She felt helpless. Utterly betrayed. Furious. Hurt. Her sister had been fucking Drake behind her back? And all this time, no one had said anything to her? For six long years?

Instead, Bianca had become incredibly devoted. She’d given up her free time, her friends, and her own personal space so she could wait on Edie. She’d turned Edie into her life. And all Edie could think was, What a lucky person I am to have such a wonderful sister in my life. A sister who’s so devoted. I can’t hurt her.

What a fucking, colossal joke.

All this time, she thought it was her knee. She thought that Drake, poor, stupid, sport-obsessed Drake couldn’t stand to have a girlfriend that limped and could no longer rock climb or run marathons. Had he just been waiting for an excuse to get rid of her and be with Bianca?

Of course Bianca had turned devoted and clingy. Edie imagined the guilt was killing her. She slammed back her drink, chugging it down.

Gretchen gave her a worried look. “You okay, Eeeds?”

“I’m not sure,” Edie admitted. “But I think I’m going to go, if it’s okay with you?”

“Of course,” Gretchen said. “I’ll pay for the bill. You just go ahead and leave if you need to. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

Edie nodded, and the two women hugged. She murmured her thank-you to Gretchen, who patted her on the back sympathetically. Then, even though she was twenty blocks away from the Park Slope apartment, she headed there.

She couldn’t go home.

Not home to Bianca, who would gush over Edie, get her an ice pack, and yammer about how she needed to be more careful with herself. As if Bianca cared. She’d always known Bianca was a little selfish from time to time, but her devotion to Edie after her accident just seemed to be contradictory to those selfish leanings. That Bianca had a good heart despite things.

Utter horseshit.

In a daze, she walked.

At some point, she realized that she’d made it to the apartment. She watched as movers lifted a sofa up the doorway steps and into the apartment, along with furniture. Edie stood near a tree and watched, her hands in her pockets. She didn’t go in. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to talk to anyone yet.

She was still processing.

Edie wasn’t sure how long she stood there, watching movers unload furniture into the new apartment. All she could see was Drake and Bianca. Her then-boyfriend Drake, sleeping with her younger sister. Bianca, who fluttered her hands over her hair, gave men a coquettish smile, and then wrapped them around her finger. Bianca, who swore she didn’t sleep with her boyfriends unless things were committed.

Of course she didn’t. She was too busy fucking Edie’s boyfriend.

It wasn’t Drake’s betrayal that hurt. She’d long since gotten over Drake, and now was thankful that things had ended. If she’d been with Drake, she’d have never met Magnus, after all. But Bianca’s betrayal? That fucking ripped her apart. Bianca was her sister. She was the person Edie trusted the most in the world, the person Edie leaned on more than anyone else. She’d always thought Bianca would have her back. Wasn’t that what sisters did?

Apparently not.

She imagined Bianca’s face when she found out that Edie knew. She’d be stricken at first, of course, and then she’d try to figure out how to fix things. How to make Edie feel somehow guilty for accusing Bianca. Because that’s what Bianca’s “unselfish” martyrdom was all about, of course. It wasn’t about helping Edie or devotion for her sister—it was about making Bianca feel better about what she’d done.

The thought made her ill. Edie bent over and threw up in the bushes, vomiting until her drinks and her lunch came up.

“Edie?”

Of course someone would discover her puking in the bushes. She wiped her mouth, feeling pathetic even as a warm, broad hand touched her back.

“Babe? You okay?”

Magnus. She turned and looked at him, a baseball cap on his head, sweat on his brow. He wore an old T-shirt with a Warrior Shop logo, and jeans. A box of computer equipment was at his feet. She’d bothered him while he was moving. Shit. It was on the tip of her tongue to say that she was fine, to make an excuse as to why he’d found her barfing in the street, to make some sarcastic comment to deflect the fact that she felt hollow inside.

But this was Magnus, and she trusted him. She didn’t have to be defensive or abrasive, because he’d understand. Tears welled up in her eyes. “I don’t think I’m okay, no.”