Page 1 of Breathless With Her

Chapter 1

Erin

* * *

“Oh my God!You don’t look a day older than you did on graduation day!”

“Did you see her dress? Can you say ‘birthing hips?’”

“Do you remember the time that David and Jannie got busted under the bleachers right after the pep rally? No wonder the two have like twelve kids now.”

“Did you see her nose? Total nose job, right?”

“Why isn’t Becca here? She probably thinks she’s better than us.”

“I have no idea who that woman is. Is she a spouse, or did she go with us? Why don’t I remember her?”

I shook my head, holding back a smile as I stood near the punch bowl and listened to the comings and goings of people I’d gone to high school with for four years, many I’d known in middle school, and elementary before that. Time had moved on, lives had changed, and yet…it was still like walking through the hallway between classes.

A woman in a sparkly red dress waved at me, and I gestured back, but then her gaze drifted to the side. I winced. Apparently, she didn’t remember me.

Yay for ten-year high school reunions.

Why was I here again?

Oh, yeah, because my husband wanted to be here. This was Nicholas’s reunion too, so…here we were. In our best prom attire from the eighties or nineties since, apparently, there had to be atheme.

It didn’t seem to matter that we’d graduated high school in 2009. Whatever. I just went along with it, though I kind of liked my red sequined dress with the slit up one thigh. It made my breasts look like they did in my early twenties.

Some people avoided their high school reunions. Some did their best to never think of them. Others tried to remember the good old days while promising themselves they would lose those ten pounds, all while writing down lists of their accomplishments so they could show the world—aka their old, so-called friends—how much happier they were, even if that wasn’t the case.

As for me?

I hadn’t put much thought into it.

No, that probably wasn’t the best answer, but then again, I wasn’t sure many people remembered me from high school anyway. I had been a straight-A student, but I hadn’t spoken up in class too often. Jessica and Jackie spoke up the most. The J-Twins, as we called them, who had dated Robbie and Reese, the R-Twins.

I kid you not.

The two sets of siblings were now married and currently holding court on the dance floor.

“So, are their kids cousins? Siblings?” Jenny said from my side, and I laughed, looking over at one of the few people I still spoke to from high school.

I shook my head and hugged her tightly. “It’s so good to see you! And their kids are cousins, but…genetically? I don’t know if I want to do a Venn diagram.”

“I’ve always wondered if they accidentally swapped over the years.” Jenny sipped her punch, and I laughed even harder.

“We are not going to ask those questions, Jenny D.”

My old friend just rolled her eyes. “Someone needs to. And I’m Jenny S. now, thank you very much. I married Tony eight years ago.”

I grinned. “God, has it been that long?”

“Yup. You and Nicholas have been married for what? Six years now?”

I nodded, images of the time flying through my mind. “Insane, right? And here we are again, in sequins and cummerbunds.”

We clinked plastic glasses, and Jenny grinned. “I’ve never worn sequins in my life—before tonight.”