If Love Didn't Hurt: A small town, friends to lovers romance by Sherri Storey

Author:Sherri Storey [Storey, Sherri]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2022-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

They were on the same shift. Piper let out a long sigh and snipped off a piece of ribbon from the roll, handing it to Leighton.

“That was pretty heavy.” Leighton took the ribbon and tied it around the cellophane she bunched around a basket. “What’s up?”

“Nothing.” Piper filled another basket with shredded colored paper.

“That sigh didn’t sound like nothing. I thought you would have been all bubbly and babbly after securing the old mill for the wedding.”

She set a candle and bath bomb inside with some other products that had been ordered. Normally she enjoyed helping create these custom basket orders that were coming in faster than Lay could keep up. “I am. It’s a dream venue.”

“So, why do you sound anything but excited?”

She set in a bar of rustic soap, fiddling with the placement. “Kylie is back.” She leaned her elbow on the counter and rested her chin on her upturned palm. “She is more gorgeous than ever.”

“And?”

“And I am nothing like her.”

Leighton’s brows furrowed. “I don’t understand?”

She let out another heavy sigh. “Lay, why is Nick with me, when he could be with her?” There she said it out loud. And it sounded just as bad spoken out loud as it did inside her head. It sounded petty and jealous and insecure. Everything she tried so hard not to be.

“We ran into her at the farm. I forgot how beautiful she is.”

Leighton set the completed basket aside and faced her. “Nick is with you because you are wonderful. You are beautiful too, inside and out. He is with you, because he wants to be with you.”

“But I’m nothing like her. She is stunning, and exciting. She is everything I’m not.”

Leighton sighed now. “You are a different person for sure. Piper, what’s this all about, really?”

Piper chewed on her lip. “I’m not sure. There is so much tension between them.”

“You think he is still hung up on her?”

She turned and stared at her best friend. “No, actually they both seem to dislike the other. But Kylie seemed angry with me as well. I don’t think she likes me.”

“Impossible.” Leighton said. “You are the most likable person I have ever met.”

She blew out her cheeks. The reason she was so likable was that she bent over backwards to be likable. She’d taken enough psychology classes in university to understand that the early years of her childhood had left an indelible scar. She had this need to excel in life, to control her surroundings and to please people. There was a voice she could never silence, no matter how far she’d traveled from the frightened little girl who’d been dropped off on the doorstep of a grandmother she’d never met. The voice had told her then and kept whispering now; ‘you’re not good enough, you’re not smart enough, you’re not pretty enough, you don’t deserve this life.’

“Being around her brings back the high school years.” Piper’s voice shook. “It makes me feel so insecure.”

Leighton pulled her in for a tight hug. “You have nothing to feel insecure about.

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