Between You, Him & I.

| Three. |

"I want to taste you again, like a secret or maybe even a sin." -Matthew Perryman Jones. | The secret is still ours.

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When Rikki was just a little girl, she always heard how her pretty face would get her into trouble. But now that she was older, she can now say she understood that commentary. Really, it wasn't her pretty face, it was the pretty thing she held in between her legs and boy, was she bad at harboring it. After weeks of avoiding her best friend for her huge mistake, it was finally time for Rikki to come face to face with Jamie since sleeping with her husband.

It had been 2 weeks since the Luis encounter, and Jamie was hosting some sort of annual barbecue at their house. She had been talking about having the get together weeks before what happened and Rikki knew that she had to attend, regardless of what she had done.

She slowly climbed out of the driver's seat of her car, turning it off as she grabbed her bag from the backseat and made her way towards the backyard of the medium sized home. She followed the loud pop beat that blasted, taking in the sight of all the people scattered around the back. Rikki could tell that most of the guests were family members of Jamie and Luis, considering Rikki was Jamie's only close friend since high school. Maybe that's why she attached so hard.

"Hey, I'll take this off your hands. You can just go and grab a seat." Rikki's head snapped in the direction of a somewhat squeaky voice, recognizing him as Jamie and Luis's 13 year old son Lucas.She returned the small smile he was giving her, passing the pan of cookies that she had purchased and allowing him to take it over to the food table 20 feet away. He was a handsome boy, resembling Jamie in most of his features.

She let out a small sigh, seeing Jamie on the other side of the backyard, whispering things to Luis as he slowly nodded. Not wanting to interrupt them, she decided to take a seat in one of the empty lawn chairs placed next to her, pulling out her phone and scrolling through Facebook to pass the time.

"So, my baby just brought himself a house." A older middle aged woman seated beside her spoke, sipping a glass of lemonade. Rikki glanced up from her phone for a minute, seeing that her chair was located at a table with two other women whom seemed to be deep into conversation.

"A house! Where?" The second woman who looked to be a bit older than both of them responded.

"Downtown and it is pure beauty." The first woman smiled, obviously proud.

"Well, is he here? I want to tell him congratulations."

"No, he couldn't make it. He had some important work to handle. But he told me to say hello to everyone."

"Aw, good for him. Have you seen Luis and Jamie? Lucas sure has grown." The elder one stated, raising her right eyebrow.

"Handsome young thing, isn't he? He gets that from our side of the family."

"Well, I'm not sure about that. There's a long line of handsome Edward's." She smiled largely.

"And no offense to my own nephew but I saw the rental sign in the back. How does he have a family and can't even afford to purchase his own house?"

Rikki shook her head in bewilderment, tired of hearing the gossip and deciding to walk over to Jamie.Luis was long gone by now, but that didn't stop the knots from forming in her stomach as she stepped closer to her best friend.

Jamie's big brown eyes filled with excitement, once spotting Rikki. "Hey, look who came!"

Jamie's arms widened for a hug. And Rikki awkwardly returned the gesture, allowing Jamie to squeeze her tightly. "Yeah, hey."