“Remember when we were kids and things didn’t go our way, especially you and Kimi, we’d call do-over, like the words held some sort of magic or something?” She bit her lip, smiling. No doubt, remembering. “Let’s just say, Pryce was my do-over.”
Yeah, I wasn’t feeling that answer either, but her gorgeous eyes were sweetly asking me to leave it. Anything for you. I left it. For now.
We were still standing pretty close to each other when I heard the familiar buzz. “Um, Teeps, your tit’s vibrating.” Well, it was.
She pulled her iPhone out of her sports bra, took a two second glance, and shoved the damn thing back in. Lucky fucking phone. Ignoring whoever sent the message, she said, “I know—I know it’s a bad idea, breast cancer and all that, but my pants have no pockets.”
“Another reason they should be banned,” I said through a chuckle, even though I was stuck on whoever just sent that text.
“Hey, they’re super comfy, and I could be mistaken, but I’m pretty sure you said in not-so-many words that they were sexy as shit and men in general would be drooling over any female wearing them.”
Damn, was she cute when she was sassy.
“No. I said you wearing them was cruel. Trust me, the male species deserves any and all punishment. And I’m definitely not feeling exempt.”
She tried to play it off with a you’re-so-immature eye roll, but I didn’t miss her blush before she followed it up with a stolen gaze south. I couldn’t hide it if I tried. Feel free to ask my dick yourself. Any other woman I would have said it out loud, and meant it. But Talia wasn’t any other woman. Never was and never will be.
“On that note, funny man, I really have to head out. Someone’s got to work today. I’ve got to get home and dressed before my office hours. Clothes with pockets, promise.” She paused, chewing on her bottom lip. “But I’m really glad we did this. Whatever this is.”
“It’s whatever you want it to be.” No filter, the words just tumbled out. I said it, but did I mean it? This was something I’d never done. Did I even know how to do this?
Our eyes locked and I had no intention of breaking our moment anytime soon.
“Can it just be this, for now? Just us getting to know each other again. Friends.”
All I heard was for now.
For now worked. For now sounded like the perfect place to start. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to offer much more. All I knew was she was back, our friendship rekindled, and I wanted her there.
“Anything you need, friend.” Because I meant it. She had weaved herself back into my inner circle, the circle I would walk over water for and give the shirt off my back to, the circle I now think she never left. I closed the space between us and tucked her back between my arms. She fit. Perfectly. “But just letting you know—you try and disappear again, I’ll find you.”
“Oh, I have no doubt.”
I kissed the top of her head, because that’s what friends do. Friends were what we needed to be. And I was going to be the best damn friend she could ever have. Then I squeezed her tight little frame harder and inhaled her smell again. Just because.
Three hours later my ass was back on a plane.
Chapter 5 Swimmers
Thank fuck it was over. Longest hour and a half of my life. Monday morning hospital board meetings sucked. Don’t get me wrong, I loved supporting the hospital in any way I could, I owed them. But nothing was worse than sitting around listening to crotchety old men bitch about policies and procedures and ways to save the hospital money at six fucking AM.
Hitting the trails
Thought of you :)
Girl after my own heart. If it weren’t freezing out, I would’ve been on my mountain bike too. That, and I didn’t want to miss out on a chance to ride behind my friend’s ass. Someone needed to appreciate it, might as well be me.
“Whatcha smiling about, asshole?”
I raised my eyes from my screen to a fast approaching Chase. I shoved my phone in my suit pocket. My Cali excursion was last week and I hadn’t exactly shared yet. And there it was again. Guilt.
Chase and Tal had a history that stemmed back to the night of his sister’s accident. And it wasn’t until three years after Kimi died, that I learned the whole story. For some insanely stupid reason, Kim was crushing on a total loser. Chase, being the overprotective twin brother, was pissed about it. I wasn’t too thrilled either. That night they drank a little too much, fought, and Kimi threw a bitchy I’ll show you storm-off that ultimately put her in the passenger seat of a death trap. Chase retaliated with sleeping with her best friend. Our best friend. Talia. Yeah, that part of the story I knew. Witnessed that shit go down with my own eyes. Stung like a bitch, too. But it didn’t end there.
Six years after the fact and a six pack in, Chase and I were shooting pool when I mentioned that I’d heard—through our loosely woven grapevine—that Tal’s dad passed away. He winced at the mention of her name, like he always did. Enough was enough. It had been six long years and we all lost Kimi that night, we all let her down. Hell, I saw Chase and Talia disappear upstairs together and I wallowed in my own private bong hit pity-party, too self-absorbed to consider watching out for Kim either. Yeah, guilt sucked. But Chase didn’t have a monopoly on it. So I let my alcohol-induced loud mouth ask what I was probably better off not knowing. Sick and tired of pretending Talia didn’t exist—even if that was more true than not—I called him out on it. His answer sucked-ass, but that was just how it was with us. Any one of us asked each other a question, we gave the truth. End of. Don’t want to know, don’t ask.
Turned out Talia got pregnant. And when she told Chase, who was barely holding his shit together at the time, he tossed her a few hundred bucks and told her to get rid of it. Not my best friend’s finest hour, far from, and one I knew he regretted to this day. But he still did it.
Talia never said a word to me about any of it. The note she left with my doorman the day she took off read:
I’m so sorry. It just doesn’t feel right without Kimi. Live the dream for all of us. xo, TP She never looked back. Not once. Not even for her girl’s funeral.
“C. What’s up? Looking good. Three weeks off improved your complexion.” Damn now I was saying shit like her, too. Who the hell used the word complexion in a sentence if dermatologist or female wasn’t somehow associated with your name?
His brow creased. “Thanks. I think. Why are you here, everything okay?” I hated hospitals, and he knew it.
“Fine. Just finished a long ass board meeting is all. You have a case?”
“I do, but had to push it back a couple of hours. Shit came up.”
“Okay, what’s up with this new fucking line…?”
“Typical. Always pining for gossip.”
He turned and attempted to stalk away in typical Chase fashion before I cut in with, “You don’t want to talk, that’s fine. But quit blowing me off and leaving me to wonder what the hell is going on. We’re hitting the bags tonight, right? Or are you bailing again with that shit too?”
He stopped mid-stride and glanced down at his watch. “I’ve got ten minutes. You have to be anywhere or can you come to my office? I’m sure as hell not talking about this shit in the hallway.”