Page 103 of Always You (A Lilac Bay Novel)

“Yup.” I kicked off my sandals and stretched out. “He came over to commiserate about the show, and—”

“Oh my God,” she breathed. “You have to tell me everything.”

I shrugged. “I’d had a lot to drink, I guess, and—” I shook my head. I wasn’t going to do that, dismiss it like that. Nothing that happened last night was because of booze. “You know that kiss at the Lilac Festival?”

She nodded. “That was pretty funny.”

“Yeah, well, it didn’t feel funny. It felt kind of real. And then we got into a huge fight about it—”

“Why?”

“Because that same night I saw him at Cora’s with Jill. And I got mad because—”

“Because you like him. And the kiss made you realize that.”

“Please don’t say I told you so.”

She threw her hands up. “Like I would say that. I’m just glad you’re finally seeing it!”

“I don’t know what I see, Jenny. I’m so confused.”

She made a face. “What’s there to be confused about? You know you get along. You love each other’s families. You like all the same stuff.” She sat up straight. “Wait. Was the sex bad?”

“No,” I said quickly. Probably too quickly. “The sex was—well, it was fantastic. Like, best ever fantastic.”

She squealed a little, clapping her hands. “Oh, good. I would have been so disappointed if his reputation was unfounded.”

My stomach sank a little at her words, thinking about what Jill had said about players and how lucky I was to have a friend—just a friend—like Andrew.

“I just don’t know what this means for us, you know?”

“Well, what did he say about it?”

“What do you mean?”

“This morning. How was he acting? He must have said something.”

I thought back to that morning. To Andrew in my bed, looking all male and virile in my pink sheets. How he had teased me about dancing and made the comment about me wearing his T-shirt. How it had felt the same as all of our interactions and completely different at the same time. But then Gordie had put an end to that.

“Gordie got sick and we had to take him to the vet.”

“Oh.” She frowned. “And after that?”

“He had to go to work with his dad.”

“Oh.” Her silence made it pretty clear that she didn’t think his leaving was a good sign.

“Jenny, I’m afraid I just made the biggest mistake of my life.”

“No!” she cried. “Don’t say that! You guys would be sogoodtogether.”

I shook my head. “What if it was just sex for him? I mean, that’s the kind of guy he is, right? We know that.”

“Nuh-uh,” she said firmly. “He wouldn’t be like that with you.”

“But what if he doesn’t want to be more? I couldn’t stand if it he felt stuck with me because of loyalty or something.”

“Riley, I really don’t think you have to worry about that.”