Page 80 of Always You (A Lilac Bay Novel)

“But it doesn’t feel that way now?”

He shrugged. “I guess I got used to it.” He cast me a sidelong glance. “Probably helps that you came home from college.”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged again, and when he spoke he sounded a lot less sure of himself. Maybe even embarrassed.

“I just mean, you know, you and I were always close, and when you came home we started working together and—I don’t know. I guess I never really felt like I didn’t have someone to rely on. Even when Eddie started hanging out with Zane so much.”

“Oh.” His words sent a blush of color to my cheeks and I hoped he didn’t notice. “That’s, you know, nice of you. To say.”

“Yeah, well.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Meant it.”

I cleared my throat. Andrew and I could tease each other for days. We could also count on each other—for the big stuff as well as the every day stuff. The events of the weekend were more than enough to prove that. But we never reallytalkedabout it. It was just something that we knew.

“Back at ya,” I finally said, and Andrew burst into laughter.

“We’re pretty bad at sharing our feelings, aren’t we?”

“It’s not our strong suit.” I grinned over at him. “Baseball, though. We kick ass at baseball.”

He held out his fist for me to bump with my own. “Damn straight.”

We walked in silence for a few more minutes but it didn’t feel awkward. It felt normal. It felt like Andrew.

“Hey, Riley?” he asked, his voice anything but normal. He sounded nervous, which was beyond strange for him.

“Yeah?”

“Are you really going out with that Chase guy?”

My heart started to flutter in my chest. “Yeah, I guess. I mean, we only had one date so I don’t know if I’d really say we were going out.”

“You danced together on Saturday.”

My eyes snapped over to his face but he seemed to be concentrating awfully hard on the ground.

“I thought you were off with that fitness instructor from the Big Hotel when I was dancing with Chase.”

He made a face. “I wasn’t off anywhere with anyone.”

I didn’t really know how to respond to that. “I don’t know, Andrew,” I finally said. “We talked about seeing each other this week but I haven’t heard from him yet.”

He exhaled loudly, his breath sounding a little ragged.What a weird conversation, I thought. He wasn’t being snide or smug or teasing or any of the other things I had come to expect when Andrew talked to me about my love life—or lack of it.

We were nearly to my house when he spoke again.

“Look, I never really ask you for anything, right?”

I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to gape at him. “Are you kidding me? You steal my lunch everyday!”

He stopped too, scowling at me. “I mean anything big, Riley.”

“Well, there was that time when we twelve and you asked to borrow my kayak and then got it jammed up against those rocks and cracked the hull.”

He blew out an angry breath, looking away. “You know, what, just forget it.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, but he was already walking again, his pace quicker than before.