Page 47 of Bedding The Best Man (Bedding the Bachelors)

“Sure, man. Sure. I just hope…I hope you know how much you mean to me. How much your friendship means to me. If I could have changed how I felt, I would have.”

Eric had smiled bitterly. “Yeah. Well, I can’t say I wouldn’t have taken you up on that offer, Gabe. Because I gotta tell you, the past month has sucked ass.”

After that, they’d tried to talk the way they’d used to, but it had just been awkward, and Gabe could tell that Eric had said all he’d wanted to say. He’d left, and even though he and Eric had shaken hands, Gabe had still felt the strain between them.

Maybe Brianne had been right. It was too much to hope for, that they could have it all. Be together and still have a strong friendship with Eric. It was what to do now that he hadn’t quite figured out. Of course, he’d have to figure it out soon.AfterBrianne’s big event.

He went straight to the campsite, his truck filled with tools, reminding himself to keep his head in the game and off her. Like that was possible. At least as the morning went on, there was too much work to focus on for his brain to do much thinking.

“Gabe! You have a visitor!”

Christ,he thought.Like I have time for that right now. He grumbled to himself…and came face-to-face with Eric.

“You came,” Gabe said, stating the obvious.

Eric, still dressed casually as he had been in Utah, smiled. “Yeah, well, it’s a big day. For both you and Brianne.” Eric looked around. “This is really impressive, man.”

“Thanks.” Still stunned by his friend’s sudden appearance, he struggled with what to say. To buy time, he looked around as well. Within five hours, they’d turned it into something out of a fairytale. At night, with the lanterns and twinkling lights lit, it would be breathtaking. Sure to impress the guests. “It will be great when it all comes together,” he said.

“So. Can we talk?” Eric asked. “Because there were some things I didn’t tell you when you came to see me. And I think I’m ready to now.”

The food and beverage delivery had been made. Gabe grabbed a few bottles of beer and motioned for Eric to follow him to a quiet area, away from the hustle and bustle.

He pulled up a chair for Eric, and one for himself, then cracked open a couple of beers.

“Remember when I joked that I was supposed to kick your ass?”

“Yeah,” Gabe said cautiously.

“If anything,youshould kickmyass.” Eric turned his head away, staring off into the distance. The last few yurts were being assembled, lights were being strung along a path which led to the river where the bandstand had been set up. “I shouldn’t have been with her in the first place.”

“Huh?” Gabe felt like he’d taken a detour to the Twilight Zone. He’d been expecting a fight, not for his best friend to roll over and play dead like this. It was unlike him.

Instead of answering, Eric stood and asked a question. “Remember the day you met her? At the Whitcomb house?”

“Sure.” Gabe had replayed that day in his head for years. The way she’d looked in her cutoff shorts and tank top. The way she’d smiled at him. How they had immediately connected. How she’d lit him up inside. How much he had wanted her.

How Eric had gotten in the way. Or, rather, Bri’s mom had.

“She was beautiful, right?” Eric sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets, rocking back and forth from the balls of his feet to his heels. “Like, take-your-breath-away gorgeous. Who wouldn’t fall for her?”

Gabe shrugged, since he had.

Eric turned and looked him in the eye. “I let Mrs. Whitcomb strong-arm Bri into going out with me.”

Gabe snorted. “Like you had a choice.”

“I did, though. That’s my point. I could have taken Bri out that one time, for the sake of being a gentleman or whatever. You know, so she didn’t look foolish, so I didn’t look foolish. We were both sort of put on the spot. That could have been it. But, no. I went after her.”

“What’s so bad about that?” Gabe knew he would have done the same thing in Eric’s shoes.

“Because I knew you wanted her. And any idiot could see that she wanted you.” Eric looked embarrassed. “I wasn’t a good friend. I wanted her, too. Who wouldn’t? She was—is—the perfect girl. From the perfect family. Christ, she was being handed to me. If I had been a better person, a better friend, I would have backed off.”

Gabe contemplated Eric’s words and had to admit, part of him agreed. But he couldn’t let his friend take the blame when Gabe held so much responsibility in what had happened. “I didn’t man up. I wanted her. I stepped aside. It was my own damn fault for not at least trying.”

“You stepped aside because you didn’t think you were good enough for her.”

Gabe jerked in surprise, and Eric shook his head. “Best friends, remember? But you were wrong, Gabe, and so was I, to not step aside way earlier. You don’t know all the times I saw you two together and thought about how wrong I’d been to interfere. You’ve always had this…thing. Something I never had with her. I love her, and I know she loves me. But I’m not sure we’ve ever been trulyin love. Not the way you have the potential to be.”

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