Page 16 of Marrying My Brother's Best Friend

“Do we go back to being friends? Or strangers? When I return to Golden Bay and your life gets back to normal, what happens to us?”

“I hope we can stay friends, Gracie,” I whisper to her while holding her gaze. I’ve missed being Gracie’s friend all this time because I believed my absence from her life was for the best.

Now I’m not so sure I can go back to that time. Not after spending time with her like this and remembering just how much I love being around her.

“I’ll love that more than anything else,” she smiles.

Chapter 9

Gracie

“I’m Zane Lewinsky, nice to meet you, Gracie,” Trevor’s manager says when he joins us that evening for a brief meeting on what we’ll spend the next few weeks doing.

“Attending events together is a must and a big deal. Meeting with his teammates, throwing parties, and taking pictures together for the gram are all things you’ve got to do to make this seem more realistic.”

I’m toying with the buttons of my sweatshirt as Zane lectures us. My heart’s doing a speedy dive against my ribcage, and the tension snapping through me makes it impossible for me to keep all of this down.

Am I really doing this? Can I handle all the pressure? The media attention?

I nibble on my lower lip and try to keep my tension at a minimum, but the twist in my nerves continues pricking at me till I interrupt Zane.

“What about us? The stuff we really want to do?”

I look from Zane to Trevor, who’s perched on one corner of his couch, watching me the entire time. “When do we get the chance to do the stuff we really like to do? I mean stuff like relaxing and watching the sunset, riding bikes in a park, or go paint the sunset…Anything fun that we like to do for ourselves and not the gram.”

I get on my feet and look at Trevor. “The kind of stuff you like to do for yourself and not for the gram.”

Zane and Trevor are quiet after my interruption and when neither of them says a thing, I drop to the couch again, fold my hands across my chest, and press my lips together.

“The media wants a story. The kind that’ll move them to root for Trevor here. Their love for him will allow his team to lift his suspension and probably even renew his contract. This goes far beyond what Trevor likes to do, Gracie,” Zane explains. “It’s about his career and not his heart.”

“But what he wants has to count too, right?”

Trevor clears his throat and stops us from saying anything else. “We’ll take each day at a time, and enjoy the moments together,” he says as I turn to look at him.

Trevor’s wearing a smile that makes my heart soften further towards him and fills me with another rush of warmth. Every time that sensation crawls through me, it nips at my defenses and gradually makes me forget how dangerous this man is to my heart.

Flushing from the heat spreading through me, I slowly nod and smile as his eyes rest on mine.

“Okay?” he asks.

“That sounds like a plan,” I agree, and we both grin before he turns to Zane.

“I’ll handle this,” Trevor says, rising to his feet.

“You know what’s at stake here, Hawkins,” Zane says with a dissatisfied look. “This is your last chance at making things right, got it?”

After Zane leaves, Trevor joins me in the kitchen again and taps his fingers over the edge of the table for some time while I stand still on the other end and watch him.

“What do you want to do first?” he asks as he stares at me.

“What?” I blink twice when I realize Trevor’s serious. There’s no smile on his face, even as his eyes hold onto mine. A fresh wave of heat slices through me and makes me hiccup. This time, I know my skin will burn a fiery crimson and give away my flush.

“What have you always wanted to do? Ferris wheel ride? We can go to an art gallery? Or walk the streets and take pictures of the historic buildings downtown. Whatever you want, we’ll do and we’ll have so much fun, you’ll wish you had to stay here forever.”

I chuckle a little and walk around the table to meet him. “Are you trying to sell me on New York? So that I never want to go back to Golden Bay? The beautiful small beach town that holds my heart?”

Trevor closes the distance between us, then he strokes his knuckles down the side of my cheek and sighs as he shakes his head from side to side.

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