Page 29 of Wish You Were Mine

I hesitated, a faint alarm jangling in the back of my mind, warning me that I might not like what would happen if I pushed too far.

“I think you’re attracted to me but don’t want to admit it,” I told him. Screw my internal warning system. We’d been tiptoeing around this for long enough.

He gaped, completely taken aback. “What?”

I shrugged one shoulder. “Am I wrong?”

“Fuck. Summer.” He yanked his hand through his hair and turned away from me for a moment. His back expanded as he drew in a deep breath, and then he faced me again. “You can’t just say shit like that. Yeah, I think you’re pretty, but you’re my best friend’s sister. Practically my extended family. Anything else between us would be too strange.”

I put my hand on my hip. “Grace was basically part of the family before she and Nate got together, and no one thinks it’s strange.”

A muscle in his jaw ticked. “That’s different.”

“How?” I didn’t understand his logic.

“It just is.” He huffed, and fisted his hands at his sides, as if he needed to do something with them but wasn’t sure what. “Besides, I’m wrong for you in so many other ways.”

“How so?”

He ignored my question. “Look, I came to apologize, and I did. From now on, you can flirt with, dance with, and date whomever you want, and I’ll butt out. It’s none of my business.”

I straightened and stepped toward him. “Maybe I don’t want you to butt out. Maybe I want my love life to be your business.”

“It can’t be,” he rasped. “It won’t happen.”

My heart sank. For a moment, I’d thought maybe he would finally admit there was something between us, but it seemed I’d been mistaken.

“Can you really look me in the eye and tell me you don’t feel anything for me?” I asked, willing him to be honest with both of us for a change.

He met my eyes. “I care about you as a person, but I have no feelings for you beyond that. I can’t.”

My chest felt like it was splitting in two. I nodded mutely and waved him out of the examination room. To my relief, he went. If he’d stayed for a second longer, I might have cried at him.

I didn’t think he’d be able to do it. I’d thought for sure that he’d have to own up to his feelings for once.

I’d been wrong.

Again.

14

ASHER

“Hey, Ash,” Zane called as I inhaled the mouthwatering scent of chili as I served myself a generous portion and added a dollop of mashed potato. “I’ve got a question for you.”

I made my way to the table in the center of the fire station’s staff room and sat beside him.“What?”

“How do you feel about going on a blind date?” he asked, grinning.

I stiffened. “Excuse me?”

He shoved a spoonful of chili in his mouth, making me wait until he’d finished to explain. “My cousin, Tiff, is in town. She’s thirty, single, and has a thing for men in uniform. You interested?”

I stared at him, stumped. I didn’t know how to reply. I should say yes. Seeing someone else might help get my mind off Summer, but then I recalled Kylie’s words, and I couldn’t bring myself to open my mouth and agree.

Fortunately, at that moment, an alarm blared through the station and Parks’s voice came over the intercom, instructing both fire and ambulance teams to report to a house a few blocks over.

I leapt to my feet, eager for an excuse to avoid replying. Maia and I hurried to the ambulance, checked everything was in order, and I got behind the wheel and pulled out of the garage behind the fire engine.

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