Page 73 of A Lucky Shot

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Stephen shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Cass doesn’t do anything halfway. She loves with all her heart, every time. No matter how many bruised edges it gives her.”

And here he was, tossing her to the wolves over and over, with the hopes she’d get bruised enough it would turn into a scar.

Fuck.

Josh steered the subject to something that wouldn’t make him engage in self-reflection. “So, you and Libby have history?”

“Yeah. I hoped she might be on the crew.”

“When did you and Libby become a thing? Long version.”

Stephen leaned against the elevator’s mirrored back as the doors slid shut, smiling. “She was the first girl I ever kissed. First girlfriend. First everything. We were together all through high school, all the way through university. We broke up when I moved to Vancouver.” Stephen stared at the buttons lighting up as the floors ascended. “I thought she would come with me.”

“And now you’re back in town and picking right up where you left off.”

“I don’t know, man. A lot has changed.” Stephen scrubbed his hand over his beard and sucked the air through his teeth. “Some things are the same.”

Maybe the Cass that Stephen had known had changed in that time, too. Maybe it was this piece of shit Nick bringing her down. Or maybe it was him bringing out the worst in her.

“We’ve got a break in shooting for almost two weeks over Christmas,” Josh said, switching topics. “Is Libby coming to Vancouver?”

Stephen looked cagey. “Actually, I’m sticking around. As much as I’d love to keep imposing on you, I’ve got a whole-ass apartment to myself here. Her folks are having us over for dinner on Christmas Eve, and Libby’s coming to my family’s place for Christmas and New Year’s.”

All the bitching Stephen had done for years about being glad to get out of Calgary winters, he didn’t have to shovel rain, blah blah blah. Now his friend was passing up a free trip back home? Maybe it wasn’t home for him anymore. Maybe it never was.

It was for Josh, still. At least, he had a condo there. How many people in their mid-thirties could say they owned property outright in downtown Vancouver? And he had friends, or people who called themselves his friends. Work he loved, since he’d gotten out of his father’s firm and shredded every tie he’d ever owned. But he couldn’t pick up and move to the other side of the world in a heartbeat to chase something different. Even if he wanted to, he was still tied to Vancouver a little while longer. For how much longer remained to be seen.

Stephen looked like he was filtering through the contents of Josh’s brain faster than he could. “Why don’t you stick around?” he suggested. “Give yourself a break here and not worry about everything back home for a couple weeks. I bet Cass would love the excuse to get away from her family for a bit.”

Tempting. No expectations, no guilt, and sure it would be a polar vortex, but he might be able to find an excuse to spend some time with her. Josh felt the corner of his mouth turn up.

“You know,” Stephen’s voice broke into Josh’s thoughts, “you actually smile when Cass is around.”

But that was part of the problem. He had obligations, guilt-laden or not. And Cass was a distraction from getting that sorted. A distraction from his work. A distraction that took up way too much of his thoughts. When he’d pulled her against him that morning of the sunrise shoot, her softness against his chest, he had to will himself not to slide his arm around her waist and bury his nose in her hair.

He’d cursed every layer of clothes between them. When she’d leaned back, her ass against his thighs felt like a better fit than the gloves that were in the way of him feeling her skin on his. He didn’t know if they’d stood like that for an hour or a second before Dawson had broken the spell. However long it had been, it hadn’t been enough.

Josh wiped his face clear.