Page 58 of The Friend

He cleared his throat. “You know about my past and how I’ve spent a lifetime trying to escape it, but the real kicker? I’ve done it because I’m scared, bloody terrified, in fact. What if my father’s weakness is hereditary? What if I turn out like him? So I run. I bury myself in work. I don’t let myself get close to anyone. Except you.”

He reached out and took hold of her hand and she didn’t have the heart to snatch it away. His shattered expression accentuated his revelation and she knew he was speaking from the heart.

“I’ve depended on you, have done since the first minute we became buddies. You’ve been the one constant in my screwed up world. After graduation night and that kiss, I couldn’t risk mucking up our friendship for what I’d put down to basic teenage horniness, so I ignored what happened, focussed on our friendship, and it seemed to work until Sapphire Island.”

He gripped her hand and she squeezed back, sending him a silent message to continue.

“I’d already made up my mind to stick around Sydney for a while because the running thing had worn thin. Then seeing you again sparked things off between us in a way I’d never anticipated, we became lovers, and all I could think was how great it was.”

He reached out and tilted up her chin. “You feel it too, right?”

Abby sighed. She should tell a big, fat lie and end this.

But she couldn’t lie to him. She never could.

“It doesn’t make a difference what I feel,” she said, shaking her head and breaking their tenuous contact. “I appreciate you telling me all this now, but it doesn’t change the fact you’ll run some time soon and I can’t take that chance.”

“I thought you might say that,” he said, a surprisingly confident smile alleviating the concern on his face as he pulled a folded sheet of paper out of his top pocket. “Here, this is for you.”

Abby unfolded the thick document, surprised to see aFinesseemployment contract. She recognised it instantly considering she’d turned one down.

“I’m sorry, I can’t work with you. It’s too painful,” she said, holding the contract out to him.

“Read it.”

“Why? I’ve already turned down Mark’s offer. This won’t make any difference.”

“I think it will.”

He continued to smile at her and it annoyed her beyond belief. So he’d unburdened his soul? Good for him. It didn’t change anything. It didn’t ease the pain slashing her heart, swift and sharp and deep. And now he was trying to sweet talk her into working with him? As if.

Knowing he wouldn’t back down until she gave the contract a cursory glance, she scanned the document, her heart pounding as the fine print danced before her eyes.

“But this is your contract,” she said, flipping pages as her confusion mounted.

“Uh-huh. Check the last page, particularly the terms and length of employment.”

She found the relevant section, read it and re-read it, blinking several times in between. “But…this says you’re aFinesseemployee for the next five years?”

His eyes twinkled with triumph as he tapped the document. “That’s right. It’s all there, in black and white.”

Her pulse raced with the implication of what he meant but she couldn’t comprehend it let alone accept it. “Fiveyears? No-one signs an employment contract for that long. It’s crazy.”

“Only if a person’s crazy in love and crazy enough to want to be with his best friend forever and crazy enough to want to marry her and never, ever leave her side,” he said, his eyes blazing with love as he picked her up and swung her around and around till the room spun.

“You are crazy!”

She beat at his broad shoulders with her fists, unable to stem the tidal wave of joy sweeping through her as the reality of what he’d said, of what he’d done by signing that contract, sunk in.

He held her tight as she slid down his body, waiting until their lips were centimetres apart before kissing her.

“Come on, Weiss, put me out of my misery. Tell me you love me too,” he whispered against the corner of her mouth, his warm breath sending shivers down her spine.

Smiling, she traced the familiar contours of his face, stunned by the depth of feeling between them. “I love you, too.”

He let out a whoop of joy and grinned, the same cherished smile she’d loved forever.

“I’m never going to leave you. Contract or not, you know that, right?” He reached out and cupped her cheek, the tenderness in his eyes reassuring her as much as his declaration.

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