Page 50 of The Friend

She didn’t want him.

Her reaction to his news sealed it.

So where did they go from here?

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Chapter Twenty-Three

Abby zipped her suitcase shut, wishing she could compartmentalise her emotions as neatly as her clothes.

Thankfully, the day had passed in a blur as she wound up the shoot, seizing on anything to keep her hands and mind active. The less she thought about what had happened with Judd this morning, the easier it would get, right?

Wrong. It would take a severe case of amnesia to wipe away her memories of her nights with Judd on the island. And that wouldn’t happen unless she stood under a coconut tree for the next month and prayed one would fall on her head.

Maybe she should’ve done that earlier in the week—rather than giving her amnesia, it might’ve knocked some sense into her.

“Can I come in?”

The balcony curtains parted as Judd stepped into the room, looking mouth-watering in camel-coloured cargo pants and a white T-shirt accentuating the breadth of his shoulders.

“Remind me to get a second floor room next time,” she said, hating how her heart leaped at the sight of him.

“And rob me of all this breaking and entering fun?”

His words conjured up an instant image of the first time he’d strolled into her room wearing nothing but board shorts and a smile after the quickest dash in history to grab condoms; an erotic, unforgettable image of the first time they’d had sex that same night.

Folding her arms to hide the evidence of what those memories were doing to her nipples, she aimed for casual. “What’s up?”

He crossed the room and stopped less than two feet away, invading her personal space, and it took every ounce of willpower not to reach out and touch him.

“I wanted to say sorry for how things ended this morning.”

She gritted her teeth, knowing they needed to have this conversation but not looking forward to it. “I’m the one who should be apologising. You were excited about your new job and I wasn’t exactly high-fiving you.”

“That’s okay.” He smiled, and ran a fingertip down her cheek, his tenderness almost undoing her. “What I want to know is why?”

She shook her head, needing to break his tenuous contact so she could give him some sort of rational explanation for her behaviour. “I guess you caught me off guard. I’m so used to you not being around that the thought of having you in one place takes some adjusting to.”

“It’s because of what’s happened between us this week, isn’t it?” He lowered his hand. “You want to go back to being just friends and you thought my sticking around meant we’d still be lovers too?”

Her heart turned over at the hurt lingering in his eyes. What could she say? The truth, that she loved him and wanted him as more than a lover and a friend, or some half-hearted excuse that would drive an irreversible wedge between them?

She never should’ve shifted the parameters of their friendship. As for falling in love with him…her stupidity meter had rocketed off the scale with that one.

“Come on, Abby, I need to hear you say it.” He thrust his hands in his pockets, causing his T-shirt to pull tight across his shoulders, delineating every ripple and causing her pulse to race in the process. “I thought your responses to me over the last week were genuine, that you enjoyed it as much as I did. Was I wrong?”

She couldn’t lie to him. She’d never lied to him before and there was no way she’d start now.

“This week has been fabulous. What we shared was amazing, but it can’t continue when we get back to Sydney.”

He reached out and she held up her hand to ward him off. “Why?”

“Because you sticking around changes everything.”

He shook his head, his wounded expression surprising her. “I don’t understand why it changes anything. We’re still best friends, and from what has happened the last few days, we’re even better lovers. Why not give us a shot a happiness?”

Her resistance wavered as the pleading in his eyes bored into her soul. However, she couldn’t do this. Seeing him walk away in a month, a year, maybe two, would be hard enough without having a full-blown relationship, which is what she could see happening between them given half a chance.

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