Page 39 of Falling for His Best Friend

‘You forgot option three.’

‘Which is?’

‘Being brave and then it ends in total disaster anyway.’

‘Are you sorry you slept with him?’

How could she be sorry? It was the best sex she’d ever had.

Kitty shook her head. She didn’t regret what they’d done but all the doubts were threatening to take the gloss off the experience.

‘And he doesn’t seem sorry either?’ Jess asked.

Kitty shook her head again.

‘And are you happy right now?’

She was going to say she wasn’t sure, but she closed her eyes and she could see Joe’s face. She could feel his hands on her body. His lips on her skin. It had felt right then and the memory felt right now. ‘Yes.’

‘Then I think you should relax. Don’t overthink things, have some fun. So tell me—what was he like?’ Jess was smiling.

Kitty sighed, still lost in her memories of last night. ‘He was perfect.’

* * *

Joe was lying on the couch when Kitty let herself back in through his front door. He was barefoot and shirtless, and Kitty felt her libido kick into gear as she let her eyes roam over him.

She’d picked up a pizza on her way back and Joe sat up as she put the box on the coffee table. He grimaced as he moved despite the fact that he was holding his left hand over his abdominal wound, and Kitty remembered she hadn’t got around to changing his dressing earlier.

‘You came back.’

‘Of course.’ She frowned, not understanding. ‘Why wouldn’t I?’

‘I was worried you might think we’d made a mistake this morning.’

That one simple sentence highlighted just how well he knew her. They’d been friends for so long that she sometimes felt he knew her better than she knew herself. She had been worrying about that. She’d worried that the painkillers had made them reckless, worried they might have ruined their friendship. She always thought of reasons why things wouldn’t work, rather than thinking of all the reasons they could. ‘Have we?’

‘No.’ He shook his head and pulled her down onto the couch beside him.

‘You don’t think we might ruin our friendship?’

‘I’d like to think we can always be friends.’

‘With benefits?’ she asked.

Joe smiled at her, the familiar dimple appearing in his chin, and Kitty’s stomach somersaulted.

‘So I take it you enjoyed it?’ he said as he reached out and ran his thumb down her cheek, tracing the line of her jaw, and trailed it across to her lips.

She could feel the heat radiating off him and her heart began to race. ‘You know I did.’

His thumb moved back towards her cheek and he slid his fingers around behind her neck, cupping the back of her head. ‘I promise we will always be friends. Things don’t need to get awkward.’

She didn’t think he could make that promise, but she also didn’t think she could resist the silent overtures he was making. Sleeping with him once wasn’t going to be enough for her.

He pulled her towards him and kissed her soundly, the pizza forgotten in its box on the table.

Kitty wondered if things were being changed for ever by their actions today, but she didn’t care. It was a risk she was prepared to take, she thought as she gave herself up to him again.

* * *

‘Hello, Jess. Cameron. How are you both?’ Dr Tennant showed them to the chairs and waited until they both sat down before she started speaking. Jess noticed that the chairs were pushed very close together, as if the oncologist knew that Jess was going to need to be able to reach for Cam—as if she was going to need his support—and she knew what was coming next. ‘I’m afraid I don’t have good news for you.’

The room felt as though it was spinning, making Jess feel ill. She closed her eyes and reached out for Cam’s hand. She felt his fingers wrap around hers and only then was she able to breathe again. She took a deep breath, opened her eyes and waited.

‘The cancer has spread to your lungs, and there are some metastases in your brain as well.’

Jess fought back tears. She’d been expecting bad news, she’d felt it in her bones, which was ridiculous seeing as the doctor was telling her the cancer had spread to her lungs and brain, but she’d known something was wrong and she’d told herself she would be strong. For Cam’s sake. But it was hard, almost impossible.

She wasn’t strong.

‘What do we do?’ Cam asked.

‘Treatment-wise our options are very limited.’

‘What does that mean? Very limited?’

Cam was asking the questions, which was good as Jess couldn’t speak. Fear of the future had frozen her tongue. But she didn’t need to ask questions. She knew what it meant. She could feel it.

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