Page 29 of Eligible Best Friend

Lia’s brow crinkles, but she lifts her gaze to the officer. “Is something wrong?”

Nelson relaxes. “Not as long as you keep your clothes on. I stopped to eat my lunch and a mom flagged me down. She was afraid any kids playing nearby would get an eyeful.”

I wouldn’t let anyone see that much of Lia, adult or otherwise.

But Nelson keeps going, souring my mood even further. “Since it’s you, Lia, I’m not worried.” He sticks a finger in my direction. “This guy, though…”

Her casual chuckle sounds forced before drifting away.

Nelson’s laugh dies off. It’s not like joking around when we’re Monroe and Wescott. We’re Ford and Lia, dating. This discomfort must be why people don’t tell their coworkers they’re dating.

He runs his hand down the back of his neck. “So anyway, behave yourselves, all right? And…congratulations?”

“Yeah, thanks,” I say, glad to see his back as he wanders toward the parking lot opposite where I parked.

I prepare myself for the ultimate tirade, a torrent of blame for the predicament I got us into, and chance a look at Lia. Her mortified expression wavers, then her lips curl. A quiet giggle grows louder and prompts my own laugh.

She covers her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking as she laughs outright. “God, that’s what getting caught is like?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never been busted making out.”

She rolls her eyes, but her smile stays in place. “How often have you been caught?”

“In high school, college, or as an adult?”

“Ford!” She gives me a playful swat, but I catch her arm and pull her close.

Her breath hitches and her gaze snags on my mouth, like she’s remembering how it was all over her only a few moments ago. I know I can’t forget it. “Tell me, Wescott. When’d you learn how to kiss like that?”

An adorable crinkle lines her forehead. “What do you mean? I’m not the one with the tongue the girls whisper about in the feminine products aisle.”

“Just because you’ve never heard guys talking about you doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.”

She lifts a brow. “I’ve only made out once where people could see and it was with a girl—”

I jerk her closer. “Don’t tease a guy like that, not after he’s been warned by the cops to keep it in his pants.”

“He said to keep it in your pants in public.”

My mind stalls. I’m sure she’s teasing me again, but could it also be an invitation to bare it all with her in private? Because one brush of her skin against mine will never be enough. I have to know what the rest of her is like. What she feels like, what she tastes like. How she sounds when she’s— My pants grow uncomfortable once again. “Does that mean we should do this…privately?”

We both go still. Pretending to date is one thing. But we’ve kissed. Twice now. I want more. Does she?

Her mouth works like she’s trying to form the word “no.”

“We…” She lifts her chin, resolve settling into her soft-brown eyes. “We’re both adults.”

“And it’s just sex,” I say cautiously, testing the water, not believing that we’ve made it this far in the conversation.

She nods once, then hits me with her direct stare, the one I know from work. She’s deferring to me. Casual sex is my wheelhouse, not hers.

Casual sex isn’t something I’d ever associate with Lia. But right now, the only other option is no sex with Lia and that’s unacceptable.

Still, she’s important to me. Sex has a way of fucking important things up.

“We’d just be sleeping together,” she says. “It’d help us with our, you know, pretending.”

“Do you think you can sleep with me while we’re pretending to date and we can still work together and be friends?” I can’t keep the skepticism out of my voice.

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