Page 50 of Just Friends

When Parker flashes me another grin, I notice the dimples winking in his cheeks and feel sick to my stomach.

“I actually don’t have time for that last set. I’ve got to get to work, but I’ll see you on Saturday,” he says to me before turning to Adam. “See you for dinner at your place Thursday. Tell Kelsey I’ll bring dessert.”

After he leaves, I stare at Adam, no coherent words forming in my mind. Finally, I ask, “What wasthat?”

Adam plucks the now barely damp paper towels from my hand and uses them to wipe down his bar. “What?”

“All that with Parker?”

Harsh lines form between Adam’s brows as he squints. “What with Parker?”

“Since when did he become the godfather to your unborn children?”

“Oh.” Adam waves me off, tossing the paper towels in the nearby wastebasket. “He’s not. John is.”

There’s a headache forming in the back of my skull, and I suddenly wish I was back on top of The Mountain in Fontana Ridge so the yell I desperately want to let free would echo across the hills.

“Since when did you become best friends with Parker?”

“About a year ago,” Adam answers calmly, pulling the weights off his bar.

“You’ve never mentioned him.”

Adam shrugs, sparing me a confused glance over his shoulder. “You never asked.”

How early is too early to start drinking? Asking for a friend.

“Anyway,” Alex says, sliding the last of the cast-iron plates onto the storage rack. “Parker is a good guy. I think he and Hazel will get along really well.”

That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.

I’mnotproudofit, but I blow Alex off for Movie Monday. In the afternoon, I tell him I have cramps, which he knows is a lie, since I was complaining about them two weeks ago. It’s possible I tell him too much.

When he tries to FaceTime Tuesday, I ignore the call and tell him I’m in the bath.

Wednesday, he’s showing properties to clients.

Thursday and Friday, I actually do get slammed with a work project.

But the distance is less about the paltry excuses I managed to come up with and more about my need for space. From him, yes, but betweenus. Taking Alex to Fontana Ridge turned out to be a huge mistake, because unlike any of the other guys I’ve ever taken home, he seemed to fit. With my family, with my town, with me.

And what am I supposed to do with that?

He’sAlex. My best friend. But friends shouldn’t make my skin tingle and desire pool hot and heavy behind my belly button. Friends shouldn’t haunt my dreams and snare my gaze from across the room.

Friends shouldn’t have such amazing butts.

I considered canceling the dates tonight, and as I sit in my car in a mostly full dance studio parking lot, I’m almost wishing I had, because the thought of seeing Alex wrapped in someone else’s arms has me seeing red. And that just won’t do. I want him to find happiness. Ineedhim to find happiness. I need us both to, with people who are okay with our relationship, who will never ask us to give each other up. Because I can’t lose him, and right now, I think the only way to ensure that is to stay far, far away until that 5 percent of me that has been fluttering when Alex is around withers away like a delicate flower left in the harsh summer sunshine without water.

Alex’s familiar SUV pulls into the parking lot, taking one of the few available spaces on the other side. My heart races as I watch him, waiting for him to see me parked here. As he climbs out, he tugs down the hem of his short-sleeve linen button-up. The top three buttons are undone, revealing a patch of skin that has just started to turn a light golden shade.

His eyes connect with mine across the mostly full lot, and an electric current zings up my spine. Turns out, whatever weird things I was feeling over the weekend aren’t a fluke.

I slide out of the car, and we move toward each other in the slow-motion way that main characters do in my favorite films. It feels like magic, kismet, serendipity. A moment ripped from the time-space continuum and frozen, paused.

“Hey,” Alex breathes when he’s close enough that I can feel it fan against my face.

I get the sense of being caught in a whirlwind, a tornado sucking up all my emotions and spitting them back out in a jumbled mess, nowhere close to where they safely were moments before.

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