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“I miss it too.”
Damn, there’s that smile again. A little bittersweet. A little hopeful.
I shrug. “So maybe we give it a shot. See if there’s a way we can get some of that back?”
I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to look at her without seeing all the stuff that’s about being more than friends. But even though it’s there, might always be there… That line between friendship and more is not one I’ll cross again.
“Yes.” Her grin is as bright as the sun. “I’d like that a lot.”
* * *
Lara
Friends. My heart is racing.
We’re smiling at each other now, eyes locked for what’s maybe longer than they should be, but for once it just feels right. Easy. Almost like it used to.
Is that even possible? That maybe we could actually get back to?—
“Hello, hello!” comes a singsong greeting from the front of the apartment.
“Expecting company?” I ask as Ben breaks the eye contact to groan into his fist.
We haven’t really talked about dates or dating, so I have no idea if he’s got a girl with a key, or based on the rumors, a lot of girls with keys.
In answer, he pushes off the counter and strides out of the kitchen, bellowing along the way, “Nope! Uh-uh. Piper, your key privileges are revoked. Unless you dumped Bowie’s ass. No. Even then. You can stay with Mom and Dad. I get Bowie in the divorce.”
“Shut it, Ben.” She laughs warmly as I’m stepping out of the kitchen.
And this gorgeous woman who I can’t quite wrap my head around being little Piper Boerboom is standing there. Whoa. With Grant Bowie’s hands resting possessively on her shoulders.
Craziness! “I know you told me you were together, but seeing it? Oh my God!”
I turn to Ben, who was always so protective of his little sister. At least back in high school. “For real, I’m stunned you didn’t lose your mind over them dating.”
Two sets of eyes skirt away and one hits the ceiling. And I cough out a laugh because clearly, he did.
Then Piper breaks away from Grant with a bounce and a squeal and, completely ignoring my current baking train-wreck status, pulls me in tight as the guys do the bro-hug, busting knuckles thing. “Lara, I’m so glad you’re still here, and I’m so sorry about the mix-up! With our moving and leaving town all at once, it was just— gahh. Forgive me?”
“Please. You guys saved me. I was in a bad spot with my apartment falling through.”
Piper sighs, pulling me in again. “Girl, I have been there. I’m just glad it worked out.”
When Piper lets me go, Bowie’s next, giving me a hug that takes me right off my feet. “Good to see you, Elliot. Surviving life with Boomer?” He puts me down and looks me over. “I’m afraid to ask what happened here.”
“Kitchen snafu,” I say, feeling around my hair for any stray pretzel dough.
But then Ben’s at my side, fingers sifting gently through my hair, body close enough that I can feel the heat coming off him as he picks out a sizeable glob.
“I gotchu,” he says with a quiet smirk that throws me back through the years to that time when we were a team. When there was us, and there was everyone else.
I know it won’t be like that again. Not really.
But in this moment, it feels like it is, and… and I like it probably more than I should.
* * *
Ben
