“You’re used to it, though. With me.” I laughed and reached over. “Let me try these awesome pancakes before you scarf them all down.”
“You want to try them?” She looked surprised. “After all that smack talk?”
“Hey, I’m the king of smack talk.” I laughed and grabbed her fork and pressed down into the pancake and then took a large bite. It was overly sweet, though the pancake was of a good texture. The blueberries melted in my mouth along with the chocolate and I could feel an immediate sugar rush going to my head. Lara was looking at me expectantly, wondering how I was going to react to her meal. I was about to make a joke and tellher it was gross and overly sweet and a sure race to diabetes, but something stopped me. “Not bad.” I chewed and swallowed and gave her a smile. “I guess I know why you’re so sweet,” I said and gave her another small wink.
“I told you they weren’t that bad.” She smiled back at me happily, her face alight and glowing as she stared at me. “Now give me my fork back. You can’t finish them.”
“Darn.” I laughed. “I wanted to eat about ten more bites.”
“Oh, Parker.” She burst out laughing. “You don’t even like them.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked her questioningly.
“You don’t like sweet stuff.” She giggled. “You forget I know you well.”
“I don’t mind sweet stuff.”
“You much prefer savory to sweet.” She shook her head. “And I saw your face when you took a bite just now, you winced for a second. And then you touched your forehead as if the sugar had run there immediately.”
“You noticed all that?”
“What can I say? I’m observant.” She grinned. “So while I thank you for pretending you thought my choice of breakfast was delicious, I know you didn’t actually think that.”
“Aww, foiled again. You got me.” I sat back. “So you got any plans for the rest of the day?”
“Not really.” She shook her head. “You?”
“I was going to watch the game.”
“The game?” She looked confused and I laughed. “Basketball?”
“Nah.” I grinned at her. “It’s football season.”
“Oh, okay.” She gave me a weak smile. “I had no clue.”
“It’s okay.” I laughed. “Most girls don’t care.” I paused then. “Wait, some girls care, I know that. Don’t think I’m sexist.”
“I don’t think you’re sexist.” She grinned. “I don’t care if you think I’m into sports or not. We both know I’m not.”
“You used to play tennis, though.”
“Yeah, but I never watched it.” She looked up at me then in surprise. “I can’t believe you remember that. I didn’t even play for very long.”
“There are a lot of things I can remember about you.” I grinned. “A lot of things you wouldn’t want me to bring up to your future husband.”
“Yeah.” Her expression changed and I wondered if she was worried that I’d let out all of her secrets on her wedding day. My heart started beating erratically as I thought about Lara getting married.
“I can’t believe Mila and Ryker are getting married,” I said, not enjoying the tightness in my chest. “We’ve gone and lost our best friends.” I tried to laugh, though the noise sounded awkward to my own ears. “What will we do now?” I said again, trying to sound normal. I looked down at the table for a second. I wasn’t sure why I was feeling out of sorts. Maybe I was more upset about Ryker and Mila getting married than I’d thought initially.
Chapter 7
Lara
“I guessyou’re going to be my new best friend, now that we’ve lost our best friends to each other,” I said to Parker, a huge smile on my face. The smile was there to hide the fact that what I really wanted to do was pull him up and out of his seat, drag him over to me and ask him what it was that he didn’t like about me. Why didn’t he like me? Why didn’t he love me? Why didn’t he want to date me? How could he bring up things he was going to tell or not tell my future husband, while I was here hoping he would tell mehewanted to be my future husband?
My heart felt frozen and I knew the smile on my face was fake as hell. I’d thought the breakfast was going well. Shit, he’d been flirting with me. He’d talked about an orgasm, for heaven’s sake. An orgasm! Who did that if they didn’t like someone? I almost felt like he was playing with me. Testing me to see how I’d react. I wanted to shake him. I wanted to tell him he couldn’t do this to me. He couldn’t make me think he was interested in one breath and then push me back to the ground in the next.
“Lara and Parker, best friends forever.”
