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“I am too. But that doesn’t mean I can stop.”
“I hear you.” Alana glanced away and sighed. “Believe me, I hear you.”
Kelly peered more closely at her best friend. She’d been strangely quiet for the past hour and her sarcasm didn’t have its usual zing. “So what’s the deal with you?”
Alana snapped her gaze back to Kelly’s at once. “What deal?”
“Normally you’d be prying me for details about what Spencer’s like in be—” Realizing she’d gone too far, she stopped and forced down the bacon wedged in her throat. “I, uh, didn’t mention his name before, did I?”
“No, you most certainly did not. You let me believe it was some random joker you worked with and I didn’t press you for his name because—” She trailed off and dropped her fork. Apparently she didn’t intend to finish that statement. “Spencer? As in your freaking boss? Number ten?”
“Shh, shh!” Kelly flicked ice water at her. “Keep your voice down.”
“No one knows who he is. Jesus, paranoid much?” Alana narrowed her eyes. “He’s the end game.”
“I…” Kelly took a br
eath and set down her sandwich. “Yeah. I thought it was just hormones. But there’s more there. I don’t know how I knew before I knew. You know?”
“Yes.” Alana stared at her salad as if the cucumbers and tomatoes held the answers to all the world’s questions. “I so do. It’s sick.”
Kelly laughed and tucked her hair behind her ears before picking up her sandwich again. “So what’s going on with you and Ramon? Have you coordinated the next time you’ll be home yet? You have to be out of vacation days from the paper.”
“I am. Not that it matters. I’m thinking of quitting.” Before Kelly could question her further, Alana’s cell phone rang. She glanced at the readout. “I have to take this. Okay?”
“Sure.”
While Kelly ate, she watched her typically outspoken friend talk in hushed tones behind her hair. Even across the table, she could barely make out a word. All she heard for sure was the name Nick.
The minute Alana hung up, Kelly leaned forward. “Who’s Nick? Why are you quitting your job?”
“Not yet, Kel.” She stabbed a lettuce leaf. “When I know for sure what the hell’s going on, you’ll be the first one I tell.”
“But I’m your best friend.”
“Yeah, and I’m yours. And you didn’t tell me about Spencer.”
“I wanted to.”
“I want to tell you too. When I know. Right now all I know is it’s hot as fuck out here and I’m about to need mouth-to-mouth by a really sexy paramedic.” Alana reached for her soda and downed several gulps. Her cheeks were becoming redder by the minute, but Kelly was reasonably sure that had more to do with her phone call than the heat index.
“All right. I’ll wait.”
“Thank you.” Alana gave her a completely inauthentic smile. “Now you were going to tell me how Spencer is in bed…”
* * * * *
Kelly expected to spend the day with Alana but that didn’t play out as planned. While exploring Gimler’s department store in search of a sexy dress Kelly couldn’t afford, Alana received yet another phone call and split.
Something big was up there. She really hoped her best friend hadn’t gotten herself into something she couldn’t extricate herself from—or that if she had, it was good. With Alana, nothing was a certainty.
Rather than worry or dwell, Kelly kept shopping. A little retail therapy never hurt anyone. Especially those newly and stupidly in love.
After she paid for her purchases, she called Spencer and asked if he could come pick her up so she could get her car. He agreed, but only if she’d stay for a quickie dinner at the deli next to The Book Nook. Unsurprisingly, she couldn’t say yes fast enough.
She already missed him. And he already missed her, if the vibe she’d picked up from his voice meant anything.
Their quickie dinner was exactly that, a couple sandwiches in a back booth as far away from the door as possible. The entire time he watched said door as if he expected them to be found out at any moment.
