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“I’m not calling the police. I’m looking at my schedule trying to figure out when I can book off time.”
Sydney’s mouth fell open and she gripped the phone so tight her knuckles turned white. “Time for what?”
“To help you move, of course! And to plan a wedding! Syd, I know you! You’re just trying to downplay all of this because you’re annoyed that I found out all over the TV.”
“I’m seriously not. And I’m not moving.”
“Whatever you say, sweetie. Call me back when you’re settled in. Have fun. I love you.”
The phone clicked off. Sydney held the cell in the air like it was a snake about to strike at her, sink its fangs in deep. She turned and stared at Jesse like he was the poison spreading through her veins.
“What?” he asked sheepishly. “Seriously, if you didn’t want any of this, you shouldn’t have- drunk messaged me online. It’s still up there. I can show you the evidence.”
“No.” Sydney shook her head. She held up a hand, the color leaching from her face. “This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. You’re the worst thing that’s ever happened.”
“That’s not what you said the last time we were together.”
Syd’s face turned a pretty scarlet. It wasn’t just a bloom above her high cheekbones either. It was a full-on paint that started at her cheeks and spread down her dainty jawline and over the slender column of her neck.
“No! You do not get to bring that up. Ever. Do you hear me, Jesse? Never? This is the worst thing for both of us. We were friends. Were, because that kind of thing- what we did- it should never have happened. Ever. Like seriously, ever. And here we are, freaking with the whole world thinking that we’re engaged. Me. Engaged to you. The kid who I saw piss himself laughing quite a few times when we were kids and at least once when you were drunk when we were in college. You, the kid who barfed up pizza onto my bedroom floor. The kid who woke up in the middle of the night in my bed at a sleepover because he was scared the monsters in my closet were going to eat him. You. The kid who knew all my secrets and could use them against me. We were friends, Jesse. That was it. We made a stupid mistake ten years ago. Seriously. I’ve been paying for it ever since. I’m not going to go there again. No matter how much your mom and apparently my mom, wants it to happen.”
“No?” Jesse frowned, but he looked at Syd, really looked at her, until she got uncomfortable and had to stare at the floor.
Syd. Syd who always looked a person in the eye. Who’d never been afraid of anything. Syd who squared her shoulders and gave her middle finger to the world when shit didn’t go down how she’d planned. Jesus, a lot had changed in ten years. Maybe it all was a mistake. He felt like he didn’t even know her. She didn’t feel like his ex-best friend. She felt like a stranger standing there. A stranger. It was totally unacceptable that he felt that way about her. She wasn’t a stranger. She was never meant to be a stranger. She’d always been the one person in the world he could turn to. Trust. Call up. God, they’d gone through the first two decades of their lives together. He wasn’t giving up on her.
So, he did the one thing he could think of, because if any of the old Syd was left in there, she’d never been able to resist a challenge.
“You’re scared. You meant what you said, but now that you’re here, you’re scared. You liked what happened last time and it scared you so much that you ran with your tail tucked between your legs. You’ve been running from it for ten years and now that it’s staring you in the face, you’re trying to run again. I’m not going to let that happen.”
Syd’s brows knitted together and then flew up so high that they nearly hit her hairline. “And how are you going to stop me?”
Jesse closed the distance in an instant. He didn’t want to give her time to figure out what his game was and formulate any kind of defense against it. He’d never been a very good athlete, but this time, Syd was the one going down.
She stood there frozen, like a deer in the headlights, paralyzed with indecision and shock as he wrapped his arms around her and slammed her up against his chest. She was smaller than he remembered, not frail, but just… just fine boned. Curvy and still womanly, but feminine and dainty. She felt fragile, like he could break her just by existing. Fear glistened in her eyes, but he bent his head anyway and when he slammed his lips to hers, it was pretty damn obvious how he was going to stop her.
