AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You really had no idea?” She’s suspicious. “I thought that’s what you wanted to happen.”
“Of course not. I’d never want anything bad to happen to you, Elena. I’m sorry.”
Her eyes soften. “I don’t hate you.”
“Is that right? Because every time I see you, I get the distinct feeling that you want to stab me. If looks could kill, I’d be dead over and over again. I never knew why.”
“Okay, maybe I did hate you,” she concedes. “I thought you enjoyed making me a target. I did like you back then because I thought you were a good guy. It also wasn’t easy to think I got that so wrong.”
“I was. I am.”
She’s struggling with her old ideas about me running up against reality. Without thinking, I wind my fingers around hers. “Elena,” I say. “What do you think now?”
There’s something in her eyes that makes me pause. Like she just might still feel the same way about me as she says she did back in high school.
I’m so lost in thinking about what to do with this new info that I almost crack a joke so she won’t be able to read what I’m thinking. I stop myself. Wrong moment, Blair. It’s too important.
She hesitates. I’m on edge with the anticipation of what her answer might mean to me. I want her to like me as a friend at the very least. I curl my fingers lightly around hers.
“You,” she says, then stops. She’s not pulling away. I don’t want her to. I don’t want to let go of her for a long time.
“I mean,” she starts again. “I never expected you to say that.”
“It’s the truth.” I want to convince her more than anything. What Elena thinks of me matters, way more than it should. “I might’ve been a jerk in some ways back then, but I’d never do anything that mean.”
I catch her gaze straight on and tighten my grip on her hand. “Do you believe me?” Everything hinges on her answer.
“Yes,” she says. “I do.”
It takes everything in me to stop myself from gathering her up in my arms and kissing her until neither one of us can breathe. From the look she gives me, I get the strong sense that she’d be just as into that as I am.
I clear my throat. “Good. That’s good.” Very reluctantly, I give her hand a squeeze before I let go. “So now we can be friends.”
“Friends,” she echoes. Her face is completely unreadable. “Yes. Exactly what I was thinking.”
Chapter 16
Logan
“Good morning, Logan.”
My hand jerks, spilling a few drops of hot coffee onto my skin. “Jesus, Asher. You scared the hell out of me.”
His voice coming from out of nowhere shakes me up. I was so lost in thought, I didn’t hear him come into the kitchen. The marble floor in his kitchen soaks up sound like nothing else. It’s way too easy to sneak up on somebody without meaning to.
“You’re pretty jumpy this morning. What’s up?”
A burning wave of deep embarrassment washes over me. I didn’t sleep for a moment after I got to bed last night. My own bed, that is. Asher caught me sneaking out of Julian’s room well after midnight.
All he did was say goodnight. I couldn’t stop shaking even after I closed my bedroom door behind me. I can’t exactly pretend Julian and I were working. Asher wasn’t supposed to find out about us. My throat tightens. I have no idea what to do now.
It was only our second time together. I was wrapping up a late night in front of some spreadsheets when JJ pulled exactly the same move on me as I did on him. A brief shoulder massage led directly into his bedroom.
Part of me is relieved that my secret’s out and Asher isn’t flipping over it. So far. I dig up the nerve to look at my best friend. He’s gazing at me like he always does. There’s not a traceof judgement in his slightly amused expression even though he discovered that something’s going on between me and Julian.
“Everything okay?” Asher prompts. I must look like a wreck. A night of worrying about everything from losing my best friend to what my future’s going to be like will do that to a guy.
Asher leans back against the counter. I nod as I pour him some coffee.
