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He was a true friend. More than that, he was an honorary brother.
Or at least he had been. Until those two kisses.
“Yeah. I know.” He opened his eyes, his gaze capturing hers. “I’ve been thinking about it. Last night, you were pissed at Derek and you took off down that dark street. It was an impulsive reaction. Can you just accept it was the same for me? I saw that guy push you down, saw that mark on your face,” he reached out and touched the bruise gently, “and I reacted. I was terrified and relieved at the same time. It came out like that.”
“So…no more kisses?”
He didn’t reply immediately and when he did, she wasn’t sure what to make of his response. “If that’s what you want.”
What she wanted?
Wasn’t that what he wanted too?
“I don’t want this to change things between us,” she said. Landon wasn’t like other guys to her. She would never risk their friendship on a few kisses…or more.
“Okay. And just for the record, you don’t have to run out immediately and find some other gym rat like Derek to date just to hold me at bay.”
“I didn’t…” Sunnie didn’t finish her statement, his words sparking something she hadn’t considered. After April Fools, she had latched on to Derek because he’d been there…and it made it easy for her to pretend that kiss with Landon hadn’t happened.
She recalled every second of the kiss, but she’d lied, pretended to not remember because it was the only way she could handle what it had done to her.
Landon captured her gaze. “Yeah. You did.”
She appreciated his honesty, even though it annoyed her how well he understood her. It made it hard to win a fight against him.
Then she considered his reassurance that the kiss had been impulsive. His reasoning made sense…but only if it had been her who had initiated the kiss. She was the one who reacted first, thought later.
That wasn’t Landon.
Regardless, she decided to let him off the hook.
Because she had to.
She and Landon were practically family. More than that, they were at two completely different places in their lives at the moment. She was focusing on her career. He was looking for true love.
So it was time to forget the kisses and get things back to normal.
Somehow.
Chapter Six
A week later, Sunnie threw on her scrubs and headed toward the kitchen, curious about the hushed tones she heard. People were whispering. Collinses never whispered. At least not well.
She walked into the kitchen to find Yvonne, Finn, Padraig and Darcy all standing there. They stopped talking as she walked in.
Sunnie experienced a strong feeling of déjà vu. “Didn’t we just do some variation of this last week?”
Finn was frowning again. He’d bounced back from her near mugging fairly quickly, so she wasn’t sure what had him looking so…concerned. Or was it confused?
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Darcy said too brightly, too loudly.
It was obviously a lie.
“What happened?” she pressed.
Finn ran his hand over his chin but didn’t speak. Sunnie established eye contact with every person in the room, but none of them appeared prepared to tell her what was going on.
