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7
WILL
Ifollowed behind the other three, keeping my eyes on the restaurant around us and not where they wanted to travel, to the purple dress in front of me. A popsicle?What the heckwasthat? Well, I knew what it was. The look on Aria’s face when she’d complimented my shirt had required me to make a joke. I’d needed to poke at her like she was my best friend’s kid sister and not a gorgeously alluring, sassy woman with the most kissable lips on the planet. And I’d know. I’d kissed plenty of women, but no matter how hard I tried, none of them compared to that stupid night when I was eighteen.
We got seated right away, and thankfully Paul and Shelby had opted to sit across from each other. Putting a table between Aria and me seemed like a great idea. Until I sat and immediately realized why Paul had wanted to sit across from Shelby. So he could look at her. I got it because now Aria’s angelic face was directly in my line of sight, and it was a good view. Much better than Paul’s mug would have been, and he likely felt the same way about me. Great.
“Hi, welcome to—” Our server paused when we made eye contact. “Will?”
Oh,lovely. This night was going to be one for the books. “Hey, Mary,” I said, giving her a small wave. “It’s been a long time. How are you?”
“I’m good.” She beamed down at me, completely forgetting everyone else at the table. “How long are you in town? Are you just visiting again?”
I swallowed. “Uh, no. I live here. For now, anyway.”
Her brows rose and she grinned. “That’s great. We should hang out again.”
A few years ago, I’d come to Bluffton for Christmas leave and met Mary at a bar. We hung out that night and then one other time before I left. Even though we’d exchanged numbers, we hadn’t talked since. What would be the point? I’d only been in town for two weeks, and I’d made it clear to her that I wasn’t looking for a relationship. But now that I was back, she seemed to think that might have changed.
“Uh,” I said, forgetting every ounce of suavity I’d ever possessed, having caught sight of Aria’s wide-eyed stare from across the table.
My gaze must have registered with Mary because she finally looked at the rest of the guests at the table then. Assuming we were a pair of couples, she turned beet red and let out a stiff laugh. “Excuse me, sorry. Um, welcome to Landry’s. What can I get you to drink?”
“Sparkling water for me please,” Shelby said.
“Coors Light,” Paul told her, then pointed to me. “Him too.”
She turned to Aria then, not sparing me a glance. “And for you?”
Aria fixed an icy smile on her face as she looked up at Mary. “Cabernet sauvignon. Please.”
“You got it,” Mary replied, scurrying away.
When she was gone, Paul let out a low whistle. “Bro, that was awkward. Who is she?”
I shrugged. “I met her a couple years back. We hung out a couple times.”
“It was that bad?” Paul asked.
“No, it was whatever.” I picked up my menu. “What’s good here?”
“Uh, no. There’s got to be more to the story than that,” Paul said.
“Just drop it, Paul,” Aria snapped, picking up her own menu. “If he doesn’t want to give us all the gory details, he doesn’t have to.”
Paul rolled his eyes. “Fine, fine. But either way, I guess it’s a good thing you had Aria here to look like your date. At least then you avoided having to let her down easy.”
I looked over the top of my menu at Aria. Her cheeks blazed red as she stared down, scanning the list of dinner options. Ugh. Paul had no idea what that comment probably did to her, given what had happened between us.Twice. I wasn’t an idiot. I knew she still had feelings for me. And I knew exactly how I would have felt in her situation if the tables had been turned. So now, since the only reason we couldn’t be together was because of me and my baggage, all I felt was guilt.
“What are you getting?” Shelby asked Aria, seemingly oblivious to the tension.
That gave me pause. I looked between them, realizing that there wasn’t a shred of conspiratorial vibes between them. Did Shelby not know about Aria’s feelings for me or our kiss in high school? Or the almost-kiss from Valentine’s Day? I was no expert in the friendships between women, but that seemed like something to talk to your best friends about.
Except… I’d asked her not to. I’d asked her not to let Paul or anyone else find out about that kiss. So if Aria confided in Shelby, she’d probably tell Paul. She must have kept this to herself all this time, just like I’d asked her to.
More guilt seared through me, and I stared down at my menu without reading the words. This was a terrible idea. I should have come up with some reason not to come tonight. Or maybe I shouldn’t have come back to Bluffton with Paul in the first place. Then, Aria and I would still be separated by however many miles the Marine Corps put between us, and I wouldn’t be torn apart to see her hurting.
It vaguely occurred to me that it might be conceited to presume she was hurting, but at the same time, I was the one who supposedly didn’t have feelings for her. She’d made her feelings clear to me, and I’d batted them away both times. But I knew how I felt. So, if being near her was hard for me, I imagined it was probably hard for her, too. And that wasn’t being full of myself. It was the truth.
