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“Sorry, Ell.”
“Forget sorry! Why would you even want to keep something like that a secret?”
“I didn’t want everyone all up in our business.”
“I’m not everyone. I’m your best freaking friend.”
“Point taken. But are you telling me you would’ve never slipped and told Donovan?”
Ella dropped her jaw, the very picture of shocked offense. “I would never!”
Gen tilted her head to the side and gave her an “oh, really?” look. In response, Ella doubled down on her protest. “I wouldn’t! I swear!”
“Not even if you got drunk?” Ella opened her mouth to answer, but Gen cut her off. “Before you say anything, let me remind you that you married him while you were drunk and didn’t even remember doing it. So your reliability on the topic of what you would or wouldn’t have done with Donovan Valentine while drunk back in high school is…uh…suspect. To say the least.”
Ella held her position for a moment, looking like she might still try to push through and make her case, but then her cheeks flushed and her face collapsed into a self-deprecating smirk. She folded her arms across her chest and tilted her chin upward. “Fine. I’ll give you that one. But don’t think that makes us even. You still have a long way to go to make it up to me.”
“I know, girl. And I will.” Gen smiled. The corner had been turned, and she knew Ella was all but over it. One of the things she loved about her good-hearted friend was her almost pathological inability to hold a grudge. It was one of the purest expressions of her sweet heart.
Of course, Ella’s saintlihood sometimes had the effect of making Gen feel like a shitty human for all of her own faults, but right now it was working in her favor, so she was willing to overlook all of that.
Ella shook her head and pressed her fingers to her forehead. “Wow. I can’t believe this has been going on right under my nose all of this time, and I never had a clue! How is that even possible?”
Gen laughed—a short but good-natured bark of amusement. “Because unlike your transparent ass, I actually know how to hide my feelings.”
Ella flushed an even deeper shade of red. Her long-time crush-turned-love for Donovan had been obvious to Gen since they were all students at Valentine Bay High. And over all of those years, she’d rarely missed an opportunity to point it out, no matter how Ella had protested that it wasn’t true.
Of course, since the pair had been an official couple for almost six months by that point, Gen’s insistence on the existence of Ella’s feelings had turned into teasing “I told you so” moments, but Ella was so blissed out on love that she didn’t seem to mind.
Now the tables were turned, and it was Gen’s love life in the crosshairs of examination, and she didn’t care for it. Not one little bit. As much as she’d always had laser-sharp insights about other people’s lives—and no issue sharing them, thankyouverymuch—she didn’t like to turn that powerful gaze inward. Ever.
That had worked fine when all of her emotions and impulses had been under tight control. It had worked great, even. She was starting to get the idea, though, that her normal process might be losing some of its effectiveness. Or, like…all of its effectiveness.
Tomato. Tom-ah-toe.
“So, here’s the real question…” Ella began.
“How’s the sex?” Gen jumped in, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
Ella laughed. “Of course you would classify that as the ‘real’ question. And don’t get me wrong, we’ll be getting to that for sure. But, no, what I really want to know is, why are you telling me now?”
Gen shrugged. “You’re my best freaking friend, as you were quick to point out.”
Ella’s eyes narrowed. “Nice deflection. But I’ll try again. Why are you telling me now?”
Gen took a deep breath. “Oh, right. That. Yeah. Because I just found out he’s moving home. And I think I might…um…”
She gulped in another deep breath, but it didn’t make the words any easier to spit out.
Ella’s face lit up, and she leaned forward. “Are you trying to say that you like him, like him?”
Gen laughed. God, Ella made everything better. “Yes, Ell. That’s probably how I would’ve phrased it in seventh grade… but sure.”
“Whoa!”
“Yeah, I think ‘whoa’ kind of hits the nail on the head here.”
“How does Gavin feel about it?”
“Screw how Gavin feels about it. I don’t even know I feel about it!”
“Oh, yeah. You’re definitely ready to be in a relationship.”
Gen laughed along with her best friend’s good-natured teasing, but inside, her heart dropped into her gut. Ella had unintentionally spoken aloud Gen’s deepest fear—she simply wasn’t cut out for a relationship and never would be.
And when she combined that with the feelings that had suddenly cropped up for Gavin? And added the fact that Gavin was coming back to Valentine Bay? Well, that was a recipe for disaster if Gen had ever heard one.
