She clenched her jaw. “If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have given us another try. You know me better than that.”
She thought he did, anyway. The reason she flitted from guy to guy was because she was looking for that special something. Love was such an elusive thing, she didn’t want to miss out because she refused to look.
Zane crossed his arms. “It never works out. You destroyed that friendship a long time ago, and you keep trying with him. When you and Archer are together, he’s this controlling, possessive jackass, and you keep going back to him anyway. It doesn’t bother me that you’re looking for something special, but you keep investing so much in these fucking losers. They’re not right for you—it’s obvious—and you still dive into it. It always ends with both of you miserable, and it wouldn’t have to be that way if you recognized it from the start.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I didn’t realize you thought so little of me. So... what? This friendship is your version of pity for the girl who can’t make up her mind because she’s delusional about finding her Prince Charming? Or maybe you’d prefer I ran my choices by you first.”
“That’s not what I meant. I’m just saying you’re too good for these guys. The same way I tell you every time you end up with another doorknob.”
“Really?” She couldn’t keep the hurt coursing through her from leaking into her reply. “Because it sounded like you were accusing me of being a heartless devourer of souls.”
“You’re being melodramatic.”
“You’re being a jerk.” This was all wrong. It wasn’t supposed to go this way. Six years apart, and they’d kept in touch... until two years ago. They’d remained friends while he had a psychotic fiancée. Now they’d been back together for less than an hour, and it was tearing them apart.
“Riley.” He reached for her, but she pulled away. His frown deepened. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Drop it. Don’t make this worse.”
“Please?” He grabbed her hand, holding her fingers between his. “You’re this amazing, beautiful soul, and I get it—you see good in people who don’t deserve it. It gets painful to watch sometimes.”
That’s what she got for dissecting her relationships with him online. A tiny voice whispered she was overreacting, and most of her agreed. That didn’t stop Zane’s words from digging deep, echoing with her own fears and insecurities. She swallowed it all, leaving a lingering bitter taste in her mouth. “I don’t mean to do that to you. Dinner?”
“Yeah. All right.”
The foot between them as they walked to his truck felt wider than the thousands of miles that had been there a week ago. Riley wanted to see this from his perspective. Most of her failed relationships weremehat best, but she wouldn’t have known that if she’d walked away without giving them a chance.
Zane, though. If they could get past whatever this was, things could go back to right. She wouldn’t let her mistakes bleed over into their friendship.
Chapter Three
Zane didn’t know whatto focus on first as he parked his truck on the street in front of the remodeled Victorian. Frustration? Hurt? Annoyance? Dinner conversation was stilted, and the meal had barely started before he and Riley both made their excuses to get back.
He never had to watch what he said around Riley before, but apparently things were different now.
He made his way up the sloping lawn to the storefront. Archer had inherited the house in The Aves from his grandmother. It had taken a lot of petitioning to get the city to license the project, but Archer finally got the permits to turn the main floor into a comic-book shop. The top floor was Archer’s pad, and he’d converted the middle floor into two apartments, one of which was Zane’s until he found a new source of income.