“Friends with benefits.” She winks at me. “Like Katee and Luke were, and look how that turned out.”
“Wait, what?”
8
Jamie
I’ve been walking around with the worst fucking hard-on since seeing Fallon in her bathing suit this afternoon. Okay, maybe that’s not entirely true. The boner started when we were in the car and she thanked me. At first I thought she was just being her sincere self, but when I caught her nibbling on her bottom lip, it occurred to me that she was fucking with me. Oh, yeah, she knows what those two words do to me, and she said them on purpose.
Motherfucker.
I should stay away tonight. I should get back in the SUV and drive straight to my place, lock the door and never come out again. But am I going to do that? Fuck no. Seeing the smile on Fallon’s face, watching her come alive again, especially under my touch last week, is not something I can bring myself to run from, even though it’s exactly what I should be doing. But I want her happy, and if having sex again with me makes her happy, then who am I to deny her? Just as long as we’re both clear it’s just sex, and can never be anything more.
As we sit around the bonfire, day bleeding into night, Fallon sips wine and chats with the women as they all help the kids roast marshmallows. I take a sip of beer from my bottle and let it dangle from my fingers. Beside me, Cole gives me a nudge.
“Fallon fits right in,” he says.
“Yeah,” I mumble, unable to take my eyes off the way her shirt clings to her breasts and her frayed shorts show off her beautiful legs, legs I plan to have wrapped around my head tonight.
“How long have you been sleeping with her?”
My gaze jerks to Cole so fast my neck nearly snaps. I catch the smirk playing on his face and shake my head. “Fuck man, are you looking to be laid out with another concussion?”
Cole laughs. “Come on, Jamie. The tension between you two is explosive. Did you think we weren’t going to notice?”
“I was hoping.” I swing my bottle in my fingers before I take another sip. “She’s my sister-in-law,” I say.
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“She was my brother’s wife,” I say.
“Only because he claimed her first.”
“What the fuck, man?” Jesus, am I that transparent to Cole, to the others…to my parents? Does everyone know that I’ve always wanted Fallon as more than a friend? But now, after the accident, even though we’re both single, there can’t be more between us. I don’t want to let her down, hurt her more than she’s been hurt.
Cole relaxes in his lawn chair, kicks his legs out and crosses his feet at the ankles. Once he’s comfortable, he says, “Just calling it as I see it.”
“I was engaged to another woman, remember?”
“And now you’re not.”
“No, I’m not.” I wanted to do right by Sara when she got pregnant, and I liked her a lot. But did I love her? Would I ever be able to love a woman the way I love Fallon?
Fuck me.
Chase shrieks when his marshmallow catches on fire, and I can’t take my eyes from Fallon’s mouth when she blows it out. I shift, uncomfortable in my shorts and Cole, bastard that he is, chuckles beside me.
“You two are good together,” he says.
“We’re not having this conversation.” I finish the beer and reach into the cooler and grab two more. I twist the caps off and hand one to Cole.
“I’m just saying. She can’t keep her eyes off you. You can’t keep your eyes off her. You guys have been pretty good friends over the years.”
“That’s all we are, Cole. Friends. We can’t be anything more than that. I’m not the guy for her.”
“Okay, then. Maybe I’ll give Kane a call. She’s definitely his type.”
Once again, my head snaps around and I glare at Cole. He laughs and shakes his head. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”