She had steeled herself for what was bound to be an intensely awkward conversation, so when she entered his office and was greeted by a warm smile, her surprise was genuine.
“Hey, Darce.” AJ rose from his desk chair and wasted no time striding toward her. The hug he gave her was sweet and familiar, and she found herself sinking into his embrace.
No matter how uneventful their sex life had been, she’d always loved AJ’s hugs. He had a way of making her feel safe and protected, and she was glad to see that the warmth between them still existed even though they were no longer dating.
“Hey. How are you doing?” She pulled back to meet his eyes, her question laced with more than one meaning.
His green eyes glimmered knowingly. “Do you mean how am I doing with the breakup, or how am I doing with the fact that you’re hooking up with my best friend?”
She winced. “AJ—”
He interrupted with a laugh. “I’m just being a brat, Darce. I’m fine on both counts.”
“But why?” she couldn’t help but blurt out. “Shouldn’t you be yelling at me? I mean, most guys would not be cool about their ex-girlfriend turning around and sleeping with one of their closest friends. Which means you’re either a saint, or a total dumbass.”
“I’d wager a little bit of both.”
AJ cast her the boyish grin that had charmed her off her feet the day they’d met when he’d approached her at a coffeehouse in Beacon Hill and informed her that she had the prettiest eyes he’d ever seen. They’d had coffee that day, dinner the following night, and within a week they were seeing each other exclusively. AJ was so damn easy to talk to, and so attentive to everyone else’s needs, often sacrificing his own to make another person happy.
And now he was doing it again, stepping aside while she and Reed…did their thing, for lack of a better phrase.
“Honestly?” AJ said ruefully. “I can’t say I was surprised when Reed told me what happened. He’s usually good at keeping his cards close to the vest, but he did a pretty shitty job hiding that he had a thing for you. It was wicked obvious.”
She blinked in surprise. “It was? Why didn’t you ever tell me you thought that?”
“Because you were my girlfriend, dumbass.” He rolled his eyes. “And at the time I still thought we might have something special. The last thing I wanted to do was plant the idea in your head and then watch you dump me for Reed.”
“I never would have done that,” she said firmly.
“I know. I just didn’t want to risk it.” He shrugged. “But like my mom always says, the universe has a plan, and obviously it wanted you and Reed to get together.”
“We’re not together, per se. We’re…” Her cheeks heated up. “I’m not really sure what we are. I honestly don’t think it will go anywhere, though.”
She figured it was wiser not to tell him that she knew for certain it wouldn’t go anywhere—she planned on making sure of that. Taking her mother’s advice, Darcy had plainly laid out the ground rules to Reed, and she was going to adhere to each and every one.
AJ obviously disagreed. “I think it will go somewhere, Darce. You and Reed make sense together in ways that you and I never did. I think it’s the way you challenge him, and the excitement… That’s what fuels a relationship. That’s what we didn’t have.”
She smiled sadly. “But we had other things. Good things.”
“We had friendship.” With a smile of his own, he tweaked a strand of her hair before taking a step back. “Don’t get me wrong, friendship is important too. But it can’t be all there is.”
He was right, but his quiet assertion still evoked a pang of sorrow. AJ Walsh was a standup guy. Sweet, funny, kind, supportive. Why couldn’t she have fallen in love with him? He was the perfect man, for Pete’s sake, and if the perfect man wasn’t enough for her, then who was?
There was a knock on the door, and then Reed sauntered into the office. “Hey, man, do you—” He stopped short when he spotted Darcy. “Oh. Hi. I didn’t know you were here.”
“Uh. Yeah. I decided to stop by tonight instead of tomorrow. My friend Shannon has this improv show she wants me to go to tomorrow night, so I’ll be busy…doing that…” She trailed off, her discomfort rising steadily.
It was so frickin’ weird to share the same space as AJ and Reed, especially since she’d been in bed with the latter mere hours ago. The two of them had gone to her place after wrapping up the last self-defense class at her school, and just as she’d come to expect, the sex had been ridiculously awesome.
Now that Reed was five feet away from her, desire returned in full force, slamming into her like a sledgehammer. He was in all black again, wearing one of those tight T-shirts that hugged his broad chest, and pants just snug enough to outline his long, muscular legs.
And boy, it was so wrong to even acknowledge how sexy he was with AJ standing right beside her. A pretzel of guilt knotted around her insides as she looked from one man to the other.