“Favor.” Wary, Bree pushed off the bed and backed away. Tucking her hands into her pockets, she asked, “I think you need to explain about this favor.”
“I don’t want Colby to be alone,” Alyssa said quietly. Her voice was faint, a bare echo of the deep, throaty purr it had been since her mid-teens. But for all its softness, it was firm. And certain. Very, very certain. “He deserves a happy life, but I know him. He’s going to lock himself away over this and brood. And brood. And brood and brood. You get the point.”
“He’s good at brooding. But he’ll be okay.”
“You don’t seem to get what I’m wanting here.”
Rolling her eyes, Bree said, “That’s because you haven’t asked me for anything. I’m not quite the mind-reader you are.”
Alyssa smiled. “That’s just because you like being the stubborn type. If you weren’t so damn stubborn, you’d know what I was getting at. I want you…with Colby.”
“With Colby.” Bree blinked, the words rattling around in her mind, but not connecting, not making any sense. “What do you mean?
“I mean, I want you with Colby,” Alyssa said.
Bree’s jaw dropped. Alyssa grinned.
“What in the hell are you talking about?”
“I want him happy. I don’t want him hooking up with some money grubber and I don’t want him spending his life alone.”
“Alyssa, he’s thirty years old. He’s got…” her voice trailed off. Man, it just seemed so damn wrong to talk about this right now. With Alyssa dying and her husband out chasing after lime sherbet for her.
“I know he’s young. I know he’s got time. But life’s precious. It wasn’t until this happened that I realized just how precious it is. I don’t want him to waste a minute of it. Colby, he’s every bit as stubborn as you are. Remember how long it took him to ask me out?”
“Nearly a year.” They said it together. Colby was the classic sexy geek come to life. A computer whiz, a science-fiction buff, a state chess champion and he was also an all-star athlete. Between his SATs and his ability on the basketball court and track, he’d gotten a full scholarship.
The three of them had grown up together and sometime during their freshman year, the two girls had both noticed how cute the brainy geek from eighth grade had gotten. It was Alyssa, though, who went after him. And Alyssa he fell in love with. She’d chased after him most their freshman year and just after tenth grade started, he finally asked her out. They’d been together ever since and Bree had spent most of that time in quiet envy. It might have been enough to break the friendship of some girls, but although Bree had privately fallen more and more in love with Colby, Alyssa was the sister she’d never had and she wasn’t about to lose that.
“Alyssa, you know I’d do anything for you, but you’re asking me for something that’s not in my control. What do you want me to do, show up here and tell him you want me to be with him so he doesn’t grow old alone? So he isn’t lonely or spending hours on end brooding? I can’t control that. Besides, why in the hell would he want me? He has to want me, or it doesn’t matter…” she trailed off, licked her lips and reminded herself that Alyssa already knew. It wasn’t such a secret anymore. “It doesn’t matter that I love him, unless he wants that from me.”
“And I think he will. You asked why in the hell he would want you, but I’ve got a better question. Why wouldn’t he?” Her lids drooped and her voice started to slur from exhaustion.
“You need to get some rest, Alyssa.”
“I’ve got plenty of time for that. Not so much for this.” She started to shiver, though. Bree grabbed the blanket and tucked it around Alyssa’s thin body. “I know I can’t control him. But I also know him. He’s going to hide—either in his work or in anything else that distracts him. Don’t let him hide, and when the time is right, I want you to do the same damn thing I did. Go after him.”
“You’d think, after twenty-five years, you couldn’t surprise me, Lys.” Shaking her head, Bree started to pace the room, staying close by the bed and keeping an eye on her friend. But she just couldn’t stand still. Not right now. “But I don’t get it. I can’t understand this.”
“There’s nothing complicated about it. I want the two of you happy. You’re my best friend, he’s my husband—I’ve never loved anybody the way I love you two. Why wouldn’t I want you to be happy?”
“I couldn’t do this—if we were switched, I know I couldn’t do this.”
Alyssa smiled. “Baby, I think you probably could…but I’m glad it’s me. And not you.”