“Did you elope?” This from Dora.
Frank chimed in. “Are you going to be making as much of a racket tonight as you did during that storm?”
Jamie was about to swallow a swig of beer but choked it back into the bottle after that one.
He threaded his fingers through Brynn’s under the table. When she didn’t retract her hand, he took it as encouragement and decided to go for broke.
“Actually,” he said, bringing her hand to his lips for a quick kiss, “we met in middle school.”
Their table mates oohed and aahed, and Brynn stayed silent, so Jamie continued.
“She was listening to the Monkees, and I thought she was insane, and that was pretty much it. Best friends ever since.”
She didn’t smile or squeeze his hand or anything that gave him the thumbs-up. It was like she was waiting for something, so he kept going, wanting her to know not only did he love her now, but it had always been her.
“I was an idiot for a lot of years, but when we were juniors in high school, that’s when I fell hard.”
“What?” Brynn’s voice cracked on the word, and there was no going back now. He was going to lay it all out there because how could he not? “You were with Stephanie Delaney when we were juniors.”
Her eyes were wide, and maybe this was too much too soon, but he felt the clock ticking. In two days they’d be in L.A., and what happened then banked on what happened now.
“I wasn’t in love with her. It took being with her to realize that I was already with the person I loved most. She just didn’t know it.”
Her eyes welled with tears, and he wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not.
She looked at him, at their small audience, and then at him again. He watched her piece it together, willing her to speak.
“I thought…” she finally said. “I asked you to kiss me.”
He reached for her cheek with his palm.
“No,” she said, her voice cracking. “No. We figured it out together. Just like today.”
He shook his head. “I figured it out at the reunion,” he admitted. He knew they were blowing their cover, but he didn’t care. She needed to know everything now. “I tried to tell you, but there were you and Spencer in my office.” Her eyes widened, but he kept going. “And I thought I was too late, so this trip was my last chance to tell you how I feel—to see if you might choose me, and—”
She pulled away from his touch. Okay that was a bad sign.
He watched her eyes grow distant.
The table was silent, and Jamie now wished he’d saved this conversation for when they were alone in the bedroom disguised as a garden, but he had to make it to the end of his story, or his beer was going to get warm and everyone’s chili cold.
“You lied about the trip? About wanting to take me to the book launch?” She trembled as she spoke. “You let me go on about facing my fears, about going after someone else so I could have a chance at the same happiness you found, and the whole time you’ve been plotting to get me off course? Why wouldn’t you just tell me how you felt?”
She pushed her chair from the table and stood.
“I’m sorry, Dora. Frank.” Brynn forced a quick smile, then left the room.
Whoa. This was so not going at all where he thought it would. Jamie’s brain tried to think of a means for damage control, but all it came up with was Go after her, so he did. When he made it to the hallway, Brynn exploded.
“You already messed with my heart once,” she admitted. “For a decade I’ve watched you go through relationship after relationship, and now that you finally realize I’m the one you want, you don’t even say anything?” She sucked in a long breath and let it go. It killed him to hear the tremor in that sound. “If I hadn’t gotten sick that night ten years ago—if I hadn’t asked you to kiss me—would you ever have told me how you felt? Or was it all bullshit?”
“Hey,” he interrupted, anger and pain warring in his tone. “That wasn’t bullshit. Jesus, Brynn. I watched you pine for Spencer for a year. You didn’t quite give me an opening to spill my heart. And then when you finally did, I was fucking terrified of losing you after I lost my goddamn family. I needed the one thing in my life that was stable, that wouldn’t change or pull the rug out from under me. And that was you…my best friend.”