Winning my Best Friend's Girl - Piper Rayne Page 0,44
won’t be able to if you and I have been a thing.”
He winks. “I can be a great distraction in bed if you need one.”
I giggle because he just won’t let it go. “You’re just too close to Kingston.”
His hand covers his heart. “Man, day two and you stripped all my beat-off material from my arsenal.”
“I don’t even want to know.” I lift my coffee mug to my lips.
But Lou continues anyway. “Now that I know you have a thing for my friend, if you come out in a bikini for the hot tub, I won’t be able to lie in my bed at night and beat off. You’re off-limits now.”
“Now? What changed when you were willing to date me before?”
“Truth?” he mimics my earlier answer.
“Yeah.”
“I hadn’t been around the two of you enough at that point. Didn’t know it was a lost cause until I felt the vibe you two give off when you’re together.”
“Vibe?”
“This charged chemistry. I’m a firefighter, so I’m not really afraid of much, but once the two of you decide to finally drop the barrier between you, I don’t want to be within five miles.” He laughs and buries his head in the fridge, pulling out a carton of eggs and bacon.
It’s disturbing that we’re that transparent in front of other people. First Allie and now Lou. I worry Samantha is going to feel uneasy if she senses what Lou is between us. People mistake it for sexual tension, but sometimes it’s plain old uncomfortableness because I have no idea how to act in front of Kingston. He’s known these people we’re in the house with, and I’m new to the group. That brings out a shyness in me I never knew existed until now. It’s awkward when you’re around someone who, at one point in your life, knew you better than you knew yourself and now is somewhat of a stranger to you.
“Well, I don’t see that happening, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”
Lou cracks the eggs on the bowl with one hand and I find myself impressed by the maneuver. Maybe because I suck at cooking, even though my mom could be a gourmet chef. Her bed-and-breakfast guests rave all over Yelp about her mac and cheese, but I didn’t get her talent in the gene pool lottery.
“Can I ask why?” he asks.
I stand from the stool and round the counter, pulling out the frying pan. To help him or hinder him, we’ll see what the end result is. “Sometimes it feels like there’s this invisible electric fence between us and the minute we step over, we get zapped.”
He raises both eyebrows.
“There’s just a long past between us. Not all good.” I open up the bacon package because my sous chef skills are slightly better than my cooking skills after helping my mom in the kitchen over the years.
“It’s funny, you’re kind of like a secret past of Kingston’s.”
I stop after putting one slice in the frying pan. He takes out a fork and whisks all one dozen eggs.
“What does that mean?” I ask.
He glances over his shoulder at me. “Before you came to town, I thought I knew everything about Kingston. I knew about his parents dying, about all of his siblings, baseball, and even his arm being injured. But I never heard your name out of his mouth. He left you out of his past. I’ve never seen anyone have this effect on him.”
I ignore the deep gash left behind from Lou’s comment about Kingston never talking about me. Even one of my med school friends knew about Kingston because I had a hard time not mentioning him when we talked about exes one day. He was never officially my ex, but he still felt like the one who’d slipped away.
“What effect is that?” I ask.
“Tortured? Or unresolved maybe? It’s hard to explain. Maybe he just wanted to keep you all to himself.”
I laugh. “I was in New York. He couldn’t keep me all to himself.”
Lou’s hip lands next to mine at the stove and I feel awkward that he’s this close. “I meant that he wanted to keep whatever memories the two of you share to himself. He didn’t want anyone else butting in with their opinions because it might change the way he remembers things or remembers you.”
I mindlessly place the rest of the bacon in the frying pan. I jump out of the way when they crackle and sizzle.