Winning my Best Friend's Girl - Piper Rayne Page 0,6
to her like a fly to a trap when we were younger. I can’t help but be reminded of the way she tasted when I kissed her all those years ago. “I should have told you I was back.”
“Yeah, you should have,” I say. “Why didn’t you?”
She lets out a huge breath. “You know how it is, Kingston. You would have pushed, and I wouldn’t have had the energy to push back. I’m not going to get between you and Owen again.”
“To hell with Owen,” I say. My friendship with him is complicated. We’ve never truly gotten back to where we were before teenage hormones took over and we fought over the girl we both fell in love with. The girl standing in front of me right now.
“Don’t say that. The only reason I’m back here is because of my mom.” She glances toward the door. “She’s sick.”
“Selene is sick? I just saw her.”
She smiles briefly, but then her lips press together. “It’s lupus. It’s an autoimmune—”
“I know what lupus is,” I say. “How long and how bad?”
“She was diagnosed two years ago, and it’s been okay so far. But I talked to her doctor and you know how she is… she only wants holistic medicine, so I’m trying to push her into taking this other drug that might help her more. Her being ill just reminded me that I couldn’t stay away forever.”
A part of me always knew when she returned, it would be because of her mom. It shouldn’t hurt that I’ve never been enough to keep her here, but it does.
“Then why not come to me and tell me?” I ask.
She dodges eye contact with me. It’s clear why she didn’t. I have no part in her future. I’m only part of her past.
“Never mind. Don’t answer that.”
“But—”
I shake my head, not ready to hear her say it. I can play this two ways. Do what I did to drive her away in the first place and never have her in my life or have her in my life in a different capacity. The way she was before I fell head over heels in love with her. “It’s fine. Honestly. But I’d like to at least be friends.”
“Friends?” Her tone is one of surprise and disgust mixed together.
“Yeah, remember that’s how we started off? I work at the fire department, so we’re going to see each other a lot. I don’t want it to be awkward.”
She nods a few times, her eyes meeting mine. “Are you sure?”
I chuckle although it’s fake. “Yeah, I’m positive. If you need any help with your mom, let me know. Or is it a secret?”
She shakes her head as though she wasn’t expecting this reaction from me. But she made her decision about us as soon as she snuck back into town. I wasn’t important enough to tell, and although it hurts, I can’t keep torturing myself. She obviously doesn’t feel the same way about me as I do about her.
“You know how prideful she is,” Stella says.
I do. Selene is a tough-ass woman, and she raised her daughter to be just as tough. “Then I won’t say anything.”
The door nudges open and Allie pops her head in. She smiles at me first then looks at Stella. “Dr. Harrison, the patient in room five’s labs have returned and I need your authorization to contact the surgeon.”
“Thanks, Allie. I’ll be right there.”
“You hanging in there, Romeo?” Allie asks. “I’ll go check on your MRI. We told them stat.”
I wink. “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
The door shuts and Stella’s head tilts, giving me a glimpse of one side of her long neck. The same neck I used to always wish I could put my lips on. “Romeo?”
“It’s a nickname at the station. I didn’t earn it the way you think I did.” Although I’m not going to tell her the details.
“Well, they sure like you around here. I heard all about you before I realized you were Romeo.”
I smile wide. The nurses flirt and a few have insinuated they’d like to do more than that, but I work with these people. I’m not going to ruin our working relationship just for some ass I can get somewhere else. “What do they say?”
“I’m not telling.” She smiles, and it lights up her face for the first time.
“I hope it’s positive?” I say.
“I’m sure you do.” Our eyes lock briefly, and her hands grip the railing at the bottom of my bed. My mouth opens to say something else,