Winning my Best Friend's Girl - Piper Rayne Page 0,7
but she speaks before I can. “I should go and check on my other patients. I’m sure Allie is on top of your MRI, but I’ll be back.”
“Thanks,” I say.
She smiles softly and turns to leave.
“Stella?” I stop her before she can escape.
She glances over her shoulder at me.
“You look really good.”
“So do you, King.” She pushes the curtain back and slides out of my view.
My fingers grip the sheets on either side of my hips.
Friends. I must be delusional to offer that option. Look how that ended up the first time. The worst part is, she doesn’t even know that she’s talking to one of my good friends. The person who has been essentially my best friend since I joined the department. And I’m the jackass who didn’t tell her that dating the guy she met last night puts us right back to where we were when she left Lake Starlight eight years ago.
Austin walks through the curtain a couple of minutes later. My oldest brother is the one who tried to guide me through the tangled vines of Stella and Owen and mine’s friendship. He’s seen me at my worst, yet he never throws it in my face.
“So what’s going on?” He takes the chair to my left. “Did you talk to her?”
I nod. “We agreed to be friends.”
“Friends?” His voice sounds just like hers did.
“We were friends once.”
He runs his hand through his hair. “King, you were friends when you were adolescents, before puberty hit and feelings developed. She’s the girl you’ve always loved. How can you possibly just be friends with her?”
Obviously, Juno kept the fact that she knows Stella is talking to Lou to herself. “Last night at Tipsy Turvy, she met Lou and they exchanged numbers.”
Austin’s jaw drops, but he recovers before he thinks I’ve seen his reaction. “You’ve got to be kidding me. It’s all happening again?”
I nod, unable to really process that I lost her before I even knew she was back. Then again, she decided to keep her return a secret. She went to a blind dating event to meet someone new, knowing I was a short drive down the highway. I’ll be damned if I look like the lovesick puppy dog following after her with my tongue hanging out—again.
“No, it’s not happening again. Because I’m gonna move on with my life.” I grab my phone and click on Instagram, unfollowing her with the tap of my thumb. “It’s time I move forward in my life without the name Stella Harrison haunting me.”
“What do you mean?” Austin leans back in the chair.
“I’m going to start looking ahead to my future.”
“I’m proud of you. It takes guts to do that.” He smiles, happy because he believes, like the rest of my family does, that I don’t care about the future or value my life all that much.
Maybe I’m just the last one to know that Stella Harrison and Kingston Bailey aren’t meant to walk away into the sunset and live happily ever after.
Four
Stella
The following Friday after seeing Kingston live and in person, Lou knocks on my apartment door. I’ve tried to push Kingston from my thoughts all week, but it’s proven to be easier said than done.
A seed of guilt sprouts every time I talk to Lou on the phone. I’ve had boyfriends since high school, but nothing that turned serious. Only one guy ever called me out on my need to keep my emotions close to my chest. But I think that was because I allowed our relationship to continue when I should have ended it weeks earlier.
But Kingston was so quick to suggest that we just be friends, what am I supposed to think? Not to mention I purposely didn’t tell him I was in town. The anger I saw in his eyes isn’t unwarranted.
I open the door to find Lou dressed in a pair of nice jeans and a button-down shirt. He’s attractive, and I’m sure a lot of women admire his broad shoulders and tall frame. Pushing Kingston out of my head, I grab my purse from my kitchen table and join him on the other side of the door.
“You look stunning,” he says.
I smile. “You look great too.”
The typical awkward silence of a first date blankets us as we walk out of my apartment to his truck. I keep having to remind myself that I’m back in Alaska, where the truck to car ratio is two hundred to one.