“So, how long have you guys been together?” Elena asked brightly.
I choked. Joe had showed up when I really needed him.He was a genuinely good guy. But I was not making the mistake of misinterpreting another man’s signals. Of misreading his intentions. Bad enough that I jumped into things. I was not dragging him with me into the deep end.
“Oh, we’re not…That is…I mean, I’ve known Joe all my life. But…”
“We’re friends,” Joe said, coming to my rescue.
I smiled at him gratefully and took a slug of beer.Friendswas good.Friendswas smart.Friendswas safe.
Kelsey’s gaze went from Joe’s impassive face to my hot one. “So, this weekend is just a one-off.”
I managed not to sputter. “Yeah, no. Not really. See, the thing is…” I threw another look at Joe.
His cheek indented, the way it did when he was amused. He held up both hands, palms out. “I’m not telling them about the thing.”
Protecting my privacy. Which was lovely, but I’d never been good at keeping my mouth shut. “My boyfriend—ex-boyfriend—had a thing this weekend.”
“A different thing,” Joe murmured.
I kicked him under the table. “He’s finishing his residency, and Joe offered to drive me down to surprise him. My boyfriend. Only he wasn’t expecting me, and…Well, anyway, we broke up. But it’s graduation weekend, right? So I didn’t have anyplace to stay, and I had too much to drink, and Joe—being such a goodfriend—came and got me, and…There’s only one bed—like, a sofa bed—so we, um…shared.”
I trailed off because, okay, that was a lot. I’d never met these people before. Joe’s friends. I was probably embarrassing him. Also myself.
James nodded. “Pity fuck.”
Elena bumped him with her shoulder. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
Heat swept from my chest to my hairline. I didn’t dare look at Joe. “More like a sympathy cuddle,” I said.
“Too bad,” Elena said. “We’ve been trying to get Joe back out there since the divorce.”
I did look at him then, which was a mistake, because he had the barest quirk at the corner of his mouth. His brown hair was sticking up in all directions, as if he’d run his hands through it after taking off his construction hat, and his eyes…You could fall into those eyes, dark and deep. Something pulsed low and warm inside me. I reached again blindly for my pizza. Chris and I had just broken up. I could not be feeling feelings for Joe. Anyway, if I did, I couldn’t act on them.
“Maybe he needs more time,” I said through a mouthful of crust.
“It’s been two years,” Kelsey pointed out.
I chewed. Swallowed. Honestly, I agreed with her. Two years was a long time to be alone. Whyhadn’tJoe moved on? He’d never said he was over his ex-wife, only that they wanted different things. Was he still bitter? Hoping she’d come to her senses? Secretly nursing a broken heart?
“I’ve been busy,” he said.
“You could be busier,” Kelsey said, “if you took those commissions I keep offering you.”
He shook his head at her. There was a history, a subtext there I was totally missing.
“The problem, bro, is you have no game,” James said, equally clueless or simply better at diffusing tension.
“Joe doesn’t need game,” Elena said. “He’s hot.”
He smiled at her, wry and affectionate. “I live with my mom and my little sister on an island with a year-round population of six hundred people. I don’t get a lot of opportunities to play.”
“Dude. You’re a summer destination location. You could get so much vacation booty.”
“That’s not what he wants,” I said.
They all looked at me.
Elena cocked her head. “Okay. What does he want?”
