“Why did you ask me if I knew about the rumors when you already knew that I did?”he asked.“Were you testing me?”One look at her face told him the answer.Dan gritted his teeth.“Is that why you’re distancing yourself from me?Even after you kept your whole bloody past career from me, you’re angry that I didn’t tell you someone else’s secret?”He scoffed and shook his head.“Thanks,friend.”
“Dan—”
“What else did I babble on about that day?Did I tell you my life story?Have you been testing me all along about it?”
“No.Of course not.”
But something like guilt flashed across her face.Why?He didn’t truly believe she’d been testing him about everything, but what was she keeping from him?
“Libby?What else did I say that day?”
Her brow creased as she picked at her nails.“You said that you would always love her.”
Isabella.He’d always love Isabella…
“Right.”The pain he’d felt a few weeks ago loomed over him again.If saying he’d always love Isabella had come from his subconscious, was that how he still truly felt?“I see.”
“Me too,” Libby said sadly.“What you said that day was private, and it was obvious you didn’t mean to say it out loud.Not to me, anyway.”
“You should’ve told me.”
“I wanted to protect your privacy.You would’ve freaked out if I’d told you the next day.We didn’t know each other then.”
Dan scrubbed his face again and sighed.“Maybe we still don’t really know each other now, either.”
Libby stiffened.“I guess not.”Then she turned to Karim.“Come on, honey.We’d better get back home.Let’s walk along the beach and get another of those delicious milkshakes.”Karim jumped into her arms, and she hooked her bag over her shoulder, looking Dan’s way.“Maybe you should stay here tonight after all.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s no reason for you to stay with us now that you’ve got this place back.”
Thedaywasgoingfrom bad to worse.
Had she just dumped Dan?
Libby had gotten herself and Karim out the door and to the beach so fast that now, even she’d been left confused by what had happened.All she knew was that at least one of the extra benefits of their special kind of friendship was now well and truly over, and she was so damned mad at him.
His secret texting with Isabella?His covert looking at her social media?The whole frickin’ Isabella-free zone?As if his ex were some rare precious jewel, only to be looked at by a chosen few.It was obvious he was still in love with her!Why didn’t he just come out and say it?
Libby jabbed her toe into the sand.
Why had he said all those things about sorting out what was going on between them now?
Why had he gotten upset that she’d tested him?
Not that she’d done so consciously.Not really.But now a guilty knot weighed heavily in her stomach.If Dan had said yes to knowing about those damned rumors, was she right to expect him to tell her all about them?Like he’d said, it was someone else’s secret.And she’d been keeping things from him, too.She had her reasons, but so did he, and there was nothing in their handshake deal that said they had to tell each other their deepest, darkest secrets.All they’d really promised each other was to work on a five-part series together and stay friends after having sex.
That guilty knot in her stomach doubled in size.Dan had also been right to say she’d been distancing herself from him these past couple of days.But wasn’t it better to jump rather than be pushed, rather than wait until her heart had gotten in deeper?
But maybe the scars Elliot had left on her soul were just as plain to see as the scars on Dan’s body.
Could she ever trust a man again, even if she wanted to?
Was she always going to set them up to fail?
She swallowed down her insecurities.She didn’t want to live her life scared of taking chances.Putting barriers around people she liked and loved wasn’t the healthiest, soundest way to be.Love meant taking risks.But she’d taken the risk before and had ended up a crying mess at Elliot’s feet.
Libby jabbed her toe in the sand again and yelped when she scraped against something sharp.A crab.A broken shell.A jagged pebble.Who knew what lay beneath the surface?She checked her toe for blood but found nothing.Karim came to investigate, too, and patted her foot.
