Page 17 of The Perfect Heart

“Holy shit, is that who I think it is?”

“Yep. She got back about two weeks ago, just after you left for your business trip.”

I added the shot of apple jack to the mug before adding hot water and a slice of lemon, using a spoon to stir up the honey at the bottom.

Jonas whipped around. “Two weeks? She’s been here two weeks, and you didn’t say a damn thing to me?”

Shrugging, I put the cider toddy onto the bar and grabbed a whiskey glass. “You didn’t ask.”

My friend’s eyes narrowed, and I bit back a grin and poured the whiskey over the ice—there were few things I enjoyed more than baiting the guy. I still didn’t look at him as I placed it next to the toddy, my gaze instead seeking Halle again.

She was still at the same table, chatting with the customers, her smile bright. The sight warmed me enough that it took me a second to drag my gaze away—

—Only to find Jonas staring at me, his eyes narrowed.

“Are you going to fill me in on whatever the hell has gone on the past two weeks? And what the hell Halle Morris, or whatever the hell her name is now, is doing back here and working at your bar? Wasn’t she supposed to be in LA?”

So I filled him in, though I left out any mention of how nervous Halle seemed sometimes. Or the gum wrapper that had fallen out of her door when she had opened it the night before. I didn’t believe for a second it had randomly fallen from her purse and somehow lodged itself between the door and the frame.

I did, however, mention that she had invited me in to see a movie.

“I don’t know, though, man.” I shook my head, pulling down the knob so amber beer tumbled into the glass, waiting for the thin line of foam at the top before I slid it to join the others destined for a table. “It was weird. I swear we had a moment last night.”

“A moment?” Jonas’s eyebrows rose, and he put his beer down on the bar top so he could lean forward. “What kind of moment?”

Like everyone else who had stayed in this town, Jonas and I had known each other for years—there was only one high school, after all. But the friendship had grown after we had graduated and Halle had moved.

“I swear I felt something between us,” I admitted, taking a momentary lull in the orders to take a long drink out of a beer myself. “It was weird. I hadn’t felt anything like that before.”

Leaning my hip against the counter behind the bar, I crossed my arms, gaze on the wooden ceiling beams.

I hadn’t had a crush on Halle in high school, though my mom had refused to believe it. So had a lot of other people who swore up and down that men and women couldn’t be friends without some kind of attraction. But that hadn’t been it at all. Her friendship had been just that—a good friendship.

But ever since she had walked into the bar that night two weeks ago, I’d begun to look at her in a different light. I wasn’t sure when my overprotectiveness had come roaring back, like muscle memory from our friendship, had crossed the line to become something else. Something unexpected I wasn’t sure I was ready to admit or explore.

Shaking my head, I pushed myself upright just as another order came in.

“I don’t know. Maybe it was just the moment, you know? It wasn’t anything but a dark room and the girl I hadn’t seen for five years. That has to be it, right? I never felt anything but friendship for Halle back in school.”

Jonas shrugged. “Yeah, but that was a long time ago. You were different people, and you spent a lot of time apart. What makes you think everything would go back to being exactly the same now that she’s back?”

It was a good point.

Damn it.

I pulled the two beers and passed them to the server.

“So—” I paused, taking another long drink of my own beer, teetering between facing the possibilities and backing away from them.

“So?” Jonas prompted, eyebrows nearing his hairline in a gesture to continue.

It still took me another moment to go on, and I leaned on the bar, lowering my voice.

“So what if I am looking at her differently now? There’s no guarantee she feels the same way. And anyway, she said she left her husband, not that they got a divorce. She’s still technically married, so I can’t overstep any boundaries. And—”

I leaned even closer, and so did Jonas, his expression gleeful with the promise of whatever information dropped my voice to a near whisper.

“—She’s been on edge ever since she came back to town.”