He did what?
I crack a smile at the scene unraveling in my mind. He spilled his drink on her? That certainly doesn’t look like the behavior of a guy who purposefully kissed her. And he did push her away.
Stop, he still let her get close enough to kiss him in the first place!
I’m about to tell Luke about the message when he stops me.
One move is all it takes.
He places a hand on top of mine.
Please tell me this is a friendly gesture.
“You’re amazing, you know that?” He smiles. “Smart, funny, gorgeous. He may not see it, but I do.”
Okay, definitely not friendly.
“Luke, I…” The words leave me.
I can’t for the life of me figure out what to say. How do I turn him down after everything he’s done for me? It’d be so much easier if I felt the same. If I liked the guy who likes me. The good guy.
The guy who’d never kiss my best friend.
Panic takes over my body when Luke zeroes in on my lips, leaning in. Ironically, this is the exact moment my brain decides to take a nap. For the first time in my life, I don’t know what I want. I, Kassidy Kingston, the obsessive planner, have no clue what direction to take. But I know what I don’t want.
And what I don’t want…
Is to kiss Luke Jenson.
He is everything I need: stable, loving, respectful. I should want him. I should want the guy with the good manners and bright future, but what can I say? I’m a sucker for damaged blonds with walls higher than the Empire State Building.
I love myself a heart harder to penetrate than Fort Knox.
And yes, Will is probably never going to give me what I want. He kissed Zoey. Out of all people.
He kissed her.
But kissing Luke would be stooping down to his level.
“Luke, wait.” My hands fly up to his chest, but I don’t get to push him away…
Because someone does it for me.
“In your fucking dreams!”
Luke is torn off me with such strength that his shirt nearly rips. I yelp as he wobbles a few steps backward, gripping my desk for balance. I take in the fuming, broad-shouldered guy at the foot of my bed. How did he…
I didn’t even hear him come in.
“Will?”
Did I forget to lock the front door? Guess I was too busy drowning in my snot.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“I just… I had to see you. To explain,” he begs.
I can’t handle his puppy eyes.
“So what? Now you give a shit about her, Martins?” Luke spits. “What happened? Did Zoey get boring?”
Radiating anger, Will tilts his head to the side. There are no more jokes in his eyes, no more escapes. Not a trace of the cocky, prankster guy I fell for. He’s this close to ripping Luke a new one.
“Back off. This doesn’t concern you,” Will cautions.
Luke overlooks his warning. “You’ve hurt her enough, don’t you think? You can’t be mad someone else wants to be with her when you don’t, asshole.”
Will’s jaw flexes and he inhales a deep, noisy breath as if to keep himself in check.
Then he says it.
“But I do.”
He moves closer.
“I really… really…” Another step. “Fucking do.” He stares me dead in the eyes as he says it, his voice so weak it’s barely audible. He looks petrified by the mere thought of admitting that.
Luke scoffs. “You’re insane if you think she—”
“Luke,” I whisper.
He looks at me.
“Please, go.”
I hate being rude, but William Martins is talking about his feelings for once in a goddamn lifetime, and I don’t know how long it’s going to last.
It’s now or never.
Kass, why do you even care?
He kissed Zoey!
Luke frowns. “Excuse me?”
“I’m so sorry I brought you into this. I can handle it from here. Thanks for being such a good friend.”
The switch is instant. Luke becomes this entirely different person, his features twitching in fury.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Friends?” Luke snarls, rushing toward me, which kick-starts Will’s reflexes. Will extends his left arm in front of me, nudging me behind him.
Luke huffs out a bitter laugh at Will’s protective instincts, talking to me over my bodyguard’s shoulder. “It didn’t look like we were friends when you came running into my arms like a pathetic mess every time he fucked up. You slut, you did everything you could to make me think you liked me. Asking me out on a date? Texting me?”
Guilt sinks into me.
Will loses it. “Call her a slut one more time, I swear—”
“Stop!” I screech, wedging myself between them. “Luke, I admit it. At the beginning, I strung you along, and that was wrong. I’m sorry, I really am. Then we started working together and… I thought we’d become friends. I promise I never meant to play with your feelin—”
“Fuck this. You two deserve each other,” Luke snaps, racing toward the door. Seconds before he walks out, he stops. “Oh, and Kass?”
I know exactly what he’s going to say.
“Consider yourself fired.”
Here we go.
His footsteps fade down the stairs, and the front door closes with a bang. We don’t speak for several seconds. Until Will elbows my door shut. I morph into a nervous wreck. We all know what happened the last time we were alone.
“Golden boy has a temper. Who knew?” He tries a joke, but I can’t bring myself to laugh.
“Are you seriously making jokes right now? You just kissed Zoey. How can you do that, then have the audacity to show up at my house and pretend to care about me?”
“I’m not pretending!” he argues. “And she kissed me. I would never do that to you.”
I pace around my room, lifting my hands to my forehead as though it will help me understand his nonsense. “Yeah, but you still let her get close enough to do it.”
“She told me you slept with Luke.”
“You keep stringing me along and you—” It takes me a second to realize what he just said. “What?”
“She said you were together. That you’d opened your legs today.”
Classy.
“That’s bullshit.” I’m outraged.
“I know that now. Morgan told me. She cussed the fuck out of me after you left.”
I think back to Morgan’s text and smile. This is what a best friend looks like.
“I’m such an idiot. I should’ve known better than to believe that bitch.” He beats himself up.
“It doesn’t excuse what you did,” I remind him.
“I know, I know, and I’m so fucking sorry. You have to understand I didn’t even realize what was happening. I blacked out after she said… I couldn’t deal with the thought of you choosing him.”
I can’t believe I’m about to say this but…
I kind of get it?
It’s not like this was a consensual kiss.
“Zoey and I aren’t friends anymore,” I admit. “Since this morning, actually.”
He raises an eyebrow. “You’re not?”