If Forever Comes (33 page)

So maybe I was a little protective of my best
friend.

I hopped off the bed and went to my closet,
dug through until I found the little black skirt I’d tucked in the
back. I yanked it from the hanger and tossed it to her. “Here. .
.wear this. It’ll look a lot better on you than it does on me. You
know it was those legs that tripped Sam up in the first place. I
think the guy literally stumbled.” I pointed at her. “And you
better make him work for it.”

“Oh, he’s definitely going to have to work for
it. You know me better than that.” Megan held up the skirt to
inspect it. “This is really cute.” She looked up with a grin.
“Maybe you should wear it. You know Gabe’s gonna be there.” The
last she said in that sing-song voice that she only used because
she knew it annoyed the hell out of me.

“Pssh,” I huffed under my breath, and she
laughed because she of all people knew Gabe wasn’t really that much
of a draw. Gabe was my kind-of-boyfriend. By kind of, I meant he
was a guy who wouldn’t leave me alone or take no for an answer. But
he was unbearably cute and sweet in a boy-next-door kind of way and
I didn’t really know how to cut him loose without hurting his
feelings.

And he was safe.

She lowered the skirt to her lap.

“You should really quit stringing that guy
along. It’s kind of sad.” Her tease turned serious, her blue eyes
sober as she looked up at me from the bed.

I tossed a pair of shorts to change into on my
bed. “I’m not stringing him along, Megan. He’s the one who’s strung
himself to me.”

“Whatever, Aly. You just keep telling yourself
that. You always do.”

I could see the concern pass over her eyes,
could almost hear the argument pass through her lips,
the
lecture
.

“Just don’t, okay?” I said.

She blinked a couple of times, as if it would
clear whatever picture she saw in her mind. “I just don’t get you
sometimes, Aly.”

The party was mellow, just a few people
hanging out on a Thursday at the house Sam shared with a couple of
other guys. Most of us were out back, sitting around the pool
drinking beer. The yard lights were off, the area cast in a muted
glow from the lights shining through the bank of windows inside
Sam’s house. Megan was curled up with him on a lounger at the far
end of the pool, their voices hushed and relaxed. Behind me flames
rose and crackled from an in-ground fire pit, and a few people sat
around in the chairs that circled it.

Leaning back on my hands, I dipped my feet
into the pool. Water rippled out over the surface, the ridges
illuminated above the shadows as they lapped across the pool. Even
at eleven o’clock at night, it was still hot. Summer in Phoenix was
my favorite. It always had been. Heat saturated everything,
radiated from the concrete and pavement, pressed down from the sky.
Bugs trilled and birds rustled through the trees. I loved that I
could be in the middle of the sprawling city and still feel like I
was out in the wilderness. Peaceful. There was no other way to
describe it.

I wasn’t surprised when Gabe settled down
beside me. We’d chatted a little over the evening, but for the most
part, I’d avoided him. He was shirtless and only wore a pair of
white swim trunks. “You want to join me?” he asked, inclining his
head toward the pool in invitation.

“Nah. I’m good,” I said, even though the
thought of the cool water was incredibly appealing.

Tilting his head back to get a better view of
me, he almost smiled. Strands of his light brown hair flopped to
the side, and his dark brown eyes swam with something I wished I
didn’t see. “You’re missing out,” he said.

I laughed quietly and shook my head. He was so
obvious.

“I am, huh?”

One side of his mouth twitched. “Yeah, you
are.”

“Fine,” I said.

What could it hurt?

Or I guessed the more appropriate question
would be why did it hurt? It was stupid. Childish. But I didn’t
know how to let it go.

Forcing myself to my feet, I pulled off my
tank top and slipped out of the little shorts I’d worn over my
green bikini.

Gabe’s expression lifted with slow
appreciation.

Embarrassed, I turned away and jumped in. My
body sank to the bottom of the pool. I floated, weightless, the
length of my black hair spreading out and drifting away. It was
cool, invigorating. The water blocked out the voices and the noise
of everyone else, and for a few seconds, I reveled in the solitude.
When my lungs grew tight, I propelled myself up to the surface. I
sucked in a huge breath of air as I flung my hair back from my
face.

Gabe was already waist deep in the pool,
smiling at me. “You have to be the most gorgeous girl I’ve ever
seen, Aly,” he murmured as he edged forward.

Lights from inside cast his face in shadows,
but I could see the beauty in his silhouette. And I wanted to want
him, wanted to somehow get back the part of me that I’d given away
that night so long ago.

I didn’t say anything, just stared at Gabe as
he inched forward. I didn’t stop him when his hands found my hips
and didn’t stop his kiss.

It felt nice.

But there would always be something
missing.

Chapter 2

Jared

Everything had changed even while everything
seemed to remain the same. I rode the streets, searching. For what,
I didn’t know. In the six years I’d been gone, the city had crawled
out past its boundaries, but the old neighborhood appeared as if
it’d been frozen in time, like a snapshot I looked on from afar. A
picture I’d been erased from.

I pulled onto the dirt off the main road,
directly across the street from where I’d grown up. Every memory
that ever mattered I’d experienced here. They were only that.
Memories. I propped my booted foot on the ground to hold my bike up
while I just stared. Cars flew by, my vision blurred in the flashes
of metal.l.

What the fuck was I thinking? That this was a
good idea? Because it was most assuredly not a fucking good
idea.

I’d been back in town for almost a week. It’d
taken me that long to even build up the nerve to get this close to
the old neighborhood. Maybe I just wanted to torture myself, to
make myself pay a little more, although no amends could ever be
made. I already tried to pay the price, but fate wouldn’t even
allow me that.

As if I were anchored to the past, I couldn’t
force myself to leave. I could almost see us playing in the middle
of the quiet street, hiding, chasing, laughing, running through the
vacant land that backed the neighborhood. If I strained hard
enough, I could hear my mom’s voice as she leaned out the front
door and called me to dinner, could see my father pulling into the
driveway at the end of the work day, could picture my little
sister’s face pressed against the window as she waited for me to
return home.

All of it was an echo of what I
destroyed.

My chest tightened, and I fisted the grips on
the handlebars as the anger raged. Aggression curled and coiled my
muscles and I squeezed my eyes closed. A twisted snarl rose up in
my throat, and I bit it back and held it in. My eyes flew open as I
gunned the throttle and shot onto the road. I wound through cars
and pushed myself forward. I had no idea where I’d end up because
there was no place I belonged.

I just rode.

Hours later, I sat with my elbows propped up
on the bar, my boots hooked over the footrest on the stool. I took
a long drag from my bottle of beer, eyeing Lily from where she
watched me with a coy smile from behind the bar. The girl’d had the
nerve to card me, and we’d been fast friends since.

At least I hoped we were. A mild grin lifted
just one side of her mouth, before she shook her head and turned
away to lean over and restock some beers, giving me the perfect
view of her tight little ass.

Ice cold liquid slid down my throat, and I
breathed out a satisfied sigh. I’d forgotten how fucking hot the
summers were in Phoenix.

When it felt as if I traveled every road in
the city, I’d pulled into the parking lot of this little bar. I was
starving and in dire need of a beer. The place was pretty packed,
filled with guys who appeared to be looking for reprieve after a
long day at work, there to unwind and catch the game, mixed in with
some groups who were probably college students, dotted with a few
like me.

Lily disappeared into the kitchen and
reemerged with my burger. She set it down in front of me. She
leaned across the bar on her forearms. Pieces of her chunky blonde
hair fell to one side as she tipped her head. “So are you going to
ask me for my number or just stare at me all night?”

I raised my brow as I took another drink of
beer. “I figured I’d just wait here until you get off.” I wasn’t
one to go through the motions or humor girls with
pretenses.

She laughed with a hint of disbelief. “Pretty
sure of yourself there, huh?”

I shrugged as I polished off my beer. I
wasn’t, really. I just didn’t care. If she asked me back to her
place, cool. But I wasn’t going to be all torn up if she didn’t.
I’d find someone else. I always did.

Lines dented her forehead as she turned her
attention to my hands, and she reached out in an attempt to trace
my knuckles.

My heart sped, my hands fisting as I drew them
back, my jaw tightening in warning as I lifted my chin.

She frowned when she looked up and found the
expression on my face. She rocked back, before she appeared to
shake it off. “You want another beer?”

“That’d be good,” I said, my tone hard. It was
always the same. They always fucking wanted to touch, to know, to
dig. I didn’t go there. Ever.

She nodded and turned away.

With my elbows on either side of my plate, I
wrapped my hands around the huge burger and leaned in to take a
bite. It tasted like heaven. I suppressed a groan. It’d been way
too many hours since I’d had something to eat. I popped a fry in my
mouth and went in to take another bite when in my periphery I
sensed someone come to a standstill. He started to pass, but
hesitated again before he stopped. Out of the corner of my eye, I
kept a watch on him. All I could see were his hands clenching and
unclenching at his sides, like he was trying to make a decision
about something. I didn’t acknowledge him, just focused on this
fucking delicious burger and hoped the dude got some common sense
and walked away before he got his ass beat.

He came in closer to the bar and cocked his
head around to look at me. “Jared?”

My head snapped up to take in this guy who was
really fucking tall, and even though he was lankier than shit, it
was pretty clear he could go a round or two. His black hair was
wild and sticking up all over the place, and his dark green eyes
were wide with shock. He dropped onto the barstool next to me,
staring at me like I was some sort of apparition.

I was pretty sure we were having about the
exact same effect on the other. For a minute every muscle in my
body froze, my mouth gaping, before the shock wore off. Then I
laughed and grabbed a napkin and wiped it across my mouth as I spun
my stool toward him. “Well, shit, if it isn’t Christopher Moore.
How the hell are you, man?”