More Than Friends (15 page)

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” he asked as he continued working.

“Nothing.”

“It’s something. And the fact that you don’t want to talk about it tells me it’s personal, not professional.”

She didn’t respond, but her silence would confirm that he was right.

“Okay. But I’m here if you need a sounding board.”

She rubbed the back of her neck. “Damn it, Luc. I never let my personal life get in the way of work.”

He shook his head, never looking up from his work. “Not even after all the shit with Kendall. It has to be a woman, right?”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because women and money are the only things that get me that twisted up. And we’re not so different.” He lifted his head and met her eyes, his gaze conveying understanding with no judgment.

She focused on his half-finished drawing and looked closer, impressed once again with his skills. She liked to see his excitement when she gave him a project to design. When he stood in the middle of a finished project surveying the results of his idea, his dark eyes shone with pride. She remembered those feelings from early in her career. Over the years, after countless clients, the intensity had faded, but the satisfaction of what she’d built remained.

“What would you say to someone who hypothetically developed feelings for a close friend?”

“I’d say I’m flattered, but I’m seeing someone.”

“Very funny.”

He smiled. “Who’s the friend?”

“That shouldn’t matter if it’s hypothetical.”

“It does.” He rested the tip of his pencil against his cheek. “Is it Steve?”

She didn’t bother answering, certain he didn’t think she had a crush on the kid just out of high school that she’d hired a few weeks ago.

“A close friend, you said. It shouldn’t be hard to figure out, since you don’t have many.” He stared at her, narrowing his eyes. Then, when he worked it out, his eyes flared and he lifted his brows. “No way? Evelyn?”

She bit her lip.

“Oh, Melanie. That is not a good idea.”

“I know. Damn it, I know.”

“When did this happen?”

“I’m not really sure. We’ve been hanging out. But I just thought I needed a friend. Now I’m having all these inappropriate thoughts.”

“At least you know they’re inappropriate. You can’t date Kendall’s best friend.”

“Why does she automatically get custody of our friends?”

“We’re talking about more than custody here.”

She launched herself out of her chair and across the office to the window. The parking lot of the strip mall next door didn’t offer much of a view, but she wasn’t interested in the scenery.

“Does she feel the same way?”

“I think so. Yes.”

“Melanie, this will end badly.”

She sighed. “I know. If we pursue this, she’ll lose Kendall. I can’t make her choose between us.”

“Not to mention that if this goes bad, you screw up your friendship with her. So then you both lose Kendall
and
each other.”

She couldn’t risk everything for the chance it might work out. She was fresh out of a long-term relationship. Evelyn was desperately trying to stay loyal to opposing forces. What made her think the two of them were in any shape to begin a serious situation? She didn’t want anything too deep so soon after Kendall, and if she met someone new she intended to take things slow. But she wasn’t the type that could have a casual fling with a friend. She was too emotionally involved already.

“What do you think?” He gestured to the paper in front of him. “It’s still rough, but once we clean it up a little, I think the clients will like it.”

“It’s great. I think they’ll love it.” She pulled another piece of paper in front of her. “Let’s work up a couple of variations for them to look at. They strike me as the type of couple who likes the control of making choices.”

“No problem.” He leaned forward, resting on his forearms, and watched her sketch. “Decorative brick instead of stone on the wall. A three-piece furniture arrangement could replace the outdoor sectional. We could offer a scaled-back version of the outdoor kitchen as an option.”

“All good ideas. But don’t think I don’t know that you’re making sure your first design is the best.”

“Hey, if the client thinks my design is the most desirable, what can I do?”

“The customer is always right.” She emphasized that message with her employees, even when it meant they had to stifle their opinions and smile at a difficult customer. But every one of her employees knew that she wouldn’t let them be mistreated. As long as they stayed professional and reported any problems to her, she would take care of them. She’d built her business based, at least in part, on this balance of customer service and employee satisfaction, and the loyalty she’d earned on both sides kept her company growing and strong.

*

“Did you talk to Melanie yet?” Kendall asked as she lay back on the weight bench. Guilting Evelyn into delivering her bad news had been wrong. But she just couldn’t visualize having that conversation with Melanie so soon after their breakup.

“Not yet.” Evelyn stood at the head of the bench, her hands hovering over the bar as Kendall lifted it off the stand.

“When do you think you might?” She lowered the weighted bar until it nearly touched her chest, then pressed it back up.

“I don’t know. I haven’t heard from her this week.”

“Okay.” She pushed the bar up a few more times and then traded places with Evelyn.

They continued working out in silence, moving on to the bicep curls.

“I’m meeting Tiffany after work for drinks. Do you want to join us?” She issued the invitation without thinking, belatedly realizing that the three of them out for drinks might be awkward.

“I can’t. I’m working an extra job.”

“Tonight?”

“Yeah. One of those national morning shows is taping a concert series downtown tomorrow morning. They had to start setting up the stages in order to go live early in the morning. Riggs and I are babysitting the equipment overnight.”

“You’re working all night, after a full shift this evening? When will you sleep?”

Evelyn waved her free hand, still curling her barbell. “I’ll be fine.”

“You didn’t tell me this when I asked you to the gym before work. You could be napping now.”

“It’s just one night.”

She shook her head. “But what’s the point of working yourself to exhaustion? I know you don’t need the money that bad.”

“Working to distraction,” Evelyn mumbled.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

She set down her weights and turned to face Evelyn. “What are you trying to distract yourself from?” Given the way Evelyn avoided eye contact, she clearly wished Kendall would drop the subject.

But she already felt like she’d neglected her friendship with Evelyn lately. After the breakup, she’d been so wrapped up in her own drama that she had selfishly taken whatever help Evelyn had offered. Then when she started dating again, she thought maybe she should include Evelyn in some of her plans, see if any of her dates had a friend to double with. But she hadn’t been single in so long, she hadn’t wanted Evelyn to see how horribly inept she was at first dates.

“Are we gabbing or are we working out?” Evelyn turned away. She set her preferred weight level on the leg press and contorted herself into the machine. “You probably don’t remember this, but us single girls have to stay in shape, you know?”

Kendall thought she detected an edge of bitterness in Evelyn’s voice. Could she be upset because she was seeing someone again? Evelyn didn’t have a problem getting dates when she wanted them, so why would Kendall’s social life bother her? Maybe this was about Melanie. If Evelyn had been harboring the hope that they might get back together, she could view Tiffany as a threat to that future.

She’d told Evelyn that this thing with Tiffany wasn’t serious, but maybe she didn’t believe her. Kendall enjoyed Tiffany’s company. Since that day at the grocery store, they’d been out a number of times—dinner, the movies, and to the symphony. Tiffany had season tickets, and while it wasn’t Kendall’s thing, she’d still had a pleasant evening. They’d kissed and even engaged in some serious groping on her couch one night, but their physical relationship hadn’t progressed further. If she accepted Tiffany’s recent invitation for a weekend out of town, though, that would most likely change.

Only a few weeks ago, she had a hard time kissing a woman without thinking about Melanie. However, even during the few hot-and-heavy moments with Tiffany, she had been firmly present and the thought of taking the next physical step excited her.

“Seriously, are you going to stand in the middle of the room all day, or are you going to spot me on these squats?” Evelyn called.

“Sorry. I got it.” Smiling, she crossed to the weight stand and pulled a twenty-five-pound weight to match the one Evelyn carried to the squat machine. “You know, if you need to talk to me about something, you can.”

“I know.” But obviously she wasn’t going to today.

She nodded, accepting that Evelyn had never been one to pour her heart out anyway. Melanie had always drawn things out of her. So as much as it pained her, she hoped that if something was troubling Evelyn, she might talk to Melanie about it.

*

Evelyn rubbed her eyes, wishing she could simply close them. She rested her elbow on the window sill beside her and propped her head up with her hand. The rhythmic patter of the rain against the roof of her car had nearly lulled her to sleep. The downpour that began only an hour after she and Riggs had started this security detail had waned to a steady shower that had continued for the past several hours.

The metal silhouette of the stage and lighting structures rose and stretched eerily against the moonlit sky, taking on a strange vitality. As the early morning hours arrived, she fully expected to see it come to life, pulling up from the ground and testing the joints of its skeletal arms like the tin man.

“Great, I’m starting to hallucinate,” she muttered. For the first part of the shift, she’d tried to occupy herself by playing games and reading e-books on her phone. When she’d taken this assignment, she’d expected the boredom and the urge to text Melanie during this huge block of downtime. But after she’d fought that desire for the first couple of hours, it became too late to contact her anyway.

Now, only two hours remained until daybreak. Then an hour after that, several more officers scheduled to work during the taping would relieve them.

After tonight, she had to pull one more regular shift, and then she was off for the weekend. And, other than an obligatory visit to her parents, she hoped for a relaxing two days. Working like a maniac this week hadn’t driven thoughts of Melanie from her head. If anything, the exhaustion made them even more distracting. By the time she crawled into bed at whatever hour in her crazy schedule she could, she was so addled that she seemed unable to stop from dreaming about Melanie as well. So she’d changed tactics and planned a leisurely weekend, hoping that being rested might help her be stronger than her currently taxed system did.

Her phone chirped, signaling a text message. She grabbed it from the cup holder and unlocked the screen to see Riggs’s text.

Still awake?

Across the parking lot, she could see the shape of his figure in the glow of what she assumed was his iPad. He’d admitted earlier that he’d downloaded a series of vampire movies to keep him awake tonight. She would much rather have been parked next to him, so at least they could keep each other alert. But because the concert site wasn’t protected by a fence, the client had instructed them to watch from either side of the property. Given the size and bulk of most of the equipment, she was certain they would have time to catch anyone before they could make off with it.

She typed back.

Still here. How’s your movie marathon?

I can’t imagine why my daughter likes this shit.

She laughed.

Because the guys in it are hot.

Shut up.

He hated acknowledging that his little princess had become a teenager.

At least it passed the time. I’m bored crazy over here.

Think about the paycheck.

No kidding.

If she’d accomplished nothing else this week, she’d padded her savings account quite nicely.

With two kids, one only a few years from college, Riggs worked as hard as he did for the money—for his family. She didn’t have anyone to work for. She’d always assumed she would someday meet the woman who would make all the late hours, directing traffic in the rain, and putting her life at risk daily mean something more. She had even entertained thoughts about having kids, or maybe fostering or adopting. But so far, those ideas were just dreams for the future.

In her twenties, she hadn’t stressed about whether that future would come. Now in her thirties, she’d begun to feel twinges of yearning for what her friends and co-workers were building. When one of the guys complained about his wife and envied her freedom, she played along, acting like she really was the luckier one. Of course, as they say, the grass was always greener.

*

“I miss my friend,” Melanie said as soon as Evelyn opened her front door.

“Me, too.”

“Can we try?”

Evelyn ignored the pang of hope in her heart. Her mind tortured her with a rapid-fire slide-show tease of them trying all sorts of sexy things with each other. But Melanie meant could they try to get back to the comfortable friendship.

She stepped aside and waited for Melanie to enter. “Come in, but you’ll have to go to my bedroom with me.” Heat rushed to her face as she realized what she’d said. She rushed to explain. “I’m having dinner with my parents and I’m not ready yet.” She shoved a hand through her wet hair.

“I’m sorry. I can go if you’re busy.”