When someone knocks at my front door, I’m relieved. I’ve been staring at a blank email document for the better part of the morning. It’s now one thirty, and I’ve typed a whole sentence. How am I supposed to respond to being named photographer of the year? Photography is my fucking life, and this award is the epitome of my career. There is no way I can explain my gratitude in an email.

I open the door to find Fallon standing there. I thought she was working today, so her being here has me worried. She looks up at me, clearly upset. Her green eyes are filled with tears, and my heart breaks. My arms open to her, and she falls against my chest, letting me guide her inside as she sobs uncontrollably. I have no clue what happened, but I have a feeling that it has something to do with Leo.

“Shhhhh,” I tell her and rub up and down her back. The closeness of our bodies has my cock fuckin’ throbbing, and I fight the feeling the way I have my entire life. Now is not the time for this, especially with how upset she is. Fallon and I are friends, best friends in fact, and have been since we were kids. But I’ve been in love with her my entire life; I’ve just never told her about my feelings.

“Here, come sit,” I tell her when her sobs become less erratic and she turns her face up to me. Her cheeks are streaked with her makeup, and her lip is trembling, but she’s no longer sobbing as she lets me move her to the couch. She flops her tight ass down, and the second I sit next to her, she scoots over to my lap, laying her head a few inches away from my dick.

Motherfucker!

I let out a breath of air, imagining my dad naked to help control my cock. If I get hard right now with her on my lap, she’d be mortified and surely hate me. But I can feel it growing, so I decide to start talking to see if the will help.

“Is it Leo?” I ask her, and she nods her head as she wipes her sleeve across her cheek.

Goddamn it, don’t move.

“I . . . I don’t know how I let this happened again, Parks.”

My cock won’t stop, and I have to slip away. “I’m going to grab you some tissues,” I tell her, and she sits up, nodding at me so innocently. I grab a box of Kleenex, which I only have because I was sick last week and Fallon brought them over. As I head back to the living room, I find Fallon with her knees pulled to her chest, and I think I have a fair shot at keeping my dick down if she is on her side of the couch.

“Here,” I tell her as I hand her the box. She wipes her eyes and blows her nose, and I have to know what happened. As much as I know it will hurt her to replay whatever happened, I need to know. “What did that asshole do?”

“I caught him in our bed with some girl.”

“Oh fuck, Fallon, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s my own dumb fault. How many times am I going to let him do this to me? I should’ve left him after the first time he cheated.”

I don’t have words. There is no right response to something like that. But when she looks up at me with her dark green eyes, I know I have to say something. “I hope you’re done with him. You deserve someone to treat you like a queen.”

“I am. I am more than done, but what am I going to do now?”

“You’re gonna start the fuck over and force yourself to forget all about that asshole.”

She nods, fidgeting with the tissue in her hand, and I can see how hard this is on her. “But what if I don’t want to start over, Parks?”

“You don’t have a choice unless you’re willing to forgive him again.”

She cuts me a harsh glare. “That will never happen.”

“I know. I also know that it sucks it happened, but that’s life. I promise you’ll thank me one day. You’ll find a great guy who loves you and treats you the right way.”

Tears gloss over her eyes, and she leans toward me again. I contemplate snatching a pillow to lie on my lap, but thankfully, her head lands on my shoulder and her arm wraps around me. I pull her closer and run my fingers through her soft, light brown hair.

God, I wish I could be that guy.

I’d give Fallon the world and everything in it . . . I’d never make her cry or sad. I’d put my life on the line for her happiness in a heartbeat, but that’ll never happen because she doesn’t feel that way about me. That, and I just can’t risk losing her as a friend—I won’t do it no matter what.

Our families lived next door to one another, and as the years went by, she only got hotter. My feelings for her just kept getting stronger. I never gave into them, though. Then my sister died, and I had fallen apart. Hell, I almost died right along with Meg that day on the beach, and Fallon was all that got me through it. She was the only thing holding me together, and I knew from that moment on . . . I couldn’t lose Fallon, too . . . still can’t.

* * *

My phone buzzes on the coffee table, and groggily I try to reach for it, but I can’t move. Fallon is pressed tightly against me with her head resting against my chest.

I hate to wake her, so I squint and try to read the screen, but it’s too far away. I give up and settle back into the couch, but my phone buzzes again, forcing me to actually grab it. I move slowly, trying not to wake her as I lay her head down and then pull the blanket off the back of the couch and drape it over her gorgeous body.

The texts are from my mom.

Mom: Should I go with the blue or yellow one?

A picture of two different raincoats follows the text message. Really? That’s what she had me get up for? My dad’s sixtieth birthday is coming up, and she is going all out getting ready for the big night. Aggravated, I message her back.

Me: The blue one, Mom.

Then turn to Fallon, who’s still sleeping soundly. She’s fucking beautiful. There’s not a single thing I’d change about her. Jesus, it enrages me that Leo did this. I never liked that motherfucker. But from the very beginning, she was head over heels in love, so who was I to tell her otherwise? She would’ve hated me had I said anything.

“How long was I out for?” she asks me through a tired yawn, slowly sitting back up.

“A few hours.”

“Dang, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come in here, cry all over you, and just fall asleep. I probably ruined your day.”

“Shut up; you did the opposite of ruin my day. You know I love seeing you. My home is your home, stay as long as you need.”

“You might be sorry you said that seeing as how I’m technically homeless now.” She lets out a short, sad laugh before leaning her head back and closing her eyes.

“I mean it. I have an extra room that’s yours as long as you want it.” She cracks one eye open, questioningly, as if she doesn’t quite believe I would offer to let her stay here. “What? Did you think I was gonna send you back to Leo? My mission is to keep you as far away from him and make you forget him.”

“Thank you, Parks.” She takes a deep breath and finally looks at me. “But, what am I going to do?”

“I told you, Fallon, you’re gonna start over, work on taking it one day at a time.”

“I was with him for two years.”

“I know you were.”

“How could he do this to me?”

Tears gloss over her eyes, and I hate to see her upset. I just want to make everything better.

“Hey, what do you say we order in your favorite takeout and watch a movie?”

She nods a tiny bit, silently agreeing to let the topic drop for now. I give her a half smile, toss her the remote, and then get up to grab the takeout menu off my fridge.

As I hand it to her, she smiles. That’s what I want, to see her happy. I take a seat next to her, and we both look at the menu. We’re so close to one another that I can smell her hair. It’s one of my favorite scents in the world—sweet like a summer day.

“You know what I want,” she says and hands me back the menu before flipping the television on. As I call in our to-go order, she scrolls through the on-demand listings, looking for something new to watch.

“It’ll be here in twenty minutes,” I tell her.

“Oh my God, you watched Deep Water Horizon without me?”

“No, I didn’t. That must be wrong or something.” She knows I’m lying. She’s looking pointedly between the previously watched menu and me.

“Parks, you’re a terrible liar, you know that?”

“Whatever, I didn’t watch it.”

“Mmm-hmm,” she says and clicks the movie to purchase it. “So, you won’t mind watching it again?”

“No, not at all.”

“See, you did watch it!”

“Maybe I did, I don’t know. I can’t remember which movies I have seen and haven’t seen, or which ones you won’t allow me to see without you.”

She giggles as the movie begins and covers us both with the blanket. I couldn’t be happier about watching this movie for a second time, especially with her. She might know I’m lying about the movie, but thankfully, she’s clueless about the feelings I have for her.