Adley

"How was your weekend of sun and sex?" Tilly asks as she types on the keyboard of the computer at the reception desk.

"Interesting," I answer with a sigh. I'm not about to go into details of what Crew and I did intimately. I'm also not about to talk about Damaris. That's a topic that's too ripe for gossip. If I tell Tilly about the awkward moments when Kade showed up with Crew's ex-fiancée, the entire clinic will know about it by day's end.

"Is that a good or bad interesting?" She turns her head to look at me. "You don't seem all that happy to me. Was he good in bed or not?"

I try to ignore the way she's glaring at me with expectation in her eyes. "I'm not talking about Crew's performance with you."

"I'll tell you about the last guy I was with if you want." She winks. "We can share stories of misery and missed orgasms."

"I never said anything about missing an orgasm."

She twists her chair completely to look right at me. "You two are friends first, right?"

I nod. She knows that from the times that Crew has walked through the door to say hi to me in the middle of the day.

The first time it happened, she pressed me for details about who he was, and I answered quickly that he was just a friend. The skepticism in her expression was enough to tell me that she didn't believe a word I said. That changed when I set them up for their one and only disastrous date.

"I think that's the best foundation ever for a successful relationship."

Her words surprise me. I thought she'd launch into an emotional lecture about all the things that can go wrong when you sleep with a friend.

Tilly is smart with her heart. She's also yearning for a family of her own since her twin sister took the plunge last year and welcomed a baby girl three months after saying I do to her childhood sweetheart.

"I'm not sure where we're headed." I pick up the file of a pet snake that is set to slither through the door with its owner in five minutes. "We're taking it day-by-day."

"He's a catch, Ad." She turns back to the computer. "I hope that day-by-day turns into forever for you."

***

"So you and Crew?" Ellie takes a bite of a pear. "Tell me about that."

I knew this was coming. Ellie has been working part-time for the police department. She was on as a full-time employee but decided to cut back to part-time for the summer and the remainder of her pregnancy.

She's on shift today but called me an hour ago demanding I meet her for lunch. It wasn't rude. It was firm.

I haven't given her any details about Crew and me in the text message exchanges we've had since I got back from the Hamptons. 

"We like hanging out." I take a bite of the apple she brought me. I didn't have the energy to pack a lunch today. I went back to bed after Crew left and when my alarm went off, I pushed the snooze button twice before I jumped in the shower and got ready in a hurry.

"You're going to need to do better than that, Ad." She sighs.

I shrug. "He's fun?"

She takes a deep breath, her eyes scanning my face. "It's complicated, isn't it?"

It doesn't need to be. We like each other, the sex is beyond amazing and we're clear on how important it is to talk about where things are, so our friendship doesn't go down in flames if we do.

"Every relationship has its issues, Bean."

"This one is different." She wraps the pear core in a paper napkin she brought with her to the park. "We're all a family. My kids need you both. If something goes wrong…"

I reach for her hand across the table and give it a quick squeeze. "He makes me feel safe, Ellie. He looks at me like no man has ever before and I love that. I love how I feel when I'm with him."

"Nolan loves him like a brother." She traces her finger over my palm. "I love him too. I don't want your heart to get broken if it doesn't last."

Ellie has always been the more cautious one. It stems from her tumultuous childhood, the death of her sister and her broken engagement to a jerk she moved to Las Vegas to marry. It wasn't until she met Nolan that she found her center. He's given her more joy these past two years than she felt in the twenty-four years before that. She deserves that level of happiness more than anyone.

"I don't know if it will last," I say honestly, biting back my emotions. "I do know that if I don't take the chance to see where this could go, that I'll regret it for the rest of my life."

"I believe you belong together. I've always felt that but now that's it's reality I'm freaking out. "She laughs softly. "I'll kill him if he breaks your heart."

She could do it, literally, with her bare hands. "He won't break my heart."

"He better not. I know where he lives."

I laugh. "Don't worry about me, Bean. Whatever happens, I've got your shoulder to cry on."

"I have two of them." She taps her hand on her left shoulder, and then the right one. "Don't ever forget how much I love you."

I can't. I won't. I love her just as much.