Sugarlips (Beefcakes Book 2) by Katana Collins (latest books to read TXT) 📕

relationship. But I don’t miss Dan.” After a sigh, she added, “And if I’m being honest, even though he cheated on me… humiliated me… I don’t think I was all that great of a partner to him, either.”

My spine straightened protectively at that as she slowed to a stop at a red light. “What the hell are you talking about? You quit your job because he asked you to.”

With a tilt of her chin, she boldly met my gaze. “I’m not saying he wasn’t a dick. He clearly was. I’m just saying that maybe I wasn’t entirely faultless. Not that it’s my fault he cheated, but I think I cared more about the idea of having a husband than I did about the actual person who shared my bed. And I’m sure that on some level Dan sensed that.”

“Or,” I offered as an alternative, “You sensed that Dan was never going to be one hundred percent in the relationship, and therefore you guarded your heart by not letting yourself fall completely in love.”

Her lips pressed thoughtfully together. “Maybe. It’s hard to know which was first.” Her gaze clouded and she shifted her weight against the driver’s seat. “It’s nice to have someone to talk about this with.”

My surprise at her statement brought on a quick bark of laughter. “What are you talking about? You have tons of friends! All those women at your bachelorette party… Tanja… your sister—”

She shook her head as a look of tired sadness tightened her features. “My sister would just say I told you so. And Tanja…” her words trailed off and she exhaled a nearly silent sigh. “She’s always busy.”

Too busy to be there for her friend? I never really liked Tanja that much, and now? Those feelings grew.

“You’re really lucky to have your siblings,” Chloe said quietly.

I didn’t point out the obvious fact that she also had her sister. Then again, I kind of knew what she meant. I have one know-it-all brother, and I can’t imagine the challenge that would have presented if he’d been my only sibling. It didn’t mean she didn’t love Elaina, but I could empathize with not wanting to talk about certain things with her. Look at me and Neil. It took me years to tell him about my food truck dream. And even then, I was strong-armed into it.

I glanced over at Chloe as the air conditioning blew cold air against my otherwise sweaty skin. Even this early in the morning, the humidity was high, and the day promised warmth and sunshine. “I’m really lucky to have you,” I admitted. It was risky, baring myself to her like that. Chloe wasn’t necessarily someone I would call skittish, but when it came to me, at least in a romantic sense, she seemed resolved to keep me at arm’s length. Even now—or maybe especially now—that we’d seen each other naked.

I didn’t hear her breath hitch, but I saw it in her tightened shoulders and the lift of her breasts as her ribcage expanded with the sharp inhalation. Her face shifted, taking on a jovial, almost cartoonish grin. “Well,” she said, her tone animated in that way she does when she’s trying hard not to be serious. “Anyone would be lucky to have me.”

I stared at her, my heart pounding, ignoring her joke. That’s what she did when things got serious; she played them down as much as she could.

Even though her eyes were on the road, I felt her awareness of me, and despite the blasting AC, the temperature in the car rose a few degrees. “When you first said we were going to be best friends, I thought you were having some sort of mental break down. Honestly, who says that to essentially a stranger?”

“We weren’t strangers. Strangers haven’t had their tongues down each other’s throats.” Her mouth kicked up into a small smirk.

“I’m serious, Chloe.”

“So am I. We weren’t strangers. We may not have been friends, but we weren’t nothing to each other, either.” She bit her lip and I watched as her teeth slid across her bottom lip, the curve of her mouth dipping into a frown. “At least, you weren’t nothing to me.”

“You weren’t nothing to me either.” Of course she wasn’t. I rarely let myself admit it, but I’d been in love with Chloe Dyker since I was fifteen years old.

There was so much more I wanted to say to her… how I had thought about her for years since high school. How I always watched from afar as she moved from boyfriend to boyfriend, or rather asshole to asshole. I watched her get her heart broken time and time again desperately wishing for a chance to show her how much I could care for her. It wasn’t even a fair statement to say I watched from the sidelines—because team members are at least aware of the people on the sidelines. I was like a spectator way back in the nosebleed section, waving my hands, desperate to be seen. But since high school, I didn’t think Chloe Dyker knew I existed. She made out with me at age 16, and then she barely glanced in my direction again.

But I didn’t say any of that. Settling back in my seat, I simply said, “Thank you for being here today. For being my person.”

But the bitter truth behind my words left a terrible taste in my mouth.

Because she wasn’t truly mine.

Not yet, anyway.

24 Chloe

I sat in the hospital café, holding a warm paper cup of weak coffee in my hands. I had managed to sneak away, giving the Evans family some much needed alone time. Their mom’s surgery had taken several hours, and when she was finally awake, we all went in to see her.

But it was painfully clear, as the Evans family held each other and wept, that I didn’t belong in that room with them.

“Here you are,” a deep voice rumbled from behind me. “You hiding from me?”

I spun,