Beth Andrews - What Happens Between Friends

“Well, what do you know?” he said, crossing his ankles and leaning back against the counter. “It’s trouble come to call.”

Sadie Nixon laughed, the light, tinkling sound warm and as clear as if she was standing next to him. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”

“Only the ones who’ve earned it.”

“What’s life without a little trouble?”

“Peaceful.”

“I think the word you’re searching for is boring.”

“With you around? Never.”

“Flatterer. Now stop trying to charm me, I’m on a mission here. Guess where I’m at?”

“Jail?” he asked, earning him a curious glance from Leo.

“After that New Year’s Eve incident in D.C. you made me promise never to ask you to bail me out again, remember?”

“Hard to forget.” He’d left his date—a very friendly blonde—and driven the four and a half hours from Shady Grove, Pennsylvania, to D.C. in a blinding snowstorm. It had been worth it. Being with Sadie was always worth it. “Not jail, then.”

“You’ll never guess—”

“Then why did you ask me to?”

“—so I’ll just tell you....” He was surprised she didn’t tap out a drumroll during her drawn-out dramatic pause. “I’m in Shady Grove.”

“No kidding? You at your parents’ place?” Dr. and Mrs. Ellison had left the party less than an hour ago and they hadn’t said anything about Sadie coming home.

Then again, most of Sadie’s trips to Shady Grove were unexpected. She was like a summer storm—you never knew when she would strike or how long she would stick around. And when she took off on her next great adventure, it was as if you’d been swept up in a tornado, your head dizzy and aching, your thoughts and feelings twirling.

“No, I had a stop I wanted to make first. Say, when did your mom have that stone retaining wall put in out front?”

“Two years ago. Eddie, Leo and I did it for Mother’s—” He straightened. “Don’t move.”

He shut off the phone, stuffed it into his pocket and walked through the house toward the front door. If he happened to glance in the living room, just to see if Leo’s assessment of Anne’s legs was correct—it was—no one could fault him.

And while he had every intention of keeping his word to his mom, he kept walking. But he didn’t want Anne Forbes. No matter that his mother had deemed her future-wife material. What he wanted, what he’d always wanted, was outside right now waiting for him.

He wanted Sadie Nixon.

CHAPTER TWO

THE RAIN HAD stopped, and beyond the Montesanos’ two-story brick home, a crescent moon glowed brightly against the dark sky. In the driveway, parked behind a long line of cars—when Rose Montesano threw a party, she didn’t mess around—Sadie clicked off her phone.

“He’s coming,” she told Elvis, stroking his head, and his eyes squinted in pleasure. “I can’t wait for you to meet James. He’s the best.” The best friend a girl could ever have and the second greatest guy she’d ever known.

The number-one position was reserved for her father, the late, great Victor Nixon. Bigger than life and handsome as sin, he’d done more, seen more and had gotten more out of his thirty years than most people did who lived three times that long. Most importantly, he’d lived life on his own terms, thumbing his nose at his family’s wealth and rigid standards to forge his own path at the tender age of sixteen, following his dreams wherever they took him.

He’d taught her that each day was an adventure waiting to be experienced.

She rubbed a hand over the ache in her chest, just above her heart. God, but she missed her daddy. She still missed him so, so much.

The front door opened and James stepped onto the wide porch and jogged down the stairs.

“I’ll be right back,” she promised Elvis before climbing out of the car.

Holding the top of the door with one hand, she waited while James approached in all his six-foot, darkly handsome glory, his stride purposeful. She knew the moment he spotted her. She never tired of the way his face lit when he saw her, of how, out of all the people she knew and loved, he was the only one who never got frustrated with her lack of planning, her decisions. Never lost his patience with her or tried to change her.

With a whoop of joy, she launched herself at him. His arms came around her, strong and steady. Comfortable. No matter what the circumstances, no matter how she messed up or how fast she was falling, James always caught her before she hit rock bottom.

She could always, always count on James to catch her.

Laughing, Sadie squeezed him tight. Yeah, Shady Grove was where she’d spent the majority of her formative years, the town where she’d first completed an entire school year without the disruption of another move. It was where her mother had grown up, where her mother, stepfather and sister all lived. But it was just a place, just another town.

This, she thought, clinging to her best friend, was home.

“You’re soaked.” Settling his hands on her hips, he pulled back and frowned at the mud on her pants, the wet spot on his light blue dress shirt. “You look like a drowned rat.”

“Oh, James.” She simpered, batting his chest. “You sure do know how to sweet-talk a girl. I’m shocked, shocked I say, that you’re still single.”

“And I’m shocked, shocked I say,” he said in a seriously decent imitation of her, “that you manage to get through each day without causing yourself—or others—bodily harm.”

She lifted her hand to the side of her head. “Who says I didn’t cause any bodily harm?”

He brushed her hand aside and lightly probed the area above her ears, his touch incredibly gentle. The tips of his fingers trailed across the sensitive goose egg. She bit her lip to keep from hissing out a sharp breath.

“What did you do?” he asked.

“I had a little accident—”

“How bad?”

“Not bad,” she told him quickly, knowing how he worried about...well...everything. “I was on Case Boulevard and skidded off the road and hit the pillar holding the Welcome to Shady Grove sign.”

The front door opened, and a couple she didn’t recognize descended the porch steps, lifted their hands in farewell to James before getting into their car.

James walked to the driver’s side of the Jeep. He crouched to study where the pillar and vehicle had, briefly, become one.

“You,” he said, straightening, “are a menace. And a threat to brick pillars everywhere.”

She grinned. How could she not when it was such a James thing to say, his words spoken with so much resignation and fondness? “None stand a chance while I’m behind the wheel.”

“You sure you’re okay?”

“I bumped my head. It’s nothing.” And no way would she tell him she’d momentarily blacked out. He’d insist she go to the E.R. when all she wanted was a hot shower, something to eat and a few hours in his company.

Being with James was always so easy. So relaxed. No matter how long they’d been apart, when they got together again it was as if they’d seen each other the day before. He didn’t lay guilt trips on her if she didn’t call or text him for months on end. He may not understand the choices she made, and he often teased her about her mistakes, but he never judged her. Better yet, he was always the first one to congratulate her on her triumphs.

He believed in her and accepted her for who she was, no questions asked. He loved her without reservations or expectations.

Some days she thought he was the only person who did.

Tears stung the back of her eyes. To hide them from James’s intense gaze, she stretched onto her toes and hugged him again. He stiffened, his fingers digging painfully into her hips as if to push her away.