Beth Andrews - What Happens Between Friends

Friends…with benefits?

For Sadie Nixon, life is one big adventure with something new around the corner. And anytime she needs a break, she can always rely on James Montesano—the best guy she knows. This time when she arrives in Shady Grove, however, something is different. There’s a little extra between her and James that has them crossing the line of friendship into one steamy, no-holds-barred night.

Afterward, no matter how hard she tries, Sadie can’t erase the memories of James that way. He’s so hot, so tempting.… But his life is here and hers isn’t. She needs his friendship, but she doesn’t do commitment. So where does that leave them? Suddenly what happens between friends is more complicated than ever!

“You can’t hide it from me, Jamie.”

Sadie’s voice was low and husky. Intimate. Too close for his comfort and peace of mind. His willpower. “I know you too well. And I know something’s bothering you.”

“What if I want to try something else, be somewhere else?”

“You? You’re steady. Reliable. Dependable. Like…like…”

“A lapdog?” he asked quietly.

“More like the sun,” she said as if on a burst of inspiration. “Always up in the east, down in the west, burning bright no matter how many clouds are hiding it from view.”

“Poetic,” he said, his fingers twitching with the need to touch her, really touch her the way a man touched a woman.

Why couldn’t he have one thing, go after one thing he’d wanted, craved for as long as he could remember?

“And yet, as steady, reliable and dependable as I am, maybe I still want a change.” And he finally touched her, just his finger trailing down the softness of her cheek. “Maybe it’s time I made a change.”

Dear Reader,

First times and last times. Life is filled with them, and this year my family will have its share. First time driving for my younger daughter, first time living away from home for my older daughter when she attends college this fall. Last summer my son will spend at home before graduating college and finding his own path.

Yes, our lives are filled with beginnings and endings. Some, like a child’s first step and last day of high school, are expected, but what happens when an opportunity arises that pushes us in a new direction, one we’re not sure we want to go?

That’s what happens when James Montesano and Sadie Nixon—best friends since they were ten years old—go from being just friends to so much more. Their new relationship is exciting and ripe with potential, filled with caring, respect and passion.

It’s also terrifying. Change often is. James and Sadie realize that if they don’t work as a couple, their entire friendship will likely be lost forever. It’s a huge risk and while going from friends to lovers is relatively easy, going from friends to in love takes courage, compromise and a whole lot of faith. But then, happy ever after rarely comes easily!

I had so much fun returning to Shady Grove for this story. I loved revisiting some of my favorite characters from Talk of the Town, book one of the In Shady Grove series, but it was also great to meet some new characters who inhabit the town. Be on the lookout for Eddie’s book later this year!

Please visit my website, www.BethAndrews.net, or drop me a line at beth@bethandrews.net. I’d love to hear from you.

Happy reading!

Beth Andrews

What Happens Between Friends

Beth Andrews

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Romance Writers of America RITA® Award winner Beth Andrews set her latest series, In Shady Grove, in a fictional town based on her own small hometown in northwestern Pennsylvania. A few of her favorite friends-to-lovers characters are Harry and Sally (When Harry Met Sally), Monica and Chandler (Friends) and Keith and Watts (Some Kind of Wonderful). Beth firmly believes love conquers all and Elvis is a great name for a dog. Learn more about Beth and her books by visiting her website, www.BethAndrews.net.

For Andy

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER ONE

NO, NO, NO.

Lightning flashed, a dazzling display that crackled the air with energy, made the hair on Sadie Nixon’s arms stand up. Ten seconds later, thunder boomed, vibrating through her moving Jeep.

She leaned forward to look through the windshield at the rapidly darkening sky. Clouds rolled, merged together. A strong gust of wind buffeted the Jeep, had her fighting to keep it on the road. She pressed down on the gas, strangled the steering wheel. Please, don’t do this to her. Not this time.

She passed the road leading to Knapp’s Creek. Glanced out the driver’s-side window. She wasn’t going to make it. She could turn around, she thought frantically. She was barely in Shady Grove, had just passed the city limits. She’d head west, maybe spend the night in Pittsburgh then come back tomorrow.

It was a good plan—and for someone who preferred to let life happen to her instead of bending it to suit each situation, that was saying something.

Yep, it was a solid plan. And it probably would have worked...if she hadn’t run into Jessica Gardner at Miranda’s Market. Jessica wasn’t a gossip, but what were the chances she wouldn’t tell anyone she’d seen Sadie a full day before she’d returned to her hometown?

Probably somewhere between zero and in Sadie’s dreams.

She didn’t have a choice. She had to keep going. Maybe, if luck was with her, the wind at her back and all that jazz, she would make it to her destination before it rained. Or, better yet, the clouds could pass right over Shady Grove, just...keep going. Wait to unleash their fury on some other unsuspecting town.

Yes, that was it, think positively. She’d use the power of her mind and her good intentions to keep the storm at bay.

She could have sworn she heard the Fates laugh in delight—seconds before the sky opened and a torrential rain came down so hard, so fast, the drops bounced off the hood, sounded like rocks hitting the roof.

Stupid Fates.

Scowling, she continued down Case Boulevard, her fingers tapping the steering wheel to the beat of Mumford and Sons’ “I Will Wait.” The dark seemed to swallow the beams of her headlights before they could do more than reflect the next twenty feet or so. Her windshield wipers put up a valiant, yet pretty much useless battle against the downpour as she sped along the familiar road.

It was coincidence, of course. One of those freakishly weird anomalies that had a thunderstorm appearing as she happened to return to town for the first time in three years.

Just as it was coincidence, and only coincidence, that had some natural disaster occurring every time she returned home.

Every. Single. Time.

Rainstorms. Floods. Hail. A tornado. And that memorable freak spring blizzard when she’d driven in from Dallas back when she’d been twenty-two.

Maybe the Fates could hit the town with hordes of locusts or an earthquake next time. Just to mix it up a bit. All these rainstorms were getting predictable.

And she hated being called Cyclone Sadie.

Oh, and of her grandmother genuflecting every time Sadie came to visit.

Jeez, an ancient tree limb happens to fall onto her gram’s beloved Cadillac at the exact same moment Sadie knocks on the front door for an impromptu visit and suddenly Sadie’s the spawn of Satan.

Bringing evil omens.

Which was ridiculous. There were no such things as omens—evil or otherwise. Sure, a person could follow the signs, but Sadie preferred to trust in her own instincts. So when those instincts had told her to get the heck out of Dodge—or in her case, New Orleans—she’d packed up her worldly belongings and skedaddled.