Page 52 of Holding On To Good

“We are made for each other. As friends.”

Anything else after all this time would be impossible.

“If it was me,” Hayden said, “and I’d finally worked up the courage to make a move—”

“I didn’t finally work up anything.” No way was she going to admit there was no finally about it, that last night was not the first time she’d attempted to kiss Urban.

It was just the first time she’d succeeded.

But what happened between her and Urban in his bedroom when they’d been teenagers was one story she’d never shared. Not with anyone.

Some humiliations were best kept secret.

“I was drunk,” she continued with as much dignity as she could muster in her current headachy, nauseous, hungover situation, “and therefore not fully responsible for my words or actions.”

“Or maybe the champagne gave you the nudge you needed to go after what you really want. What you’ve always wanted.”

If any statement deserved a good eye roll, it was that one. Too bad just the thought of doing it amped up Willow’s headache. “Urban and I are friends, nothing more. Neither one of us is interested in there ever being anything more.”

“Uh-huh. If that’s true, then why did you break up with Caleb? I’ll tell you why,” Hayden said before Willow could respond. “It was so you could be with Urban.”

“Caleb and I broke up—which was a mutual decision, by the way—because things between us had run their course.”

“Please,” Hayden scoffed. “Caleb had nothing to do with your breakup. The man had just asked you to move in with him. You’re the one who ran scared. Or maybe you were running toward something—or someone—else.”

“I wasn’t scared and I wasn’t running to anyone else. It’s such a big step. A huge one that we both know was going to lead to a marriage proposal. And it just… it made me realize that his feelings for me were stronger than mine were for him and I couldn’t, in good conscience, stay in a relationship knowing that. Besides,” she grumbled, “he’s moved on already, which, if anyone asks, I’m ecstatic for the happy couple and wish them many years of wedded bliss.”

“He moved on because you moved on first. You did what you always do. When things get too serious, when a man starts getting too close, you push him away because there’s one fatal flaw he’ll never be able to overcome.” Hayden leaned forward and jabbed the remainder of her toast in Willow’s direction. “He’s. Not. Urban.”

This time Willow did roll her eyes, headache be damned. “Men and women really can be just friends, you know, despite what we read in romance novels, saw in When Harry Met Sally and hear from bartenders who moonlight as armchair psychologists.”

“Bartenders are just psychiatrists without the fancy degree, med school loans and uncomfortable couch. Plus, we work on a much lower paygrade.”

“I’m pretty sure real psychiatrists also have sympathy for the sick and hungover.”

“You don’t need sympathy. You need to face the cold, hard truth.”

Willow had didn’t need to face anything. She’d come to terms with the truth a long time ago.

She was in love with Urban and a part of her always would be. She’d learned to live with it. Just as she’d long ago accepted the truth that they were only ever going to be just friends.

Wanting more was foolish.

And something she’d never allow herself to do again.

Last night Verity had been remorseful.

This morning? Not so much.

“He’s such a tattletale!” Verity said, slapping a wet, soapy sponge onto the hood of her car. Suds flew, covering her forearm. She shook them off and started scrubbing hard enough to remove the paint. “God.”

“When a cop arrives at your door after midnight,” Urban told her, “it’s not tattling. It’s bad news.”

“Miles didn’t stop by Willow’s house in his official capacity as the assistant chief,” she said, dunking the sponge into the bucket by the front passenger tire with such force water sloshed over the sides. A few hours’ sleep and the dawn of a bright, sunny, new day had wiped her conscience clean. “You already knew what happened. He went there because once again he’s trying to run—”

“—and ruin your life,” Urban said at the exact same time.

She glared. “Well, he is.”

---