Page 106 of Best Friends for Never

Mine,the gesture says.

He nods subtly in understanding.

Parker leans into me, completely oblivious to what’s happening.

“I got a little drunkone time,” she tells him.

“One time a month, maybe. You and Axel have too much fun in here sometimes.”

She wrinkles her nose. “We do, huh?”

“Oh, you definitely do. Anyway, I still have lots to do before we open, and I’d better help my staff prep. See you at six thirty?”

“On the dot,” Parker promises him, then looks up at me. “I’m going to go tell my mom bye.”

“I’ll be here.”

Once she’s gone, Garth steps forward, holding his hand out to me. I accept it.

“I didn’t know you two were together. I guess I should have, though.” He laughs.

“Why is that?”

He tips his head to the side. “Come on, man, like you and Parker haven’t always been inevitable. When I heard you were coming back, I had a feeling you’d end up together again.”

“Again?”

He glances over at Parker, who is chatting with her mother.

“When she gets drunk, she talks a lot. She mentioned what happened before you left and how you were sort of together then. Sherambles about it sometimes and how she wishes she would have said yes, whatever that means.”

His words stun me.

Parker regrets not saying yes? Does that mean ... Does she regret not going to LA with me?

I don’t know how I feel about that.Of courseI wanted Parker there with me. More than fucking anything else. And I’ve hated not talking to her for the last ten years.

But seeing how everything else has worked out, it’s hard for me to wish we could change the past.

She has an incredible career. I’m not sure she’d have it if she hadn’t turned me down, and I don’t want to erase that for her.

“Sorry, it’s none of my business. It’s just us bartenders, you know. We hear stuff.”

I nod. “Yeah, no. I get that.”

“And really, you have nothing to worry about with me. I know love when I see it, and I’m not about to try to step in the middle of that.”

My territorial moment aside, I wasn’t worried, but I appreciate his words all the same.

“You ready?” Parker asks, bouncing on her heels back our way.

“Yep,” I answer. “Let’s go.”

We say our goodbyes to Garth, then make our way out into the sunshine. Parker and I walk hand in hand down Borgen, and she only blushes a little when people stare or take notice of our touching, but she doesn’t pull away. Ilikethat she doesn’t pull away. Probably a little too much.

“So,” I say after passing The Chilly Cow, our frozen yogurt shop that I used to spend far too much time at. “Garth said you talk about me sometimes.”

“Garth is a liar. Ignore him.”

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