Page 25 of Best Friends for Never

“I’ll believe you,” Noel says, not looking like he does in the least.

“Good. And just so we’re clear, there is absolutelynothinggoing on between us. We’re friends.Bestfriends. He’s like a brother to me.”

“Don’t,” he bites out, and the ire behind his words shocks me.

Where the hell did that come from?“Don’t what?”

His jaw tightens, and his eyes grow darker by the second. “Just don’t.”

I cross my arms over my chest, frustrated now because it all clicks into place what he means—don’t say Axel is my best friend.

And honestly, how dare he? After all this time, he thinks he can just come back to town and pretend like nothing happened, that he can waltz in here and work beside me like we haven’t not spoken for years?

Guilt gnaws at me because I’m responsible for that last bit, too, but still. Too much time has passed for him to act like he has a say in how I live my life or who I’m friends with.

“What ticks you off the most? That I have a new best friend? Or that it’s Axel?” I scoff. “You were gone for ten years, Noel.Ten years.I’m allowed to have a new best friend.”

“I know!” he shouts. His chest rises and falls with hard breaths, his sea-colored eyes now black, like stormy waters. “I know how long I was gone. I’m very fucking aware of it. I ...”

He pinches the bridge of his nose as if he’s already tired of this conversation, even though we’ve only just cracked the ice wall built between us all this time.

The ice wall thatI’mto blame for. He might have been the one to put physical distance between us, but I’m responsible for the emotional detachment.

I did what I thought was best at the time, and even though it hurt, I’m not sure I’d have made a different choice.

He sighs, dropping his hand. “Don’t equate best friends to sibling-like bonds. That’s all I was meaning.”

What? Why would that bother him? So I said Axel is like a brother to me. Big deal. There’s no reason for Noel to be upset by that.

“Why not?”

He steps into me, so close that the scent of wood, paint, and construction is long gone. It’s firmly replaced by spicy sandalwood. I hate it, yet I love it, because after all these years, after all the money he makes, he’s still wearing the same cologne I bought him as a teen.

“Because I was your best friend once, Peter,” he says quietly. “And I assure you, the feelings I have for you are not even in the same realm as sibling-like.”

Have.

Not had.

He saidhave.

That throws me nearly as much as having him so close.

Without another word, he turns, waltzing from the shop and leaving his jacket and far too many questions burning the tip of my tongue.

And now there’s no doubt I’ll be seeing Noel Carter before the ceremony again.

Chapter Five

Noel

I left my jacket.

I realize it the second I step out of Rossi Café.

“Because I was your best friend once, Peter. And I assure you, the feelings I have for you are not even in the same realm as sibling-like.”

What the fuck was I thinking, saying that? Where did it even come from? Why did I use the present tense?

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