Page 63 of Keep Your Guard Up
“What?” he defended. “Trust me—whether you like it or not, you mean something to him. Stop being uptight. We all know he means something toyoutoo.”
“I—”
“Nah-nah-nah-nah, don’t even try and deny it. I’ve been back for less than twenty-four hours and even I can tell there’s something happening there.” Beau waggled his thick eyebrows at me.
“It doesn’t matter how much or how little he means to me. I don’tdofighters.”
“Anymore?”
This time my glare moved to Beau. He’d been gone for so long, he didn’t even flinch.
“Last I was here, Trevvy, you’d had a few fighters under your sheets.”
“She’s just got these metaphorical ten-foot-tall fences around her since Jayden allegedly fucked her around.” JJ shrugged.
Jeez, again with the psychoanalysing?
“Allegedly?” I raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Yeah,allegedly. You haven’t spoken a word about it since you two split. I’m literally just running on best-friend fumes here.”
“Best-friend fumes?”
“Yeah. You know? She hates him, so I hate him too. No questions asked.”
Shame flamed my cheeks as Beau and JJ continued walking together.
He was right—I hadn’t told anyone about what had happened between Jayden and me. How could I? It was beyond embarrassing. But I watched my best friend, the one person in this world who was unconditionally on my side — the person who had seen my anger and hurt towards an ex-boyfriend and taken it upon himself to stand at my side without once evenasking, it occurred to me—
“You never asked
“What?”
I’d lost where their conversation was up to, spinning in the past.
“You never asked me what happened with Jayden.”
JJ shrugged, stopping ahead to wait for me. “I knew you would tell me when you were ready. You’d already forgiven him for being, well, him. I figured it had to be something pretty bad for you to slice it clean.”
Beau gave a half nod. “It’s what good friends do, Trevvy.”
~
“Righto, I’ve gotta head off.” Beau stacked his now empty plate and oversized coffee mug in a neat pile, ready for service staff to come and grab it. “Mum needs a hand on the farm today.”
“Your dad still crook?”
“Eh, I think he’s just leaning into it a little. It’s not often Ma waits on him hand and foot.” With a wink, he tucked a red twenty dollar note under JJ’s heart-attack-in-a-glass drink.
“I can’t believe you still drink those things,” I told him, gulping down the last of my gigantic long black.
“Ugh, not you too! Rio already gave me his big diabetes speech—”
“Did he mention heart health?”
“Lynnieee!” he whined.
“Your body,” I replied, holding my hands up in surrender.
