Wish for You (2 page)

“
Just wanted to talk.”

“
It’s really not a good time.”

“
Company?” Beau always has company—of the female kind. Normally, however, he doesn’t care who comes over while they’re there.

“
Yeah.” He shifts his weight from side to side, and I realize he’s barefoot.

“
Dude, where are your shoes?”

“
Shoes?” He stares at me blankly.

“
It’s thirty degrees.”

“
Oh.” That blank stare stays firmly in place, until he shrugs. “Demanding houseguest.”

“
Must be one hell of a woman.”

“
Something like that.” He shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I don’t want to bail on you, but unless this is an emergency…”

Nodding, I take a step back. “Completely understand. Just had a little woman troubles and, with Cole out of commission right now, I thought you’d be the one to talk to.”

Beau glances down at his wrist. He’s wearing a watch? Since when did he start wearing one of those? The guy has never been on time in his life. “I have a couple of minutes.”

“
She wants to be just friends, and that doesn’t work for me.”

“
Make her jealous,” he says with that trademark grin of his. “Women always want what they can’t have.”

“
Already tried that tactic,” I grumble.

“
And?”

“
Didn’t work.” Actually, it had only served to hurt her, and I was damn tired of hurting her. All those women did nothing for me, not even the few I’d had revenge sex with. Yeah, some man I am. Nathan would be disappointed. The dude was so devoted to his girl that, even when she’d sent him a Dear John letter, and one of the female soldiers from base started hitting on him, he had stayed true. Luckily, Nathan’s ex sent an apology package right after that, and when he’d gone home on leave, he’d come back engaged. Too bad I’d fucked up their chance of ever getting married.

Beau makes a noise of surprise, pulling me out of my head. “Okay, so do the opposite of that.”

Wrinkling my nose on one side, I give him a look. “Make her not jealous?”

“
No. You need to get her to realize that she made the wrong choice by deciding to put the brakes on you guys hooking up.” I don’t bother to correct Beau’s assumption. Lacey and I have never had sex, not even close to it. “Get Rae to set Lacey up on dates, really
bad
dates, and then, before long, she’ll come to her senses and be all,
Wyatt, why did I ever say we should stop banging
?” I punch him in the shoulder, and he grunts out an apology.

“
I guess I could do that.” I rub my chin. “But how could I make sure Rae doesn’t set Lacey up with really good dates?”

“
You can’t—unless you do it yourself.” He glances at his watch again. “Seriously good talking with you, but I have to go.”

“
Can’t keep them waiting, huh?”

“
Nope.” He jogs back to the house, and I make my way back to my truck. It’s a good thing I never cut the engine.

Beau, despite his sort of weird behavior, might have the right idea. I can’t guarantee Rae would go along with bad dates, because she is Lacey’s best friend, and since I’d been the one to suggest that she and Cole take a break, I doubt she’d do me any favors—that is, if Cole had told her what I said.

I can’t take that chance, and I don’t want to cause more problems for Cole. If she’s the one he wants, then who the hell am I to piss in his love cereal?

Where there’s a will, there’s a way around it.

The words echo in my mind. Tonight, I would strategize and come up with the best plan of attack.

I was going to become the best friend Lacey Evans ever had, and then I was going to make that redheaded roller girl regret it.

Chapter Two

Lacey

I never should have kissed Wyatt Tanaka. I never should have tried to straddle the line of friend and lover. What I should have known—Wyatt is too good for me. Too beautifully made to be with a freak like me.

Everyone knows it. Everyone but
him
.

Now that I’ve promised his mother, who is also my boss, to stay away from her son, things have gotten worse. The boy with the easy smile has once again become the man who’d endured a war. A man I didn’t recognize when he first came home. A man who I’d catch staring off into space, but not with a dreamy look in his eyes. Oh, no—torment and anguish resided in those dark brown depths.

With most people, I have a really hard time noticing things like that. But Wyatt isn’t most people, and I’ve known him for so long that I
make
myself notice.

Like now, while I’m sitting at a high table with the best female friend I’ve ever had, and Wyatt is glaring at me. He’s across the bar, playing darts with his buddy, Cole Morgan.

The two of them have been friends longer than Wyatt and I have been. In the not-to-distant past, Wyatt was the one to calm Cole down. Wyatt was the one who was reasonable and thoughtful.

But not anymore.

Now he’s reckless, though he doesn’t think I notice. Only I do. I notice the females, every single one of them, the smell of alcohol on his breath, and the glassy eyes. My heart is breaking for him, for me, and there’s nothing I’d like more than to fix all of this, but I can’t.

None of that stops me from coming to The Double Deuce tonight, though Rae Givens was the one to invite me, and not Wyatt.

My heart turns over in my chest.

It’s New Year’s Eve and we’re all hanging out in the bar, because the press won’t leave Rae and Cole alone. In the public eye, everyone knows her as Violet Lynn, famous country music superstar. But she doesn’t talk about her career, unless someone asks her point-blank, and even then, she’s pretty quiet on the subject.

Fine with me. I’m not friends with her because she’s a celebrity. I’m friends with her because she takes the time to do things with me and listen to me. She’s a lot like Wyatt in that aspect.

Gosh, I miss him so much it physically hurts.

Another song comes over the speakers, and I feel like I should say something. “This is my favorite song.” Actually, I’ve never heard it before. My wrist starts to itch. I hate lying. It always makes me feel like I have to scratch at the skin, like I need to let the truth out.

“
Why don’t you dance, then?” Rae asks.

I stare at the dance floor, watching the other couples move together. “Because Wyatt is playing darts with Cole, and I don’t want to interrupt his game.” He wouldn’t want me to interrupt his game. I let my gaze travel to Wyatt. His glare hasn’t faded.

“
I’m pretty sure he would be okay with it.” I can hear the smile in Rae’s voice as she says this, but she doesn’t know how to read Wyatt like I do. He doesn’t glower like Cole. His glares are imperceptible.

I shake my head, sending my hair sliding over one shoulder. “Not anymore.”

Rae’s grin falls. “Why is that?”

“
Mr. and Mrs. Tanaka said they’ll fire me if I keep seeing him.”

They hadn’t come out and said those words, but I’m not so dumb that I couldn’t figure out what they meant when they said,
What happens when the two of you don’t work out?

When
, not
if
. They didn’t want any problems at work. Personal problems were supposed to be private, not public.

“
But that’s not right.”

I swallow the lump in my throat and fight back the tears. “For him it is. Wyatt deserves to be with a woman who wants to be a doctor or lawyer, not some small-town veterinarian’s assistant with no other ambition in life.”

“
Is that what they said to you?”

“
His momma did.” Only she hadn’t said it to me. I overheard her say it on the phone, about me. But it only reinforced all the conversations I’d had with the Tanakas, all the conversations I’d had with myself… all the things I knew about myself. Staring at the table, I begin to draw a circle on the table. “She’s right. I would hold him back.”

“
But you love Wyatt.”

I jerk up my head, my heavy bangs falling into my eyes. I blow them away. My heart pounds. “Don’t tell him what I told you. Promise me, okay, because I was supposed to keep it a secret. But you’re my best friend, and best friends don’t keep secrets, right?”

Rae looks up at the ceiling and then back at me, a frown on her lips. “I thought Wyatt was your best friend, too.”

“
Not anymore.” I can’t take the pitying look in her eyes, so I go back to drawing circles, the shape of them comforting. A circle is always a circle. The track always goes round and round. They never change. “Things changed once we kissed. Plus, he’s not speaking to me now.”

“
Lacey,” she says softly.

“
Yes?”

“
Would it be all right to hug you?”

I glance at her from the corner of my eye. The consideration she shows me makes my bottom lip tremble. A hot tear splashes on my cheek. “Yes.”

She grabs me up in a hug, harder than I thought possible. Rae is shorter than I am, and most of the time looks like a china doll, with her petite frame, pale blond hair, and blue eyes.

Finally, she lets me go, even though I’d be okay with her hugging me for a bit longer. I don’t have very many friends, and the ones I do have like to jab me with elbows and flying arms.

“
Thank you,” I whisper. “Have a good night.” Wyatt’s hard gaze catches mine again. I flinch a little, then I slide off the stool and head to the front door. Alone.

It’s so strange to be here without him at my side. It’s even stranger to walk out the door, without him checking on me, without him walking me to my car, and waiting for me to start it up.

My throat gets all lumpy again, and I bite my lip to keep from crying.

For him to get so mad over me telling him that we can’t kiss anymore… that we had to go back to being only friends again. I just don’t get it. After all, it was just a kiss or two, nothing life altering

Okay, so it was more than just one kiss or two. It was tons of kisses, tons of his hands on my face and shoulders. His hands coasting down the sides of my body, tenderly and carefully, as if he was afraid I might break. His lips crushing mine. His breath becoming mine. I was his, and though we never did more than that, though his hands stayed on top of my clothes… I felt branded by him.

I trudge to my car. Frost covers the windshield, and bits of snow cling to the hood. The freezing almost-January air makes me pull my coat tighter. There’s hardly any traffic and, since this was a private party, the parking lot is almost deserted.

Happy New Year’s Eve to me.

A door slams behind me, but I keep walking.

“
What do you think you’re doing?” Wyatt says from behind me. The sound of his voice makes me want to cry harder. He hasn’t spoken to me in three weeks.

And it hurts, God, it hurts. I want to turn around, but I keep walking, knowing that nothing good will come of this. He’s in a mood, and there’s an edge to his words. “Going home.”

He grabs my shoulder and turns me around. My eyes rake over him, over the heavy jacket and dark jeans, over the black boots on his feet, and then up to his messy, dark hair. It’s longer than he’s ever worn it, and I want to touch it. I want to brush it back from his face and ask him why he’s hiding. But I don’t.
I can’t.

“
Why?” he asks.

Because it hurts to be around you.
“It’s late.”

“
It’s New Year’s Eve,” he points out. As if I need reminding of that. It’s a whole new year that I’ll have to spend without my best friend talking to me. My newest friend will be gone too, on a big music tour.

“
I know,” I whisper miserably.

His lips thin. “Are you afraid that I might try to kiss you when the ball drops?”

If only he would kiss me. If only I
could
kiss him. Instead of telling the truth or lying, I say nothing.