by Shannyn Leah
The guilt that wrapped his fingers around the glass and picked it off the counter.
Three-hundred and eighty days sober.
When the glass touched his lips and the smell filled his nostrils, he realized those were only numbers. Only numbers.
Chapter Thirteen
ABBY PACED ACROSS the living room waiting for Riley. It was way past midnight now.
Where was he? Oh, you know where he is.
That answer didn’t help. Abby couldn’t decide which was angering her more. Was she mad because he went and slept with a past lover? Was she mad because he lied to her? Both of those reasons were good to flare her anger, but deep down it was because he was stringing her along. Not physically or sexually. He’d made it clear that there would be no benefits in this relationship. But that jerk was stringing her along a fake friendship path that she had fallen into. All of it. He was putting up with her for the sake of Mrs. C or Gran.
It wasn’t fair.
When Riley finally walked through the door, Abby hadn’t settled down at all. She was angrier than when she’d arrived hours ago.
She didn’t even give him a chance to shut the door before she said, “Straight to the room, huh?”
Riley looked at her, but didn’t reply. He pulled his jacket off and threw it over the chair, making his way to the kitchen.
Abby didn’t like being ignored. “Did she slip you her number?”
No answer.
“Riley?”
With his back facing her, his hands gripped the edge of the counter, flexing his shoulder muscles. “Yes,” he answered.
Abby didn’t have to ask. They both knew the answer, but she needed to hear him say it. “Were you at her room?”
He nodded. “And the bar.”
And the bar? Was that another lie? “You don’t drink.”
“It was a dry visit.”
“Dammit Riley.”
He turned and snapped, “What?”
What? What!
“You left me to go sleep with some girl from your past and you can’t even own it. You lied to me.”
“You want to talk about lying or mistrust. You came back here early because you don’t trust me. Don’t play the innocent card.”
“Apparently I was right. And I didn’t lie to you. Friends don’t lie to each other−”
He cut her off. “I didn’t say we were friends and I sure as shit didn’t jump into a relationship with you to jump down my throat about who I talk to.”
“Sleep with,” she corrected, hating that his reply just answered the one question that really mattered. He didn’t say they were friends, because he didn’t want to be her friend.
“What does it matter what I’ve done. I told you I wasn’t looking for a relationship.”
“Or a quickie. But apparently you just weren’t looking for it with me.” Abby stood up and passed him, heading toward the door.
“Why are you so mad? I thought we had our roles figured out so no one would get hurt.”
Abby ignored him and he grabbed her hand as she passed. She yanked it away nearly falling from the pull.
“I thought you were different,” she yelled at him. “I thought you liked me.” Not the facade she wore for others.
“I can’t like you like that.” He didn’t even understand that she was talking about her as a person.
“But you can with her.” She didn’t mean it, but it was the only fight she had left in her. She wouldn’t let him know that she felt something deeper than wanting to sleep with him. She wouldn’t admit to him that she liked being his friend and spending platonic time with him.
“It’s exactly what I said, you are here because you have some loyalty to Mrs. C that gives you the need to watch me and make sure I don’t screw it up and hurt her. Right?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I warned you I’m not friend material.”
“You did. I guess I had more faith in you then you have in me.”
Abby slammed the door shut behind her.
Chapter Fourteen
THE DRIVE BACK to Willow Valley the next day was quiet. Izzy must have sensed the tension between Abby and Riley because even she was quieter than usual.
Riley dropped Izzy off at the front door of The Caliendo Resort, and sat in the car while Abby and Izzy said goodbye. He thought about the only good thing about this week away with Abby. Last night after she’d left the room he’d been convinced she would end up wasted and waited for the call from the bar asking him to come pick her up. There had been no call and when Abby came back to the room she was stone sober. That was the only good thing to come out of this weekend. Abby hadn’t run to the bottle to mask her pain.
When Abby finished goodbye, the hum of his car was the only sound on the ride to Grace’s house.
Abby climbed out of the vehicle without a word.
Riley sat in the driver’s seat while she pulled her bags out of the trunk. He intended on staying put, but something inside him made him get out.
Riley didn’t want to part under these conditions.
He rounded the back of the car just as she pulled her last bag out.
“Abby, I didn’t sleep with her.”
Abby shook her head without looking at him. “It was never about that.” She looked at him. “It was about the lies. Going to her room was another lie on top of the lies about us. I’m not looking for a babysitter and it’s obvious that what this trip was.”
She slammed the trunk.
“I didn’t go with you because of Grace or Mrs. C. I’m a mess,” Riley said.
“I’m a mess.”
“I can’t promise you anything. A friendship. A title. I won’t talk about my past. I can’t. I am what you see. There is nothing more to me. I can’t offer you what you’re asking for.”
Abby sighed. “I never asked you for anything. I asked you if you liked me and when you said yes, that was enough. That was all I needed.”
“I like you Abby.”
“It’s too late, Riley.” She walked away without a fight.
Riley was left with exactly what he wanted one week ago: to be alone. As he drove to his apartment, he ignored the feeling that he didn’t like being alone as much as he thought.
ABBY STAYED AWAY FROM Riley for the next two weeks. She steered clear of the bakery and skipped her runs on the beach. She avoided the back deck of Gran’s house completely. But, she noticed that Riley’s night time drives on his motorcycle had come to an end. Gran and Abby would often listen to his bike start when darkness invaded the sky, but the last couple of weeks there had been nothing. It was probably just the cold weather coming in and nothing more.
Abby’s sisters filled her time with plans for opening the soap shop. It was serious now and not just a drunken conversation between sisters. Peyton got a loan from the bank and they were hiring a crew to start renovating the place. It was happening. The idea of working with her sisters was surprisingly exciting.
Kate got engaged to Marc. Engaged! After a weekend away that ended in fighting, they were now engaged!
The advantage to a ring on Kate’s finger was that Kate moved out of Gran’s house and into The Caliendo Resort, leaving Abby exactly what she’d wanted from the moment Gran died: privacy. But damn, this alone time was depressing. She hadn’t known how lonely the house was going to be with Kate gone. It was lonely, dark, sad and depressing. Nights were the worse.
Abby stood in the living room by the window and peeked out of the curtains. Her vision went past Gran’s backyard and up the back brick building of Mrs. Calvert’s bakery stopping at the windows of Riley’s apartment.
When he had nothing to offer her, he’d still offered her friendship, but she’d been too scared to take it.
Terrified.
Abby wasn’t used to fear, but if she let him in again, he could hurt her. She knew nothing about him and he made it clear that he wasn’t going to give her an inch of his past. If she could accept him for him then he would accept her for her
.
Why had she walked away? Didn’t she have a ticket and at the front of the Riley line? Why did it take two weeks to realize that she missed him?
Abby looked down at her mug of tea. It was not soothing her regular three in the morning wake-up routine that dragged her days in exhausting long excruciating hours...it wasn’t Riley.
Abby abandoned the mug and pulled her jacket on. She walked out the back door and through the backyard to Mrs. Calvert’s side door...the one that went straight up to Riley’s apartment.
Her hand touched the knob.
What were the odds it was left open at this time?
She decided, twisting the knob, that this now was where her fate rested. If it turned, she was walking up those stairs, but if it was locked then she was going home.
Was that crazy? Maybe.
But she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since the nights she’d fallen asleep on the couch watching television with Riley. She hadn’t felt at peace with life since sitting in the silence they’d built eating a meal. She missed him. A lot more than she’d ever imagined she would or even could and she realized that she wanted him. Obviously she didn’t need him and life could go on without him, but she wanted him...his friendship.
Here I go...please be unlocked.
RILEY HEARD A KNOCK on the door of his apartment and he knew it was Abby even before he opened the door. He left the alley door unlocked each night since they’d returned in case she awoke at this crazy hour and needed somewhere to go. He’d hoped.
“Hey,” she said, wide awake.
Why wasn’t he surprised that her decision to say hey was after three in the morning?
Riley rubbed his eyes. “Hey.”
“Can I come in?”
He nodded stepping back and letting Abby into his apartment.
He’d heard that Kate had moved out of Grace’s house and he wondered how Abby would handle the time alone.
She held up a bag of chips. “I brought some snacks.”
“It’s after three in the morning.”
She shrugged and made herself at home on his couch. “I couldn’t sleep.” She switched on the television and found a program that interested her before she looked back at him. “I’m just going to crash on your couch for the night,” she said.
Riley fetched an extra pillow and blanket for her to sleep with.
“Thanks,” she said.
He stood with her for a while noting how quickly she invaded his space and that it didn’t bother him as much as it should.
“Night Abby.” He headed toward his bedroom door.
“There’s lots of room on the couch,” she called after him.
He shook his head, but a grin formed across his lips.
Was this how it was always going to be with her? Friends with a dash of tease? That summed Abby McAdams up to perfection.
“Goodnight Abby,” he said loudly, before shutting his door.
As long as he could resist the tease, he would be alright...and how many nights could she possibly sleep on his couch anyway?
THE END
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NEWSLETTER
Please enjoy a sneak peek of the next McAdams novel
LAKESHORE CANDY
The McAdams Sisters
Book Four, Abby McAdams
Shannyn Leah
Lakeshore Candy Excerpt Chapter One
FEAR BUBBLED THROUGH Abby McAdams’ chest so forcefully she sat straight up out of bed, gasping to catch a breath. It felt like her heart was about to burst.
I don’t want to be alone! Come back!
The t-shirt and jersey cut-off shorts she wore stuck to her trembling body, soaked in sweat. Panic thundered in her head so loudly it was as if there was someone knocking to get out. Fear gripped her every emotion like her own clenched fists prepared to defend.
Calm down.
Then she heard a groan slice through her panic; a deep, painful groan.
Her eyes flew open, blinking into the darkness, finding the shadow of Riley Boyd moving away from her. At the same time pain seared through her elbow.
Oh no. She’d whacked his face.
“Riley!” Abby ignored the urge to rub her elbow, instead scrambling off the couch and throwing the blankets to the floor. Feeling gross in her sweat-soaked clothes, she yanked the material away from her skin and cringed as it stuck back.
Riley was on his knees backing away from her. She took three steps to his side and dropped to her knees, reaching for his arms. Arms she knew by memory were inked in tattoos, but she was unable to decipher any of them now as her eyes adjusted to the dark.
Using her hands, she worked her way to his abdomen, her fingers having the advantage of feeling every angle and dip of his muscular upper torso. He was shirtless and his warm, smooth flesh teased each fingertip like a game of Operation. Every slope gave her a shock of electricity. She liked this electricity. Seeing his rock hard bare torso on such occasions as fixing his motorcycle in the back alleyway and feeling it now were two entirely different things. It felt amazing.
What? Her fingers paused for a second. Where did that come from? Blame it on the daze of being jolted awake from another nightmare and scrambling off the couch in a hurry to check the injury to his beautiful face.
Where had she hit him? His nose? Was it broken? How hard had she hit him? Does he always sleep with his shirt off? Was he completely naked right now?
Do not move your hands downwards Abigail McAdams.
Had these unwanted thoughts about him played in her mind before they’d become friends, she would have blamed it on the sheer want to sack him. That wasn’t who Riley was to her now though. He wasn’t just another bed lay. He was her friend.
“Are you alright?” she asked, pulling her focus back to the present, back to her friend.
“Yes,” he snapped at her, making her forget the horror that had torn her from her sleep, but not coming anywhere close to assisting her at forgetting the hotness beneath her hands.
Riley was always cranky. Quiet and bad-tempered were Riley’s two personalities. Everyone got his quiet side, but only those who stuck around long enough got the irritable side. Like her foolish self.
“Let me see.” Her hands moved up his arms and tried to ignore the tingling zapping her skin. His hands still covered his face. He was so warm...bed warm. Envisioning his long naked body throwing back the sheets sent a tingle through her, a delightfully, exciting tingle.
Riley pulled away. “How are you going to see anything in the dark?” Cranky, cranky, cranky. Although he made a good point.
Abby scrambled back beside the couch and reached for the lamp sitting on the side table. Once light invaded them, she moved back in front of Riley. Now she could see him clearly. He was too distracted to catch her gazing at his inked tribal sleeve that traveled up his firm arms, around his thick shoulders and down his brawny back.
Abby, you smacked his face. Oh yeah.
She drew her wandering gaze up to his eyes. His dark, mysterious, and dangerous eyes. She loved the menace behind those eyes and loved the possibilities of why it was there in the first place even more.
“Problem solved,” she said, attempting to retain focus. “Now let me see.”
He was reluctant to move his hands, like he feared she might haul off and clock him again or, perhaps, he was just stubborn. More than likely the latter of the two. When his hands finally dropped from his face, blood stained his skin.
Oops.
Abby sucked in her lips, horrified she’d fallen into such a deep sleep that she’d...well...elbowed him in the nose. Hard. Blood hard.
Abby covered her mouth. “I’m so sorry,” she said, between the gaps of her fingers.
Riley looked down at his hands with his half-rigid sleepy face, that wasn’t nearly as rigidly set as during the day, and saw the blood. He cursed and stood, wearing only black boxers hugging his trim waist, settling her earlier debate
.
His footsteps thumped across the old wood floor as he walked to the kitchen of the small one-bedroom apartment.
Mrs. Calvert had four apartments vacant above her bakery, but Riley was her only tenant. She’d owned the bakery as long as Abby could remember. Mrs. Calvert refused to deal with the crowds that occupied in the small apartments above businesses or to tidy up after tourists during the summer months. The bakery was her dream and the hassle of messy, careless tenants didn’t appeal to her. Riley was neither messy nor careless and had Mrs. Calvert wrapped around his cranky pinky finger.
The current situation wasn’t funny...it really wasn’t. Abby had made the poor guy bleed. But she couldn’t help the smirk that took over her lips as she followed behind him, getting ice out of the freezer and wrapping it inside a towel for a homemade ice pack.
Abby was familiar with the layout of his apartment since she spent half the week sleeping on his couch like a college kid. She felt like the drop-out kid who just couldn’t figure out where life was taking her.
Abby leaned her back against the counter beside him, enjoying the view, as he splashed water on his face and scrubbed away the color staining his skin.
Who wouldn’t enjoy the view? Tall, lean, practically naked and now adding water against that tanned skin...yummy.
When he turned to face her, the only sign of any injury was the redness around his nose. It didn’t look broken—that was a relief.
“That’s the last time I try to wake you up,” he growled the lie through his perfectly white teeth and tight lips. Her exhausted mind wondered what her lips would feel like caught between those teeth and how delicious his tongue would taste plunged through the parted opening of her lips.
Exhausted was right!
Did her lips really just part open?
If Riley was in pain, he didn’t show it. Instead annoyance danced a regular routine across his concrete face.