Dating My Best Friend: A Second Chance Romance

by Annie J. Rose

  I shrugged. “The story is simple. We were best friends until his parents died. He left to live with his aunt in Vegas, and despite promises to the contrary, he never looked back. Not once.”

  He blinked. “That must have hurt.”

  Yeah, because I loved him. “It didn’t feel good.”

  “How did his parents die?”

  My mind rushed back to that moment. My mom pulling me from volleyball practice. Walking into the hospital waiting room. The way the nurse crouched down and delivered the news.

  I cleared my throat. “Car accident.”

  “That’s gotta be tough on a young boy.”

  “Yeah, well. It was tough on all of us.”

  Matthew grinned. “But you’re not still bitter about it or anything, right?”

  I waved him off. “I just don’t like everyone coming in here and clogging up the place with long-forgotten gossip.”

  “At least it’s been getting people into the library.”

  “Yeah? And how many books have been checked out?”

  He paused. “Point taken.”

  I giggled. “Uh-huh. So, I’ll come relieve you around—”

  “Khloe!”

  A few shushes rose up from the small crowd still in the library as my mother’s voice bellowed through the front door.

  “Khloe. You will never guess who I just talked to,” Mom said.

  Matthew clapped his hand over his mouth as I ground my teeth together.

  “Jasper?” I asked.

  “How did you know?”

  “How could I not? It’s not like this place is full of many newsworthy events,” I grumbled.

  “Well, he’s been hired onto the police force,” she said.

  I blinked. “I thought he was in the military.”

  “You’ve talked to him?”

  “No. But, the rest of the city apparently has and has made it a point to update me.”

  “Well, yes, he was in the Marines for four years. Got out, became a police officer. And oh, he looks so different. He’s taller, I think. And very broad. He looks really handsome, too.”

  “Oh, I bet he does,” Matthew said playfully.

  I shot him a look. “Mom, please stop.”

  “Stop what?” She looked confused.

  “Stop trying to play matchmaker.”

  She scoffed. “Come on. You know that’s not what I’m trying to do. But he was your best friend for a long time,” she said.

  “How close were you?” Matthew asked.

  “Don’t you have a job to do?” I asked.

  “Oh, don’t be so hard on him. I’m sure he’s just curious. Right, Michael?”

  “Matthew,” I said.

  “Right, Matthew?” Mom corrected.

  “Of course. Merely curious, that’s all,” he said, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

  I glared at him, and he scurried back off to the front desk.

  “Why are you so mean to him sometimes?” Mom asked.

  “Can you get to the point, please?” I asked.

  “Sweetheart, we all know Jasper Willem was your first love,” she said.

  “No, he wasn’t.”

  “You can tell that to me all you want, but I remember those days. You two, paling around. How you looked at him. The way he looked at you. There’s a reason Dad always kept an eye on you two whenever he came around.”

  “I didn’t love him.”

  “You did. There’s no point in denying it.”

  “Mom, what do you want? Because I’m kind of in the middle of work?”

  Mom sighed. “At the very least, you owe it to yourself to get answers. Which will require talking to him, Khloe. Being civil long enough for him to tell you what you’ve wanted to know for all these years.”

  “You mean why he left and never called once?”

  “Yes.”

  “Mom, I don’t have time for this,” I said a bit more harshly than I needed to.

  I sighed, seeing the hurt on my mother’s face. “Sorry. I’m sorry. It’s just—literally everyone who has come into this library today has asked me the same question. Have I seen Jasper? Have I spoken to him? Do I know anything about him? Has he come by? I’m over it. I’m done with this day. Yay, he’s back. Woo hoo. Now, we can go on about our lives just like we did when he first left us all in the dust?”

  “He lost his parents, Khloe, and moved away from everyone he knew. I know you remember how devastating that was.”

  “Yeah, we all do. That still didn’t give him the right to break my heart like that.”

  Mom pursed her lips, and I knew I had talked myself into a corner.

  “Shit,” I hissed.

  “Language. Talk to him, Khloe. Be reasonable long enough to get the closure you need. No one’s trying to matchmake you. Unless that’s what you want.”

  “No, that’s not even remotely what I want.”

  She nodded. “Fine, then. But be nice when you—”

  “Khlo?”

  I froze. My heart stopped in my chest, and my knees stiffened. I slowly peered over my mother’s shoulder, knowing damn good and well who would be standing there.

  His bright emerald eyes shone at me.

  “Hey, Khlo,” Jasper said quietly.

  “Uh, she doesn’t like to be called that,” Matt interjected with some primitive need to protect me in some way.

  Mom rubbed my back and whispered in my ear. “Be. Nice.”

  Then she left, brushing by Jasper, patting his back, and smiling at him. As if he were part of the family again.

  A family he abandoned.

  My stare ran down his body as the two of them stood there. Kent and Jasper. And Mom was right. He did look good. He was much taller than I remembered; he had towered over me by at least a foot. His hair was disheveled in that sexy, stylish way, and he had stubble on his jawline, like a grown man. And his muscles—holy hell, the man had them pulled taut all over his body. His tanned skin glistened in the fluorescent library lights, and a hint of a tattoo peeked from under the collar of his shirt.

  “What do you want, Kent?” I asked.

  My eyes flickered over to him, and I tried ignoring Jasper. I heard the irritation in my voice. I saw Kent wince at it, even.

  “I’ll be outside,” Kent said by way of an answer.

  When he left, Jasper didn’t follow.

  I cleared my throat as my eyes returned back to his. Those bright emerald eyes glistened as a smile crossed his face. It was soft. Miniscule, really. But it reached his eyes. They crinkled softly, and I tried my best to quell the traitorous flutter in my chest.

  “So I guess the rumors are true,” I said.

  He nodded. “Yep.”

  His voice had changed, too. It was deeper and a little more gravelly.

  And damn did it sound good to my ears. Get a grip, Khloe. He broke your heart, remember?

  “So, not a fan of the nickname anymore?” Jasper asked.

  “No,” I said plainly.

  He nodded softly before the doors of the library opened again, followed by a bark.

  “What the—?”

  “No, no, no. Piper. Wait in the car,” Jasper said.

  “No dogs are allowed in—ah!”

  The golden retriever made his way for me and jumped up to my shoulders. The dog’s paws landed against my chest, and he started licking my neck. I backed away from the dog. But with every step I took, the dog moved with me like we were dancing.

  “Please get down.”

  “Piper. Bad girl. Down. Right now.”

  A sharp whistle came out of nowhere, and I stumbled back. The dog pushed off me and fell to the floor, but it didn’t stop barking. I plugged my ears as Matthew rushed from around the front desk and shooed the dog out the door. But Jasper didn’t follow. My fingers fell from my ears, and I glared at him, dusting myself off as he reached for me. But when I shot him another look, his hand quickly fell back to his side.

  “That’s Piper. She’s a police dog. And a suppo
rt animal, and my best friend,” Jasper said.

  I laughed bitterly. “So, my place went to a dog.”

  His face sank, and I didn’t care.

  “Look, Khlo—”

  “Khloe,” I said hotly.

  “Khloe, I know you’re busy. I just wanted to come by and say hi. Kent is giving me a ride around the town. Getting me used to the new areas.”

  “Had you come back once in a while, there wouldn’t have been a need for that.”

  He nodded slowly. “I know. Trust me, I—”

  “Trust you?”

  “Oh, boy,” Matt murmured.

  “Trust you?” I asked again.

  Jasper held his hands up in a defensive gesture. “I just came by to see you. That’s all.”

  “To see me.”

  “Yeah. I saw your mom at lunch. I saw Quinn this morning.”

  I took another step forward. “And you just thought you’d finish off the whole family? Get those boxes checked off your list so you can feel better?”

  He flinched at my hard tone. “It’s not like that.”

  “You know what, Jasper? It’s fine. I don’t really care. I need to get back to work.”

  “Khlo, please—”

  “Khloe,” I said sharply, my voice rising.

  He sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come.”

  “No, you shouldn’t have. You can see yourself out the same way you came in.”

  Chapter 6

  Jasper

  “You get what you wanted outta that?”

  I sighed. “Yeah. I’m good. Just drive.”

  Piper barked and panted in the back seat of the cruiser as Kent pulled around the rotunda of the library. As my gaze fell out the window, my mind swirled. I hadn’t expected things to go over well with Khloe at all, but I didn’t expect things to get that heated.

  She was very angry with me.

  And rightfully so, asshole.

  I wanted to see her, yes, but on my terms or hers, not an ambush. After going into town for some food and running into her mother, it was almost too coincidental that I’d come across Kent eating in his car outside. He offered me a ride home, and suddenly, we were headed for the library.

  “Why did you bring me here again?” I asked.

  I looked over at him as we pulled onto the main road.

  “All I did was offer. You took me up on it,” he said.

  “I’m pretty sure you offered me a ride home, and then we ended up at the library.”

  “After I asked you if you wanted to go over there and see her. You could’ve said no.”

  “You made it seem as if she wasn’t upset with me.”

  He snickered. “How the hell did I do that? I asked if you wanted to see her, you said ‘is that a good idea?’ and I said—”

  “‘I guess there have been worse ideas. How angry can she really be?’”

  “Yeah. And I guess we know how angry she can really be now.”

  I shook my head. “Great.”

  “Hey, look. Khloe and I have been tight ever since she got married. I was her husband’s best friend, and when he died—”

  “Khloe got married?” I interrupted, feeling like I’d been gut-punched.

  Kent sighed. “Yeah, man. She got married. I was the best man at their wedding. And when John died, she was wrecked. Her family was there for her, sure. But so was I. Because her other best friend disappeared on her and never came back.”

  I nodded slowly. “How did he die?”

  “Heart attack. Dropped dead on the street in the middle of his morning run.”

  I shook my head. “Shit.”

  “And I figured that if she was going to implode on you—or explode, for that matter—it’d be better for me to be there for both of your sakes instead of it happening in private.”

  “For my protection or hers?”

  “Mainly for her. I know she needs closure. I know all about what happened between you two. How you left. How you never called. How she tried to track you down after she graduated.”

  I blinked. “Wait, what?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. I know all about that shit. According to her, she tried tracking you down in Vegas after she graduated. Convinced her family to take a two-week vacation there and did her best to try and figure it out. To find you. Until she realized how big Las Vegas really is. You know, city limits versus Strip limits and all that.”

  “She tried to come find me?”

  “Yep. She never once gave up, until after that trip.”

  I felt sick to my stomach. “I guess you being there for her during that encounter was the best move, yeah.”

  “I know it was. You’ve been gone for a long time. And look, it’s great you’re back and all, but don’t expect a red carpet or anything.”

  “Trust me, I didn’t. Just, next time? Let’s make a plan before we go charging into something like that.”

  He nodded. “Oh, and if Khloe decides to kill you, I will help her hide the body. Just saying.”

  Just then, the police radio in the car came to life, and I felt myself jumping into action, despite the fact that it wasn’t my first day yet.

  “All units within a radius of 302 Broadstone Road, be advised. Subject is an underaged white male. Elderly man says the kid’s trying to break into his garage. Unit response times, go.”

  Kent reached for the radio. “This is cruiser 1801, I’m 10-8 in the area. ETA, less than two minutes.”

  “Copy that, 1801. Everyone else, 10-100.”

  “Why do I recognize that address?” I asked.

  “Eh, it’s Old Man Hauston’s home. I swear he’s got more kids breaking into his place than anyone I’ve ever met.”

  “Mr. Hauston? The science teacher?”

  “I think he retired a couple of years ago. But, yeah. I think he taught science.”

  I nodded. “Yeah. That’s my old science teacher from high school.”

  “Well, we’re about to go figure out why some punk kid is breaking into his garage.”

  Kent turned on the sirens and whipped a U-turn in the middle of the road. I hung on, clinging to the door as Piper went into position, with her nose down, her eyes forward, and her body focused. It was amazing to me how she could quickly go into work mode like that. Be on alert. Be at my side. Attentive to my needs as well as the needs of the field.

  When we pulled into Mr. Hauston’s driveway, I heard his voice.

  “Get the hell off my property, you little asshole!”

  “Give me my bike back!” the kid yelled.

  “Not if I have anything to do with it. Are you with that gang of googly-eyed kids? Huh? Pipe cleaners with eyes that keep egging my house?”

  “Officer! Officer! This man has my bike!”

  A blinding flash took over my vision. I felt the cold of Piper’s nose against my neck as she nuzzled it up and down, up and down, trying to regulate my erratic heartbeat. The yelling ripped me back, flashes of my men yelling in the field bombarding my vision. I reached for the door and felt Piper’s paw settle against the top of my hand, stopping me as her nose continued to massage my carotid.

  Up and down.

  Up and down.

  Up and down.

  “Good girl,” I whispered.

  I felt myself teetering on the edge of an attack. Another image flashed to the forefront of my mind. An explosion, the sound echoing off the corners of my mind, followed by soldiers scrambling. Someone yelling for a medic.

  “Medic! I need a medic!”

  “Medic! Someone get me a fucking medic!”

  “Officer! My mom’s going to kill me if I don’t get my bike back!”

  The world quickly came back into focus, and I drew in a deep breath. I reached back and scratched behind Piper’s ears, letting her know I was okay. I thought it best not to get out of the car, especially since I wasn’t in my official uniform, or clocked in for that matter. I was worried, though. Worried that my PTSD might get the best of me in the field. But as I watched Ke
nt work, I took in what he did—how he handled Mr. Hauston, how he disarmed the kid without once reaching for his weapon.

  Such different territory from Vegas.

  Kent looked back at me with concern on his face. His stare flitted around, and then he nodded in my general direction. Shit. Did he know what just happened? I’d get fired before I ever got into the office tomorrow. I sat back and heaved a heavy sigh. Piper rested her snout against my shoulder from beyond the seat in the cruiser. As I drew in deep breaths, I watched Kent shoo the kid away on his bike before wrapping things up with Mr. Hauston.

  He dropped down into the car before backing out of the driveway.

  “Apparently, Hauston has had his bike for a couple of days,” Kent said.

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Yep. Kid was trying to get in there because Hauston had his bike. Guess Hauston’s deciding to steal from the kids in order to teach them a lesson in stealing from him. I let him off with a warning. This time.”

  I nodded.

  “And before you ask? Don’t worry. We’ll help you work around it.”

  I paused. “What?”

  He shrugged. “The PTSD. You aren’t the only one here on the Canaan Force that deals with it. We’ll help you work around it like we do the other guys. All right?”

  I nodded slowly. “Good to know.”

  “Want me to take you home?”

  “Sure. Yeah. I should get unpacked and get some rest for tomorrow anyway.”

  “Yep. Due at eight in the morning, sharp. Chief doesn’t like it when we’re late. So, don’t be.”

  “I’m never late.”

  “That’s what they all say.”

  Kent chuckled as I directed him on how to get to my place. While I enjoyed the ride around, it felt odd hanging out with him. Hanging out with Khloe’s dead husband’s best friend. Hanging out with the guy who’d apparently taken my place. Not that I was pissed about it or anything—Khloe deserved a loyal friend. She deserved everything, really. The world on a silver platter.

  Not that I’d be the one to give it to her.

  She looked outstanding.

  Even as I stood in my driveway, waving Kent off, I couldn’t get her off my mind. The last time I’d seen Khloe in glasses, she had been in middle school. And oh, how wonderful they looked on her. Those brown eyes—though mad—still sparkled with those flecks of green. Flecks of color that reminded me of Christmas and the trees we went hunting for and decorated together. The smell of pine would always fill our nostrils from room to room, no matter where we went.