by Toni Blake
Amy tried to swallow back all the emotion that rushed through her in response to the question even as she heard herself admit, “Something happened.”
“Something happened?” Tessa asked.
“With Logan,” Amy told her.
Tessa’s eyebrows shot up as she moved smoothly into the overstuffed chair across from Amy’s and leaned forward, her gaze wide. “Start talking.”
So Amy took a deep breath, and then she talked. She told Tessa the whole story of how Logan had kissed her but then afterward acted like she had the plague or something. Only Tessa didn’t seem to hear the part about the plague. Instead, she seemed . . . unaccountably overjoyed. “Oh my God, this is so great! I mean, could it be any greater?”
Now it was Amy who blinked her astonishment. “Um, yes. Yes, it could be.”
“Because you and Logan know each other so well! You’ve already got all of that behind you! You know each other’s families and backgrounds, you know who the other is deep inside, you know the kind of life each other has lived and wants to live in the future. I mean, Lucky and I had problems with some of that stuff—and it counts for a lot. All you and Logan have to do is get past the awkward friends-to-lovers transition and then you’ll have it made.”
Amy just stared at her friend, feeling like they’d done a role reversal. It was usually Amy who saw everyone’s relationships through rose-colored glasses, refusing to acknowledge the difficult parts. But now she was viewing things from the other side. “Except for one fairly important thing,” she told Tessa. “He doesn’t want to go from friends to lovers. Because he doesn’t see me as a lover—only as a friend.”
“But he didn’t kiss you like a friend, right?”
“No.” He’d kissed her like . . . like she’d always dreamed of being kissed. “But he also said he must have thought I was someone else. I think he sees me as . . . more of a sister.”
At this, however, Tessa just made a face. “I think he said that just to cover up because it caught him off guard. And I’m sure you’re exaggerating the part about him acting like you had the plague.” Then she gave her head an inquisitive tilt. “But before we go any further, let’s back up a minute and answer the most important question here. How do you feel about him?”
Amy expelled a sigh and let everything she’d thought and felt since that kiss play back through her head. Reliving it quickly made her heart beat too hard and her palms sweaty. Her skin got hotter, too, and she soon noticed that, at the moment, it wasn’t particularly easy to breathe. And she still suffered that same mix of happy-sad-confused that had been making her feel a little crazy ever since the kiss. And she realized that even though she knew he didn’t want her, would surely never want her, and that this whole thing was very likely going to ruin their lifelong friendship, she still felt weirdly happy and giddy inside when she pictured his handsome face in her mind.
And then, then, she had no choice but to face the truth, the truth which she suddenly understood had probably been festering inside her for a while now but she’d just been too in denial to admit to herself. It seemed useless to keep on denying it now, though, so she finally said to Tessa, “I think I’m in love with him.”
About the Author
TONI BLAKE’s lifelong love of writing began when she won an essay contest in the fifth grade. Soon after, she penned her first novel—nineteen notebook pages long. Since then, Toni has become a multipublished, RITA-nominated author of contemporary romance novels that are both sexy and heartwarming. Her work has been excerpted in Cosmo and reviewed by USA Today and First for Women magazine. Toni lives with her husband in the Midwest, and when not writing, she enjoys traveling, quilting, and scrapbooking.
www.toniblake.com
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By Toni Blake
HALF MOON HILL
WILLOW SPRINGS
HOLLY LANE
WHISPER FALLS
SUGAR CREEK
ONE RECKLESS SUMMER
LETTERS TO A SECRET LOVER
TEMPT ME TONIGHT
SWEPT AWAY
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpt from One Reckless Summer copyright © 2009 by Toni Herzog
Excerpt from Sugar Creek copyright © 2010 by Toni Herzog
Excerpt from Whisper Falls copyright © 2011 by Toni Herzog
Excerpt from Holly Lane copyright © 2011 by Toni Herzog
Excerpt from Willow Springs copyright © 2012 by Toni Herzog
HALF MOON HILL. Copyright © 2013 by Toni Herzog. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition MAY 2013 ISBN: 9780062198075
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-202462-6
FIRST EDITION
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