King of the Friend Zone (Power of the Matchmaker)

by Pratt, Sheralyn

  She knew all that even as her hand turned on the dispatch radio and listened in to make sure Hunter stayed safe as she responded to work emails.

  Chapter 49

  On the surface, things had gone back to normal between her and Jon. He’d remembered her raving about Talula’s Garden in Philadelphia and he—or his secretary—had done the research to find the nearest equivalent in San Francisco. The meal wasn’t the same. It wasn’t even close, but he was trying. He really was.

  Yet the tension between them remained, and it was too much to ignore.

  Esme looked up from her seared salmon, and took a long, studied look at her handsome fiancé. He wasn’t happy. She could see that from the lines etched into his face. He looked stressed. Miserable. And at least part of that was on her.

  The fingers of her right hand came over and started playing with the ring that marked the beginning of all the stress between them.

  “Jon?” she said, waiting until his handsome hazel eyes looked up at her.

  “Yeah?”

  She took a calming breath. “How do you feel about picking a wedding date?”

  Across the table, Jon’s jaw tensed and his eyes dropped. “I’d say we have a way to go before that’s a good idea.”

  Esme nodded, the fingers fiddling with her ring no longer fidgeting but pulling. “Okay, then I have a proposal for you.”

  He grew still. “Okay.”

  She pulled off her ring and laid it on the table between them. “How about I give this back to you for a month? If, in a month, you want to give it back to me, then we’ll start this engagement all over again.”

  For several moments Jon stared at the ring. Then his hand moved up onto the table and he picked it up. “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  He nodded. “I think that’s a fair proposal.”

  “Okay,” Esme said, not quite sure what she was feeling. It was like a mix of sorrow, relief, and hope all wrapped up into one.

  Jon looked up at her. “I still love you.”

  “Love you, too,” she said without hesitation.

  Then they both went back to eating.

  Chapter 50

  For someone who had only been boxing for a few months, Kenny was doing well.

  Really well, Hunter decided as the kid’s hook punch stung his hand through the pad.

  “Thirty-second break,” Hunter called out. “Get a drink.”

  Kenny didn’t need to be told twice, moving quickly to grab a drink while keeping his feet moving.

  The next round was their last for the evening, and Hunter watched Kenny’s form closely, noting how much effort the kid had put in to make each punch textbook. He was technically good enough to put in a ring, but Hunter wasn’t sure Kenny was ready to get punched around. Not yet.

  He’d give him another month.

  When the last round was over, Kenny rolled his neck and took off his gloves. There was a focus about the kid these past few weeks that was new, and Hunter wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Yes, it translated into better form when it came to boxing, but that couldn’t be the only thing that was changing in Kenny’s life.

  Something was different.

  If Shauna hadn’t been avoiding him these days, Hunter would have asked how the kid was doing in his day-to-day life. But ever since that day Aaron had flipped out at the gym, Shauna had stuck to communicating messages through Lou and avoided all contact with him.

  It was silliness, really, and she could play her girl games and keep avoiding him, as far as Hunter was concerned. Shauna knew where to find him if she ever decided she wanted to talk. He wasn’t the one avoiding her.

  “Stretch your arms and shoulders,” Hunter said even though the kid already was. Kenny knew the routine and he didn’t fight it anymore, which was a blessing. Some things were worth fighting over, some weren’t. The kid had learned at least that much from him.

  When Hunter looked over at Kenny, he found the kid watching him with an odd expression on his face.

  “Got a question?” he said, tossing the punching pads in their bin.

  Kenny pulled his arm across his chest in a stretch. “Does Miss Weekes still hate you?”

  Man, it was like the kid was a mind reader. “She’s not happy with me.”

  “Because of the Aaron thing?” the kid asked.

  It wasn’t something he should talk about with the kid, but it was hard not to since Kenny had been an eyewitness to Aaron flying off the handle.

  Hunter chose his words carefully. “I think you and I both know Miss Weekes has a heart of gold. Maybe that’s why it’s hard for her to see when other people don’t.”

  To his surprise, Kenny nodded. “I used to think people like her were so stupid.”

  Used to? That was progress. “She’s not.”

  Kenny nodded. “I know.”

  Hunter let the conversation stall there. He didn’t want to push the kid. It had only been the past two weeks that Kenny had graduated to being civil. Hunter didn’t want to mess with that. So it surprised him when the kid kept talking.

  “I used to treat girls like Aaron does.”

  Again with the used to. Another good sign. Hunter rolled with it. “A lot of men act like that when they feel out of control. They’re nice at first—”

  “Until you get the girl isolated from everyone else and focused only on you,” Kenny finished.

  “Yep,” Hunter agreed.

  “Isolated…like Miss Weekes is now,” Kenny pointed out.

  Hunter froze, realizing the kid was right. Hunter had no idea how her other relationships were doing, but if Shauna was pulling away from everyone like she was pulling away from him, that wasn’t good.

  Hunter sent the kid a searching look. “You’re smart. You know that?”

  Kenny didn’t blink. “I’ve been around the block.”

  “Yes, you have,” Hunter said, thinking of Shauna. “When’s the next time you see Miss Weekes?”

  “Friday,” Kenny said, packing up his stuff.

  Hunter chewed his lip and considered that. “Say hi to her for me, will you?”

  Kenny slung his gym bag over his shoulder and looked Hunter in the eye. “Say hi to her yourself,” he said, before walking out of the building.

  Hunter had to hand it to the kid. He knew how to land a punch when he wanted to.

  Chapter 51

  Three weeks after giving the ring back, Esme and Jon were officially done.

  The weirdest part? No part of Esme was surprised. Not even a little. In fact, finally cutting things off felt a bit like a long-awaited celebration…as if she’d stepped on the scale that morning to discover that the final five pounds she was still carrying around from DC had disappeared overnight.

  The sad truth was that the lighthearted fun that had defined their first six months together couldn’t make a comeback. Jon didn’t trust her, and Esme resented his inability to take her at her word. That wasn’t the only chasm between them, but it was the one that had ultimately kept the ring on Jon’s side of the table.

  As a couple, they simply weren’t meant to be.

  “To single life,” Grace said, holding up her pint of ice cream in the hot tub.

  Esme pulled the lid off her carton and picked up her spoon. Yes, she still had five pounds to go, but she deserved a little ice cream after the day she’d had. “We can’t toast single life. You’re married, Grace.”

  “I know,” her friend said as they tapped the paper cartons together. “And truthfully, I can’t wait for you to join me in the land of the marrieds. But I’m also glad it won’t be with Jon at your side. He was a bit of a paper weight.”

  “He was nice,” Esme said, thinking of how Hunter had called Jon a whippet. A whippet and a paper weight. Not exactly ringing endorsements of her fiancé from those closest to her. Why hadn’t she listened to them earlier?

  “He’s nice for someone else,” Grace amended. “Not you.”

  “I guess so,” Esme agreed as Grace smiled.r />
  “Fifty bucks says he marries one of his clients.”

  The jab was a little too soon not to sting a bit, but Esme tried for a smile anyway. “Last week I would have taken the other side of that bet, but not today.”

  Grace shook her head. “Philip dated one of his servers for a while after we broke up. It took about four months for him to realize how beyond stupid that was.”

  “Is he seeing anyone now?” Esme asked, happy for the shift in topic.

  “Yeah. Some chick who lives in Napa Valley. Old money, I think.”

  “Sounds like his type,” Esme said, aiming for diplomatic. She’d never been a Philip fan, but that didn’t mean she had to pick on him now that he was long gone out of Grace’s love life.

  “Totally,” Grace agreed. “Pretty, fancy, and a bit bland. Philip’s the one who likes to shine in a room, so she seems like a great balance for him. We’ll see what happens, though. She’s not a girl who has to settle, so I can’t imagine she’ll marry him if she doesn’t want to.”

  “I hope not,” Esme muttered, taking a bite of ice cream and letting out a little moan as it melted on her tongue.

  Man, she’d missed this.

  “See?” Grace said, as if reading her mind. “No more celery in the hot tub. It’s blasphemy.”

  “Agreed,” Esme said, and for several seconds they simply enjoyed ice cream paired with jet massagers.

  “Sooooo,” Grace said, after setting her carton in its holder. “Shall we move on to the elephant in the room?”

  The ice cream in Esme’s mouth suddenly lost its flavor. “Must we?”

  “We must.”

  Esme looked over to the person who knew her better than almost anyone…anyone being none other than the elephant in the room. “I messed up, Grace.”

  “We all mess up.”

  “Yeah, but I kind of outdid myself,” Esme admitted. “I still haven’t talked to him or anything. Not since Jon asked me not to.”

  Grace’s mouth fell open. “Even after you gave the ring back? Like, almost a month ago?”

  “We were still trying,” Esme said. “I needed to know if Jon and I really could stand on our own without Hunter filling in the gaps.”

  “Which turns out to be a big, fat negative,” Grace said.

  “Yeah.”

  “So how long has it been then?” Grace asked, clearly trying to do the math. “When was your engagement party at V. Sattui?”

  Esme didn’t need to do the math. She knew how long it had been almost to the hour. But Grace didn’t need to know that. “Two months ago.”

  Grace could only blink. “You’re telling me you haven’t spoken to, texted, or seen Hunter in the past two months?”

  “That would be correct,” Esme said, taking another bite of ice cream.

  Grace seemed to process that. “Does he know you and Jon have called it quits?”

  Esme shrugged. “If my mom told his mom and she told Hunter, then yes.”

  “Oh, girl,” Grace said. “You are an idiot.”

  “Thank you. I know.”

  Grace turned to face her. “Seriously, what are you going to do?”

  Esme put her ice cream down. There was no point in eating the calories anymore. The taste was gone. It wasn’t worth it. “What can I do?”

  “Talk to him, for one,” Grace said.

  “And say?”

  Grace’s mouth opened, clearly intent on dropping some sort of knowledge, only to freeze and close again. “You know, I actually have no freaking clue.” She shook her head. “Two months? And you officially broke off the engagement three weeks ago? You know he’s been dying without you, don’t you?”

  The words made Esme feel sick inside as the picture of Hunter and Tanya on the beach came to mind. “No, I’m pretty sure he’s doing just fine.”

  “Incorrect. The guy loves you, Ez. He always has. Because I’m your friend, I’ll be totally blunt and say that you stabbed him in the heart when you chose Jon and cut him off. He’s definitely not over that.”

  Esme didn’t respond right away. She didn’t know how, because doing so would involve saying a lot of words she’d never said before. It would also mean exposing feelings she’d never exposed to anyone either…feelings that had been bubbling and brewing and building ever since she could remember.

  So instead of answering, she ran her hand along the surface of the water, noting that her manicure was chipped as if that was somehow important in this moment. It wasn’t. It was a distraction.

  “I’m scared,” was all she could manage after a long silence.

  “Of?” Grace prompted.

  Again, Esme couldn’t find the words even though she felt like she was overflowing with them. If she opened her mouth, something would pour out. She just didn’t know what.

  “Hmm,” Grace said after a long silence. “Maybe we’re starting with the wrong question.”

  Esme looked up. “And what would the right question be?”

  Her friend’s dark eyes seemed to look right into Esme’s soul. “What do you want?”

  That was the question, wasn’t it? Everything else danced around it.

  The worst part—or maybe the scariest part—was that for the first time in her life, Esme knew the answer. She’d been thinking about nothing else for the past three weeks.

  “There isn’t a man on the planet I would trade for Hunter,” Esme confessed. “This Jon situation may have been a mess, but it taught me that.”

  “And?” Grace prompted, refusing to fill in the gaps for her.

  Why couldn’t she say it? A sea of words were bubbling to come out, and if Esme was going to be honest with herself, they’d probably been bubbling around since she was five years old. She had a lot of practice not saying how she felt or even acknowledging it. And old habits died hard.

  “Hunter is my safe place,” she finally managed before laughing. “Which is ironic, because he’s completely unpredictable.”

  “Not to you,” Grace amended and Esme considered that.

  “I guess that’s true. Not to me. I know him.”

  “Just know him?” Grace pressed.

  Esme glanced over, grateful for her friend’s persistence. “And love him, of course.”

  “Love him like you did ten years ago, or love him like a brother?”

  “I tried for that second one,” Esme breathed.

  “And what do you want to try for now?”

  Esme sent a playful glare at Grace. “You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?”

  Grace’s lips pursed with amusement. “I am a trained reporter. I can summarize your answers, but not answer for you. So tell me, Esme, why are you scared?”

  “Because…the last two months have shown me a life without Hunter, and that really isn’t an option for me,” Esme confessed. “I may love him, yes, but part of me is worried that I actually need him to be who I want to be, and that kind of freaks me out.”

  “That you and Hunter have a synergetic relationship that helps both of you be better people?” Grace asked.

  “Not when you put it that way, no,” Esme said, finally digging down and daring herself to say the fear that had spinning in her mind for weeks. “But…what if we don’t work? What if we go there with each other and we bomb and then I lose him?”

  “First off, that’s a fear, not a want,” Grace said. “Second, you wouldn’t lose him after a breakup. Worst-case scenario, you’d both finally agree that you really are siblings and fall into a different relationship, but I don’t think that’s really the thing that’s holding you up.”

  “Then what is?”

  Grace leaned forward, grinning from ear to ear. “What if it’s amazing? Like, mindblowingly amazing? What if it’s beyond anything you’ve imagined? What then? I think that’s what you’re afraid of—that you’ll fall helplessly in love and Hunter won’t feel the same. That he’ll still be regular ol’ Hunter and not ready to settle down.”

  Okay, maybe Grace knew Esme better than she t
hought, because…yeah.

  “You want to go in knowing it’s a sure thing,” Grace said gently. “But there’s still room for things to fall apart, like they did with Jon. Then where would you be, right?”

  “Exactly!” Esme said, feeling vindicated. “I know taking risks is part of the game, but—”

  “Some risks feel too big,” Grace said with a knowing nod. “No need to tell that to the chick who’s thinking about getting pregnant. Talk about Risk Central.”

  Esme’s eyes dropped to her friend’s flat belly under the water’s surface. “Wait. Are you—”

  “No, I’m not currently pregnant,” Grace clarified. “But it’s a discussion Ash and I are having. So trust me. I get it. Because, in a way, I think you’re having the same conversation with yourself about Hunter as I’m having with myself about a baby. Are you ready to start down a path and never turn back, come what may?”

  That was the question, wasn’t it?

  “The main difference between us,” Grace added, “is that, metaphorically speaking, I think you’ve already stepped off your personal cliff, whereas I’m still pacing at the top of mine.” Grace reached out and gripped her hand in the water. “You’re already falling, babe. Thinking about whether you should have stepped off the cliff is pointless. What you need to ask yourself is who you want to catch you…come what may?”

  “Yeah,” Esme agreed, giving her friend’s hand a little squeeze before smiling. “Why do people pretend like falling in love is fun, when it’s really the most terrifying thing on the planet?”

  “It can be,” Grace said. “When you fight it. The part everyone writes stories about are the times when people let go, fall, and embrace the ride. When you fight the ride, I’m pretty sure that’s what people call angst.”

  Esme laughed and reached for her ice cream again. “Is that what I’m doing here? Creating my own angst? It’s not the universe torturing me?”