by Claire Adams
Tony poked his head through the pass-through. “You okay, Sienna?”
I shook out my hands. “I’m fine. Just burned myself.”
He sucked in a breath through his teeth. “That sucks. Put some water on it. I can come help, if you need it?”
“I’m good,” I said. I needed to dig my head in the sand and get on with my day. I had a feeling I knew what Parker wanted to talk about. He had to remember what he said to me, and now he wanted me to forget it. He’d probably chalk it up to being in a drunken stupor. He wasn’t the first person in history to say something he didn’t mean to a girl. But why had he said those things to me? His best friend. I wasn’t someone he was trying to have sex with. There was no need for him to say anything at all. If he’d just wanted to spoon, that would have been fine, but telling me that he wanted to pursue a relationship with me? That was unnecessary if it wasn’t true. Where did he get off playing with someone’s emotions like that? He probably learned it from Rachel.
I cringed when I thought of her. This was all her fault. If she slept with him like she promised, then he wouldn’t be overly horny and trying to get some whereever he could. Rachel would be gone for a few days longer; I wondered if Parker would beg me to help him with more of the wedding planning. I really hoped not.
What I needed was to detoxify my life of Parker. And wedding planning would not help that.
I shook my head hard enough that my hair loosened a little from the elastic. I grabbed the ingredients for Harriet and Kenneth’s meals and started working on that. I flipped on the radio above the grill, something I never did, and one of Tony’s metal stations was playing a god-awful song with intense drums and screaming vocals. As much as I hated it, it took my mind away from Parker and me while I prepared the meal.
I was in a little better mood when I came back out to the Lamontes.
I put the plates down in front of Harriet and Kenneth. “Can I get you anything else?”
Harriet touched my hand. “Is everything all right with you and Parker?”
I sighed. “Was it that obvious?”
“You seemed a little terse with him.”
“I’m sorry you had to see that.” I knelt down next to her.
“It happens, dear. Love is a funny thing, but whatever it is, you will figure it out.” Then she smiled and winked at me.
Chapter Nineteen
Parker
I came back to the diner a half-hour before it closed, so I could be there to stop Sienna just in case she decided to skip out early. Sienna fled when she was upset; I knew that firsthand. And by the cold greeting she’d given that morning, I knew my hunch was true. Something had happened that night, which was why she hadn’t bothered to text or call me. I was equally to blame, but at least I had confirmation that something did happen. Now I had to figure out what. I knew I wouldn’t get the whole story unless she told me. But I had a glimmer of hope when Tony came out of the diner.
He had his bag slung over one shoulder. He was leaving before Sienna. Maybe I could get some information from him. It was worth a shot.
I got out of the car and yelled over to him “Hey, Tony!”
He turned and waved at me.
I jogged over to him and shook his hand.
“Hey, Parker, you left so quickly before that I didn’t get a chance to say hi.”
So, Sienna hadn’t said anything to him. It couldn’t be as bad as I thought. Could it? “I had a meeting to get to.”
“Are you and Sienna doing something today?” he asked.
“I hope so.”
“More wedding stuff?”
“Yeah,” I lied. He was obviously out of the loop, but I wanted to move on and get to why Sienna was so pissed at me and if it had to do with Saturday night.
“Speaking of wedding stuff, I’m assuming you’re recovered from Saturday? Did you have a good time? I know I did.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, I did. At least during the parts I remember.”
“I hear that. I was a little fuzzy when I woke up Sunday morning. Until I found both of the girls in my bed.”
“Both girls?”
“You don’t remember?” Tony asked.
“Not really.”
“Well, I could see how that would happen. You were close to blacking out when Sienna took you home.”
Sienna took me home? What the hell had happened then? Tony would have said if Sienna and I had a falling out at the diner. Something had happened later when Sienna and I were alone, and Tony wouldn’t be able to help me figure out what it was since he hadn’t been there.
“You don’t remember that part, either?” Tony asked.
I shook my head. “No. A lot of the night is locked away. Did she say something to you?”
He adjusted the bag on his shoulder. “She didn’t. But I have a feeling that’s why she’s been acting the way she has today.”
“How do you mean?”
“She came in this morning in a really sour mood. I haven’t seen her like this for a while.”
Fuck.
“I can’t imagine she could be mad at you for long. Unless you tried to hit on her or something.”
Tony laughed, and I chuckled lightly. I really hoped I hadn’t been rude to her.
“Well, I don’t want to keep you,” I said to Tony. There was nothing else he could tell me and I didn’t want Sienna to see us talking about her and make her more upset than she already was.
I watched Tony leave and paced around for a little while before ending up by the stairs. I leaned against the railing. I was too anxious to sit in my car again, and the pacing was amping up my heart-rate. I was alone with my thoughts for almost ten minutes before she came out.
She stopped on the stoop and stared at me.
“Hey, Sienna. Can I help you with that?”
She was holding a garbage bag. “I got it.” She lugged it over to the bin and tossed it inside. She pulled her keys from her pocket and went back up the steps to lock the door.
I watched her. Neither of us spoke. Her eyes darted in my direction as if she thought I was going to disappear at any moment. Even if she wished I would, I was going to get some answers. If I had been the one to do something wrong, I should be the bigger man and apologize. But not here, and not until I figured out what happened. Whatever had happened spurred from a night at her diner. We needed a different place. I glanced at my car. Being in an enclosed space with her in this mood was dangerous.
“How about we walk down to the pier?” I suggested.
“Okay,” she said, clipping her keys onto the belt loop of her shorts.
The pier was only a short walk down the road. I hoped the fresh air and expelling of energy during our walk would help ease the tension in her. But she held firm to the scowl across her face, so I knew I’d have to do a lot of apologizing to bring back her smile.
“I wanted to talk to you about Saturday night,” I said.
“Did you have a good time?” she asked.
“I did.” I tried to gauge her response, but she was making me work for this. “The parts I remember.”
She looked over at me; the skin around her eyes was tight and I wasn’t sure if it was the sun or because she didn’t believe me.
I scratched the back of my neck. “I start to get a little fuzzy around the time I ate dinner.”
“What do you remember?”
“The strippers,” I said, chuckling. “The delicious food, and the good conversation.” I hoped the use of flattery might get me somewhere.
“Well, after that, I took you home.”
The way she said it made it sound like there was an “and” at the end of the sentence. But she didn’t expand on what happened. Was she going to make me beg for it? I probably deserved it, but this game was starting to grate on my nerves. Sienna had a knack for pushing my buttons, and this situation wasn’t any different.
“And that’s it?” I pushed.
We’d made it to the end of the pier before she whirled around on
me. “What do you want me to say, Parker?”
I shoved my hands into my jeans pockets. “I want to know why you’re so mad at me.”
She rolled her eyes and dropped her head into her hands.
I reached for her and moved her hands away from her face. She stared up at me. Without her sunglasses, the light from the sun made her irises appear lighter, and the green shone through.
“Did we sleep together?” I asked. It was what I’d worried about for almost two days.
“Sleep together? No.” She let out a sardonic laugh that made me wince. Neither of the two women in my life could imagine sleeping with me. That really helped my ego.
“Then what? What happened that made you not contact me for an entire day?”
Her lips flattened. “You have a phone too, Parker.”
“Are you mad because I didn’t call you?”
“Stop saying I’m mad. I’m not. Nothing happened. It’s better that you forgot, anyway.” She brushed passed me and I lunged for her. She wasn’t getting away that easily. Her tendency to run wasn’t going to win this argument.
I took her arm. “Sienna, please.”
“Let go of me, Parker.”
I did as she asked.
“I want you to tell me what happened.”
“And I said to forget it. It’s honestly better that way, trust me.”
“I just—”
“Parker, I’m not going to change my mind. I want to move on. I have to go.” She stormed away from me. Her sneakers banged against the wooden pier.
Move on from what?
My chest tightened as I hoped that I hadn’t ruined our friendship for good. Sienna liked to play and laugh and banter. When she fell into a dark mood, it was only because of serious circumstances. What had I done that was so terrible to turn her against me like that? It had to be bad.
I waited a little while before I went back to the diner to get my car. I wanted to give Sienna the space she needed at the moment. Maybe she would come to her senses and talk to me after she cooled off. I had to give her that time. Especially since I’d apparently done something to make her furious with me.
Instead, I leaned over the edge of the railing and watched the movement of the water beneath me. The lapping of water against the pier calmed me down and opened my mind. I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead into my folded arms. I willed myself to remember, but of course, nothing new came to mind.
I couldn’t believe I had changed the course of everything with one night. And it had been a good night. A really good one.
I knew our friendship was strong, but I’d never been on the receiving end of one of these reactions from Sienna. They usually involved her ex-boyfriends.
It was a relief that we didn’t have sex. Had I come on to her? I thought she would have told me if I had. If anything, she’d at least make fun of me for being a drunken slob. She had a high tolerance for my bullshit, so I must have done something completely out of character. Her cold-shoulder treatment was scarier than any insult she could have thrown at me.
My mind whirred with the possibilities, but I couldn’t come up with anything that would turn her against me like that.
My phone blared from my pocket and I quickly grabbed it. I wanted it to be Sienna. It wasn’t. Rachel’s face appeared on the screen. I pressed the IGNORE button and shoved the phone back into my pocket. I couldn’t deal with her right now. With Sienna mad at me, my world felt like it was crumbling. And with Rachel’s added pressure about the wedding, I was in way over my head with these two women.
I inhaled the salty scent of the sea and pushed off the railing. I’d given Sienna enough time to get into her car and go home. I started for the diner. It wasn’t in my nature to give up, especially where Sienna was concerned. Knowing her as I did, I would give her the space she needed. One day was my limit. Then I would try again to win her back. I had to. She was my best friend, and I was lost without her.
Chapter Twenty
Sienna
My alarm had just gone off Wednesday morning when I heard a loud banging on my front door. I had a very good idea who that was.
I grabbed my phone and texted Parker. “Go away.”
He responded back within seconds. “Open the door.”
His persistence was annoying at times. I hadn’t heard from him in a day, and if I was honest with myself, it wasn’t my best day. I couldn’t fault him for giving me space, since it was exactly what I thought I wanted. I knew I wasn’t wrong for feeling the way I did, but he was adamant about not remembering Saturday night. Tony even confirmed Parker’s story yesterday at the diner.
Tony had pushed for information, but if I wasn’t telling Parker, I wasn’t going to tell him. I wasn’t ready to say any of it aloud. Tony seemed to have a sense about it and asked me some leading questions, which I promptly ignored.
I wrapped my robe around my body and cinched the middle. I wasn’t blind to the way Parker looked at me when I came to the door in barely any clothes. When we didn’t have feelings for each other, I didn’t think anything of it. Now that I knew he thought about me, I didn’t want to confuse him any more than he already was.
I opened the door. He thrust a cup of coffee at me. “Morning.”
“Hi.” I turned and crossed the room, sitting at the breakfast bar. I glanced out the sliding doors to the patio, and it was still dark out. We were a pair, the two of us, waking up before the crack of dawn. At least I had a reason for it. He had some strange insomnia. I took advantage of sleep when I could.
“I’m going to get right into it,” he said.
I narrowed my eyes. “Okay? Into what?”
He put his cup on the breakfast bar and grabbed the seat next to me, shoving it under him. He sat and leaned closer to me. “I spent all day yesterday trying to figure out what I did.”
“Parker, I told you not to worry about it.”
“Of course I’m worried. You’re so mad at me. It’s obvious, so don’t try and pretend you aren’t.”
I looked down at my hands, unable to face him.
“And I’ve come to the conclusion of I’m sorry,” he said softly.
I tilted my head. “What?”
“I understand if I did or said something wrong. And since you’re the only one who remembers that night, I have to let it go until you’re ready to tell me. So I’m preempting whatever shit thing I said or did with an ‘I’m sorry.’ I’m so fucking sorry for hurting you, Sienna. I had such a great time that night, and you planned a kick-ass party. And here I was, the man of the hour, and I somehow ruined it for you.”
I choked out a laugh and couldn’t help smiling. Warmth spread through me and I started to thaw.
“You mean too much to me. I can’t stand that you’re mad at me. Please forgive me and accept my apology.”
“All right,” I said. “I forgive you.”
“For real?”
“Yes.”
“Can we hug it out?”
Parker stood and opened his arms.
We were not the hugging type of friends. But he didn’t wait for a response. He crushed me against him, and for a moment, I thought about Saturday night. Should I tell him about that night? It seemed we always came back to our friendship, no matter what hurdle we had to get over. But I wasn’t sure if we could get over this. Especially so close to his wedding.
“And now I have something very important to ask you,” he said, pulling away from me.
He dropped down to one knee and held my hand between us. “Sienna Morrow, will you be my best man?”
I lightly slapped his arm. “Get up, you fool. Of course, I’m still your best man.”
Parker beamed at me and my heart warmed.
That feeling quickly subsided when I realized what this meant for me. And now I knew I couldn’t tell him. He was excited about the wedding, and what kind of friend would I be if I tried to put myself between him and his happy ending?
Parker clapped his hands together, still smiling like an
idiot. “All right, I don’t want to ruin your whole morning beauty routine.”
I shot him a look.
“I should go.”
“Okay, I guess we’ll talk later.”
“Yes, definitely.” He practically skipped out of my house. “I will call you later. I promise.”
When he closed the door, I sat there for a minute, soaking in my happy mood. It was a relief to be rid of the ugly monster that lived inside of me since Saturday night.
When I arrived at the diner, Tony was on the back stoop. I noticed a lack of smoke circling around his head, which put me in an even better mood than I was already in. Everything seemed to have fallen into place in my life, and I was much happier for it. I even had the capacity to be happy for Parker and Rachel as a couple. Whatever made Parker happy, made me happy.
“Is that a smile on your face?” Tony said then made a show of checking his wrist which was lacking a watch. “This early? Did you find your way into my stash?”
I punched him in the arm. “Don’t make me put my scowl back on.”
He held his hands up defensively. “Please, not that. That Sienna wasn’t as much fun to work with. So spill, what happened?”
“Parker came over this morning.”
Tony cocked his head. “Do go on…”
I explained that something did happen on Saturday night, but I wasn’t willing to talk about it just yet. “Parker showed up at my house this morning with coffee and an apology.”
“But he didn’t know what he’d done.”
“That doesn’t matter now. It was the thought that counted.”
“And you’re okay with this?”
I pointed to my face. “You see this smile? Yes. I’m okay with this.”
He bobbed his head. “I’m glad you two are better. You suck when you’re mad at him.”
I knew I had a hard couple of weeks in front of me with the wedding, but I would make an effort to be the best best man I could. Parker deserved that.
Tony and I prepped the diner as we did every morning, but the air was lighter between us. I even let him put his music on while we head-banged around the kitchen.
When it was almost six, I had him turn it off. With the mix of metal music and coffee, my head was light and my mood even lighter.