The Best Friend Bargain (Kisses in the Sand)

by Robin Bielman

  “No shit.” Danny liked it a lot better when Bryce and Honor were the main topic of discussion.

  Zane pulled off his shades. “And word has it—”

  “Hi guys,” Olivia said from behind Danny. “I thought I heard voices out here.”

  Danny watched both his friends’ eyes widen in surprise. He probably would have had the same reaction if Liv hadn’t had cake on her face the first time he saw her as a blonde.

  With new curves.

  And glowing skin. The shorter, lighter hair did something to her naturally darker complexion.

  “Wow, Linc, you look great. It’s good to have you back.” Bryce opened his arms wide and Liv walked straight into them.

  “Thanks. It’s good to be here.”

  “My turn,” Zane said, nudging Bryce. Liv slid into his embrace with ease.

  When she stepped back she looked over her shoulder at him and Danny hated seeing the uncertainty in her eyes. She had no idea what to do with him this morning. The feeling was mutual. She settled on, “Morning, Danny.”

  “Morning. How’d you sleep?”

  “Like a baby.” Her mouth twisted into a grimace. “I mean really well.” She sucked in a breath and her attention darted between the three of them before landing on Zane. “You guys know.”

  “Congratulations,” Zane said, flashing her his new-dad grin.

  “I just filled them in,” Danny said.

  Liv twisted to face him fully and without his permission his gaze did a sweep down her body. She had on a purple T-shirt that fell mid-thigh with the word Love across the chest, and nothing else. Her legs were long and smooth and shapely and—Jesus Christ, he was checking out her legs. His eyes jumped back to her face.

  She tilted her head. Danny could see the wheels turning before she looked away. “I hope you guys tried to talk him out of this mess I’ve dragged him into.”

  “Hey,” Bryce said, “what are friends for but messes?”

  “I think asking Danny to help me hide a body would be less painful.”

  “You want to get rid of that jerk in London, you’ll have all three of us to help with that,” Zane said.

  Olivia smiled. “Thanks. But the last thing Will wants is to be anywhere near me.” She looked down at the ground. She did that when she needed a minute to hide, to put her emotions in check.

  “Congratulations to you and Sophie,” Liv said, eyes up and on Zane again. “I can’t wait to meet Hannah.”

  Zane beamed brighter than a supernova explosion. “Thanks. Sophie is excited to see you again.”

  “Honor is, too.” Bryce hung his sunglasses on the collar of his T-shirt.

  “What is that?” Olivia plucked the glasses off Bryce. Mortification crossed her face. “How in the world…no one knew except Mrs. Landry.”

  Without thought, Danny stepped beside her. “Welcome to small town life, Maybug.”

  She gazed up at him with softhearted eyes. The use of her nickname always calmed her. He’d adopted the term of endearment the minute she’d told him her middle name was May. “I asked her to keep our secret.”

  “There are no secrets in White Strand,” Bryce said. “And I’ve got to say I’m really happy the pressure will be off me and Honor for a while.”

  “Pressure?” Liv asked, sounding confused.

  “Marriage. Babies. It’s all on you two now. Thanks for that.” Bryce smiled. “And on that note, I’m going to head home to my beautiful girlfriend.”

  “My gorgeous girls are waiting for me as well,” Zane said.

  Danny remained next to a shocked Olivia and watched his friends leave. Both guys had given him the look that said, Dude, we’re here, but we’re glad we’re not in your shoes.

  When Liv turned to bury her face against his chest, he wrapped his arms around her back and set his chin on top of her head. Her hair smelled like summer blossoms and lavender.

  “This is bad,” she said, pressing back. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Me, too.”

  “Sorry we’re doing this?”

  Yes. No. Her damn floral scent made it hard to think straight. He watched her bottom lip tremble. He could kiss her worry away, suck her lip between his own while she melted against him. Run his fingers through her hair, palm her nape and deepen the kiss until she moaned his name and asked him to kiss her in other places.

  He took a giant step back. Holy hell, he had to get a grip. His idiot friends had him looking at her differently and he didn’t like it. “It’ll be fine. But we probably want to keep things to ourselves.”

  She studied him for a long moment. “Got it.” Looking away first, she glanced at the table he’d been working on. “Wow, Danny. This is gorgeous.” She stepped around him, smoothed her hand across the dark wood. “Bubinga, right?”

  “Good eye. I guess you do pay attention when I talk.”

  “I take in everything you say and show me.”

  She walked the length of the rectangular piece, her fingers never leaving the timber. He got a great view of the curve of her ass beneath her shirt. His gaze roamed lower, over her exposed skin and the smooth contours of legs he imagined wrapped around his…

  He shook his head to trash that thought. He’d always been able to admire his best friend without it going south of his waist. Well, except for that one time, earlier in the year when they’d gone to a charity dinner honoring Bryce. She’d looked amazing in a light blue gown that hugged her generous figure. After dinner they’d gotten drinks and competed for the best accent. Hearing Liv sound very un-Liv like, and looking like a goddess sent down from heaven, he’d stirred behind his zipper. He blamed the unwelcome reaction on the booze and, being a typical guy, thinking with the wrong head for one stupid minute.

  He’d also been under a lot of strain at the time, deciding to quit being a sports agent to focus on woodworking. Leaving his partnership with Bryce had been a risk and he’d been stressed out.

  The same could be said for right now. He breathed a sigh of relief. Stress over coupling up with Liv was making him think like a sex-starved moron.

  A stress you’re not going to be able to itch, dude.

  “So Ellis Design is taking off, huh? I knew it would,” Liv said, saving him from any more inappropriate thoughts.

  “Yeah, thanks. This table is going to some Hollywood bigwig.”

  She gave a low whistle. “Impressive. Is this bigwig only buying one piece?”

  “For now. But I’ve got other orders to fill.” He went on to tell her about the interior designer in Los Angeles.

  “I’m so proud of you,” she said when he’d finished. The way she looked at him, with awe and joy, raised the temperature in the garage. She circled around the table, put her palm on his chest. “You followed your dream and it’s coming true. I think this calls for some celebratory French toast. Did you eat this morning?” She turned and headed toward the door to the house.

  Danny looked down at his chest. He could still feel the warmth of her hand there.

  “I’m going to take your silence as a negative and assume your mouth is too busy salivating over the thought of my cooking to respond,” she called out, her back to him.

  He swallowed. He was salivating all right, but he wasn’t sure it had anything to do with food. “Sounds good.”

  “You okay?” she asked over her shoulder.

  “Just have a lot on my mind. The next few weeks are going to be insane with projects I need to work on. I’ll be in in a couple minutes.” She nodded and he forced himself to look at the table rather than catch one more glimpse of her legs before she disappeared inside.

  Which meant he didn’t have near the control over these new urges as he thought he did, and one wrong move could ruin his friendship with the one person he couldn’t live without.

  …

  Olivia stared at the text message on her phone. Want to be sure you’re okay. Let me know. Please. It had been almost two weeks since she’d told Will about the baby and every single day she’d though
t about him. She wanted his text to mean he was having second thoughts, but if she let herself think that, she’d lose the progress she’d made to get over him.

  Her finger hovered over the screen on her cell. She didn’t know how to respond. She missed him. She hated him. She wanted to fly back to England to make sure he knew what he was giving up. His please made her want to cry. It meant he still cared, right?

  Was she okay? Her head fell back against the couch cushion as she thought about the past several days with Danny. He’d given her the mental break she craved, keeping conversations light and easy between them. Her self-imposed hibernation hadn’t seemed to bother him, either. His understanding eyes said she could take as long as necessary to sort through the thoughts in her head.

  “Hey, you’re up early,” Danny said, coming around the couch. He wore jeans with a gray T-shirt tucked in at one hip. His hair, about a week overdue for a trim, was damp and curled around his ears. He also smelled deliciously clean. Manly.

  Deliciously?

  “About time, don’t you think?” She dropped her phone next to her and pulled the blanket on her lap up higher.

  “I think it’s okay to take some time to get your bearings.”

  “Have I mentioned how smart you are?”

  “It’s widely known I’m not all good looks.” He grinned, looking quite pleased with himself.

  She cracked up. Conceit had never been one of Danny’s traits. If anything, he shied away from his awesomeness, especially since his CHM diagnosis. He’d convinced himself his eventual vision loss meant he had to put up walls. She didn’t agree, but being one of the few who knew about his disease, she didn’t want to add any barriers between them by arguing with him.

  “It’s nice to see you laugh again.”

  “You’re funny.” In her head, though, she thought, sexy. He hadn’t shaved this morning, probably not yesterday, either, and the scruff along his square jaw put his handsome face into the panty-dropping category. Combined with his sense of humor and kind words, who wouldn’t find that hot?

  Whoa. Danny did not affect her this way. This was her brain on pregnancy talking. She’d done some research online and had learned that for many women, pregnancy made them crave…intimacy more often. That’s all this was. A temporary craving, like she got for chocolate. Only she could eat chocolate every day.

  Stop. Stop right now. She could not think about sex while Danny stood a few feet away from her or she’d have to start avoiding him. And the whole point of her plan was to have him close.

  “I’m also hungry. Thought I’d whip up an omelet this morning. You want one?”

  Perfect. Food would distract her from…he turned and walked toward the kitchen. His faded jeans hung low on his narrow hips and she couldn’t help but check out his butt. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen it before.

  But this time she felt the urge to squeeze her thighs together as she wondered what it would feel like to dig her fingernails into those fine gluteus maximus muscles while he thrust inside her. She jumped up. Her phone clattered on the hardwood floor. “I have to pee! And then, uh, get dressed. So, no omelet for me.”

  She picked up her cell and hurried upstairs to her bedroom. To say her mind was a jumble of foreign thoughts would be putting it mildly. And really she had one person to blame for that. Will.

  He’d hurt her more than she’d ever imagined. But that didn’t change the fact that he was her baby’s daddy. She reread his text, then sent him a message back. I’m good, thanks. How are you?

  A couple of hours later, Liv walked out the front door on her way to her first doctor’s appointment. She hadn’t mentioned it to Danny, but now she wondered if she should have. They hadn’t tackled the whole pregnancy thing yet, and she didn’t want him to feel obligated to go with her, especially when work had him busy. But she wished he’d be there to calm her nerves.

  “Olivia,” a woman said from over her shoulder, “I’m so glad to see you out and about.”

  Liv spun around. “Hi, Mrs. Landry. How are you?”

  “I’m well, thank you. Worried about you, though.” She linked her arm with Liv’s and escorted her down the stone walkway. Scattered puffy white clouds hung in the blue sky, palm trees swayed in the gentle breeze, and quiet filled the space around them. So different from what she’d experienced walking out her door in London.

  “That’s sweet of you, but I’m fine. On my way to my first…” Shoot. She hadn’t meant to mention that.

  “Your first doctor’s appointment?”

  “Yes,” she said a little reluctantly, feeling guilty for not mentioning it to Danny first.

  “I’ll just keep you a minute then.” Mrs. L. drew them to a stop. “I have something I want to discuss with you: your wedding.”

  “My”—Liv choked on the words she’d just heard—“wedding?”

  “I hope you don’t mind, but when Danny told me you two were going to marry at the courthouse, I told him absolutely not. You’ve got a beautiful house where you can get married and every girl deserves to walk down the aisle.”

  “Wh-what did he say to that?”

  “He looked at me like I’d sprouted horns and then mumbled something about you wanting it to be just the two of you.”

  “Yes, that’s right.” Liv sighed in relief. Mrs. Landry wanted to butt her nose into their business a little, that’s all.

  “I told him that was ridiculous and then Tuck told me to mind my own business, and well, that sealed the deal.”

  “Tuck?”

  “My friend with benefits.”

  “Oh.” Liv suppressed her smile by pressing her lips together.

  “Whatever he tells me to do, I do the opposite.”

  “Oh?”

  “Then Shirley, Midge, and Betty poked their heads into our conversation and they insisted we do this. By the way, how did you like the ginger spice muffins?”

  “They were delicious. Thank you.” Liv wiped the perspiration off her forehead. “And what exactly is this?”

  “Your wedding.” Mrs. L. looked at her like, Really? Are you not listening to a word I’m saying? “Didn’t Danny tell you any of this?”

  “No.” Liv got a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. Were there other things Danny wasn’t telling her? Like that this was too much for him to deal with?

  “Well, to be fair, I think he tuned out most of what we were saying. But oh, how his eyes lit up whenever we mentioned your name.”

  Yeah, lit up with annoyance. “Mrs. Landry, this is very nice of you, but Danny and I really want to do this our own way.”

  “I know you do, but…” Mrs. L.’s petite body deflated and Olivia hated that. “My daughter eloped, and I’d so wanted her to get married here in White Strand. This town has been my home for sixty years and it would mean the world to me to do something special here before I move away.”

  Olivia took in every detail about Mrs. Landry’s face, from her light eyes and thin lips, to her wrinkled skin. But her best features were the warmth and sincerity Liv would have to be blind to miss. This is what motherly affection feels like. She hadn’t felt it since her nana was alive, and even then only sparingly because Liv’s mother had kept them apart more often than not.

  “I asked Danny about your mother and he said she wasn’t quite on board yet.” Mrs. L. put her small, weathered hand on Liv’s arm. “We want to take your wedding dreams and make them a reality. Honor is all for it, too. She’s the party planner around here, after all.”

  Olivia’s nerves relaxed a tiny bit at the mention of Honor. “This is an awful lot to take in.”

  “That’s why we want to help.” Mrs. L. smiled sweetly and another piece of Liv’s defenses crumbled. Nana had passed away five years ago and talking with Mrs. L. brought back a wave of emotions. Nana had had the same spark Mrs. L. did. “How about we talk more about it this weekend?”

  “O-okay,” Liv said, caving in to the kindness and memories. At the very least, Liv owed it to Mrs. L. to talk furth
er after lying so horribly to her.

  “Hey,” Danny said, taking Liv by surprise as he walked toward them.

  “Hi!” Relief filled Liv at the interruption.

  “I’ll let you two get going,” Mrs. Landry said. “See you later, Olivia. Bye, Danny.”

  Danny narrowed his eyes. “What did she say to you?” he asked, his voice full of concern, but carrying a hint of unease, too. Yep, she’d gotten them into another pickle. “She brought up the wedding, didn’t she?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I was hoping she’d forget about it.”

  “I guarantee you that woman’s got a better memory than I do.”

  “Why does she care so much?” His sunglasses hid his eyes, for which Liv was grateful. If she could see them right now, she might cry.

  “Because her daughter eloped and”—she dropped her gaze to the ground—“it doesn’t matter. You don’t want a wedding.”

  “You do?”

  She glanced up at the sound of his genuinely baffled tone. “Of course not,” she lied. How dense could he be? Every girl wanted a wedding. Apparently even one very different from what she’d always imagined.

  He waited a beat, his mouth set in a tight line before saying. “You’re lying.”

  “Yes.”

  “Liv, I don’t think…” he trailed off, looked somewhere past her.

  “It’s okay. I get it.” She waved him away. “I’ll see you later. I’ve got an appointment to get to.”

  “Right. Come on.”

  Liv frowned at his back before following beside him. “What are you doing?”

  “Taking you to see Dr. Silver. It seems when my fiancée made her appointment she included the home phone number and I heard the message confirming your appointment for today at eleven.” He opened the passenger door for her.

  She paused. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it. I just figured—”

  “No more figuring on your own, okay? We’re in this together.”

  A giant knot of emotion lodged in her throat. He’d always given his unwavering support and now would be no different. She put her arms around him. “Thanks. I’m really glad you’re going with me.”