“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” the disapproving sound fell from her pursed lips as her head shook back and forth.
When he was younger, he’d safely stayed in the friend-zone Sydney had placed him in. As much as he’d hated just being her friend, the truth was she was his best friend and he’d never wanted to risk losing her.
But now things were different. He still considered her a friend, but they hadn’t been in touch in years. He had nothing to lose by stepping out of the box that she’d put them in.
He cleared his throat and swallowed over the knot that was lodged in it. “So, where’s your boyfriend tonight?”
“No boyfriend.”
“No boyfriend?” He parroted her response. Not because he hadn’t heard her, but because he couldn’t believe what he’d heard.
“Nope.”
Marco noticed her shoulders tense as she turned back to the pictures.
It was clear she didn’t want to discuss it. He should’ve dropped the subject. But finding out she was single was like being handed a lottery ticket; he had to at least try and scratch it off to see if he’d won.
“You and the doctor broke up?”
Her head spun around and her eyes widened in shock. “How did you know he was a doctor?”
“Facebook.” Marco knew that he was being about as subtle as a bull in a china shop but he didn’t care.
“Right.” She nodded in understanding before turning her attention back to the display. “Yeah. We did.” She shifted her weight. “It’s kind of…recent.”
Recent he could work with. Current would be a problem.
“Recent, huh?”
*
You have no idea, Sydney thought to herself.
“Mmm hmm,” she confirmed. “Recent.”
“Sydney?”
At the sound of her name, she turned and saw Caleb Dawson. Well she saw Caleb Dawson’s chest. All of the three Dawson brothers were tall, but at six foot six, Caleb was the tallest.
Devon had briefly dated Caleb’s older brother Sam in high school, but her sister had always had a secret crush on the youngest of the Dawson men. Devon had never acted on it because she believed dating someone younger was beneath her. Only Sydney had been privy to her sister’s feelings and she couldn’t wait to tell Devon that he was here tonight.
“Hi, Caleb.”
“Wow…you look…incredible.” His eyes scanned her from head to toe.
She had to admit that the way people had responded to her tonight was beginning to give her a complex. It was as if she was some kind of troll in high school. Yes, she’d worn baggy clothes and no, she hadn’t worn make-up, but that was it. She was about the same weight, she hadn’t had work done on her face, or her body. Not that Simon hadn’t offered, he had. But she was finally happy in her own skin and not even a plastic surgeon boyfriend could change that.
“Thanks, so do you.”
She wasn’t just saying that. Caleb was always good looking and the past ten years had been kind to him. Not as kind as they’d been to Marco, but she might be a little biased there.
“Everyone said… but I mean, you’re…stunning.” He spoke with respect but it still made Sydney’s shoulders tense.
This entire night was starting to become a classic example of be careful what you wish for. When she’d hoped that people would see her, she hadn’t thought about what that kind of attention would actually feel like.
It was embarrassing enough having people treat her like she was the swan from some tragic ugly duckling fairytale, but to have them do it in front of Marco was downright humiliating.
Marco’s hand rested on her lower back as he said, “She was always beautiful and she still is.”
Her face flushed. She wasn’t certain if it was due to his complimentary words or the warmth and weight of his palm at the base of her spine. She was sure, however, that her rosy-cheeked reaction was evident because she’d inherited her mother’s pale Irish skin.
Caleb glanced up and blinked as if he were just noticing Marco for the first time. “Oh, hey, MVP. It’s good to see you. How’ve you been?”
“I’ve been good.” Marco’s tone wasn’t exactly friendly but it also wasn’t aloof. It was neutral. “How about you?”
“Can’t complain.” Caleb gestured between herself and Marco. “Are you two together?”
“No.” The word flew from her mouth in the same knee-jerk reaction she’d always had whenever anyone asked about the two of them.
It had started out of embarrassment in sixth grade. They’d been working on a lab together and Richie asked if they like-liked each other. She’d been mortified that he could see through her and she’d said that they were just friends.
Over the years, shutting down any kind of insinuation about what might be going on between the two of them had developed into pure self-protection. She needed to beat him to the punch because hearing him say that they were “just friends” was a rather unpleasant and gut-wrenching experience.
“We’re just friends,” she quickly explained.
Marco’s hand dropped from her back to further demonstrate her claim. It shouldn’t have bothered her. There was no reason that his hand should be on her back, but she wished it still was.
Caleb’s eyes bounced between the two friends before changing the subject. “Hey, how’s Devon?”
Besides everyone being totally slack-jaw flabbergasted at Sydney’s apparent swan transformation the only other thing anyone wanted to talk about was Devon. It wasn’t surprising. Devon was a bright shining, star that everyone, including Sydney, gravitated to.
“She’s good.”
“Good.” Caleb rocked back slightly on his heels. “She’s married, right?”
“Yep. And she has two little rug rats.”
“Oh, that’s…” He looked down but not before she saw a small flicker of something. When he lifted his gaze back to her it was gone. “That’s great. Tell her I said hello.”
“I will.” Unlike everyone else she’d promised to pass along a greeting for tonight, she had every intention of letting her big sis know that Caleb had asked about her.
“All right, well, it was good seeing you both,” he added as he acknowledged Marco, almost as an afterthought.
“You too.” She lifted her hand in a wave as he turned and walked toward the bar.
She lowered her arm and shifted back to Marco. He was staring down at her with a small grin on his lips.
She’d forgotten what it felt like for him to look at her like he was now.
Everyone else looked through her or past her, but not Marco. When he looked, he saw her.
He’d noticed that she’d got her braces off before she’d even smiled after coming to school late from the dentist. She’d walked into third period, set her backpack down and he’d said, “You got your braces off.”
She still didn’t know how he’d been able to tell without her mouth being open.
Her lack of mouth gear wasn’t the only thing that Marco had noticed back then. He commented on every haircut, even if it was a trim. Every new shirt and most nail color changes. He pointed out when she’d lost weight during junior year with concern. After that, he’d eaten lunch with her every day. At the time, she’d just thought she wasn’t hungry, but looking back now she knew that she’d been depressed. Her parents moved without even so much as a conversation with her and her sister about how they felt about being left behind. She hadn’t even realized that she hadn’t been eating.
“What?”
“Caleb Dawson,” he said as if the name held great significance.
“Yeah…” Her eyes shot to his retreating back then back up to Marco, still not understanding what he was insinuating. “What?”
“Caleb. Dawson.” He repeated.
“Oh, right.” Until this moment, she’d completely forgotten that she’d once told Marco that she had a crush on him. He’d found a paper that had Mrs. Caleb Dawson scribbled on it. She’d said it was hers to cover for her sister, but
it became an easy out whenever Marco asked if she liked anyone. Caleb had been her go-to.
It was confession time. “Right, so, funny story, I never had a crush on Caleb.”
“Yes, you did.”
“No. I didn’t. The paper you found in the couch cushions was Devon’s.”
“But every time I asked who you liked you said…”
“I was just…” she started to say, covering up for the fact that I was in love with you, but she figured one confession was enough for now. “I was just covering for Devon.”
“So you never wanted to be with Caleb? But that’s why I…”
It surprised her how serious his tone was. “That’s why you what?”
“Oh my gosh!”
“Sydney!”
“You look amazing!”
Sydney turned and saw three women that she’d barely spoken to in high school. Three women she’d already spoken to tonight. Their reaction was notable since earlier when she’d greeted them they’d treated her like she had the plague. They were clearly here to see Marco, not her.
“Hi.” She wasn’t cold but she certainly wasn’t warm.
They went on and on about how amazing she looked before blessedly, Marco saved Sydney by telling the trio that they were headed to go get a drink, but it was nice to see them. You could cut their disappointment with a knife, but they took the hint and left.
Before they even got two steps he moved in front of her, so close that he was blocking the rest of the room. She tilted her head back and looked up at him.
“That was smooth.”
He grinned, accepting the compliment, but then turned the attention back to her. “How does it feel to be the talk of the reunion?”
“I’m not.” She rolled her eyes.
Her dress might be, but she wasn’t. No one even knew her here. Except Marco.
“Yes. You are.” He stated firmly as he leaned down, stopping only slightly before their foreheads touched. With their mouths only inches away, she felt like the oxygen was being sucked from her lungs.
All of her life she’d been an observer and she was comfortable in that role. Her older sister was the star of the show and she was her audience. Devon was an attention magnet. She drew everyone’s focus onto her and that suited Sydney just fine.
Tonight was the first night in her twenty-eight years that she’d hoped that people would take notice of her and now she just wanted things to go back to the way they were.
Marco was the only person that always noticed, always saw her. If they were in a classroom with thirty people or a mall with hundreds, it always felt like just the two of them. Like now.
Neither Marco nor Sydney made any effort to put distance between them and they never broke eye contact. They remained perfectly still except for the rise and fall of their chests.
His lips turned up and the dimple in his left cheek appeared and its potency was greater than the Lemon Drop shot she’d gulped down for liquid confidence to face her classmates.
From the first time she laid eyes on Marco that dimple had been known to weaken her knees and tie her tongue.
“You’re all anyone is talking about tonight.” The raspy quality of his words vibrated through her, making it impossible to think straight. “Do you know what they’re saying?”
She winced at the thought. Most of the time when people talked behind someone’s back it was even blunter than what they said to their face. And so far, everyone tonight had already been pretty blunt.
“You really don’t, do you?” His brow furrowed and his voice was tinged with concern.
“No.” It shouldn’t matter to her what anyone was saying, but she found herself asking, “What are they saying?”
“That you look incredible. That you are the sexiest woman here. That you’re so much hotter than you were in high school.”
The first she could handle. The second was just an outright lie. And the third was a backhanded compliment, at best.
“But they’re wrong.”
Marco had a reputation for being direct. Some had accused him of being an asshole, but she’d always appreciated his brutal honesty.
Sydney couldn’t help the small bark of laughter that escaped from her chest. “Wow. Tell me what you really think.”
He inched closer.
Sydney’s heart was beating so loud it was all she could hear in her head. It was louder than the hum of conversation around her and the music the DJ was playing. Each thump was louder than the last.
His left brow rose slightly. “Do you want to know what I really think?”
Nerves tumbled in her stomach like tennis shoes in a dryer. “Yes.”
Marco didn’t answer right away. She could see a storm of emotion rioting in his tropical green eyes. A tropical storm, if you will.
Each second of silence that hung between them was like a rubber band being stretched further and further. The tension was building to an almost unbearable level. She wasn’t sure exactly how they’d gotten here. The conversation had started out innocent enough but it had taken a turn down a road she wasn’t sure she was ready to travel.
As much as Sydney was tempted to end the suspense, she resisted. The ball was in Marco’s court. She’d answered his question and was waiting with bated breath, in a very literal sense, to see what he served up next. But their conversation was intercepted by a spectator.
“Marco! There you are!”
Sydney looked over Marco’s shoulder and saw Richie Leon.
She stepped back and away from the two men and made her way through the maze of pictures. She used the interruption to attempt to collect herself and try to refocus her brain on anything other than how she’d just felt. It didn’t help that the maze was covered in pictures of the very man she was trying to distract herself from.
As she took the stroll down memory lane, she had to admit that she was feeling a very foreign sensation filling her chest. Sydney didn’t consider herself sentimental or nostalgic. She put those emotions in the same category as being a romantic. Her brain simply wasn’t wired that way, at least it hadn’t been.
She turned a corner and found herself face to chest with Marco. He wasn’t as tall as Caleb, but he had to be around six foot two. Tonight she was standing a respectable five foot six, but that was only because of the heels.
Her eyes lifted. “Hey.”
“Do you want to get a drink?” The casual tone of his voice and the hint of a smile on his lips were in direct opposition to the intensity in his stare.
“What happened to Richie?” She looked around.
She’d love to continue spending time with Marco but she had no interest in hanging out with his crew. Those guys were barely tolerable in high school and either they’d grown even more intolerable or her tolerance level had lowered. Either way, she wasn’t about to subject herself to spending any time with them tonight. Even if that meant her mini-reunion with Marco was over. It made her sad to think that she hadn’t found out how he was, how his mother and grandfather were, or what was going on in his life.
And although she was enjoying the new dynamic between them, she missed the easy banter that had been the trademark of their friendship. Things had always been easy and fun with Marco. They’d had a rhythm. A sync. They were tuned into one another like they had their own frequency.
Tonight, it was definitely not on the regular channel.
“He’s not going to bother us.” He sounded so serious.
“He’s not going to bother us,” she lowered her voice, mimicking him with the hopes of lightening the mood. “Okay, tough guy.”
“You’re not as funny as you think you are.” He boomeranged her words right back to her and smiled.
As his lips turned up and that damn dimple appeared again, it almost derailed her attempt to put them back into their zone. Their friend-zone.
“Funny is in the bone of the beholder…get it?” She grinned. “Funny bone.”
“If you have to explain it, it’s not as cleve
r as you think it is.” His grin widened and the storm clouds in his eyes dissipated.
She wasn’t trying to be clever she’d just wanted to get them back to them.
Mission accomplished.
They’d always been able to say anything to one another. She wanted to be able to joke around. To tease him. To get teased back.
Hmm, teased.
Her mind started thinking of all the ways she’d like to be teased by Marco, but she quickly pulled the e-brake on her mental detour out of the designated zone.
“No,” she reprimanded herself.
“No?” Marco asked. “No, what?”
“What?” She shook her head.
“You said no.”
“I did?”
Sydney had a tendency to say things out loud without knowing it. Devon used to joke around that she was blissfully unaware of herself. Unfiltered and unaware were her exact words. In Sydney’s opinion, there was nothing blissful about being either.
“You did,” Marco confirmed. “Was that no to a drink?”
“No.” She shook her head and his eyes narrowed slightly. She knew that the next question he was going to ask was what the no was referring to. Before that happened she rushed out, “A drink sounds great.”
He offered her his arm and as she slipped her fingers around his bicep she couldn’t help but notice the bulge of muscle that had her feeling all kinds of funny low in her belly and heat beneath the thin layer of cotton that separated their skin.
Tonight might be a Cookies and Cream night after all.
Chapter 5
‡
Marco noticed that the red liquid in the wine glass he was carrying in his left hand was sloshing against the sides. His hands shook as he walked to the small table that Sydney had snagged. He inhaled slowly through his nose in an effort to settle his nerves before he sat down.
The anticipation he felt at being with her was the same as before he’d go skydiving, or zip lining. His heart raced, his palms dampened, and his hands shook from the sheer excitement at the adventure he was about to experience.
Sydney was the only adventure he’d never had the guts to go after. And he’d always regretted it. But that would all change tonight. Whether or not she returned his feelings didn’t matter. What mattered was that he’d never even stepped up to the plate. He’d let all those years pass without ever telling her how he’d felt about her. But tonight he would.
Fire and Romance Page 5