Her Best Friend

by Sarah Mayberry

  No worries about that. I took care of that all on my own.

  “We’re fine. Don’t worry about it.”

  “I asked Quinn if he thought we could ever be friends again yesterday,” Lisa volunteered suddenly.

  Amy almost stumbled over a crack in the pavement. “What did he say?”

  “That we can’t turn back the clock.”

  Amy bit her lip and frowned at her feet. “Is that why you wanted to help out at the Grand? To try and change his mind?”

  “No.”

  Amy slid her a look. Lisa’s mouth tilted up at the corner.

  “Okay, a little. But I wanted to help out, too. This way I get some bragging rights whenever I’m in town. ‘I tiled the loos at the Grand.’”

  They’d reached the Larder and Amy waited to one side as a woman with a baby pram exited the store. She was about to step over the threshold when someone called her name. She glanced over her shoulder and froze when she saw Barry Ulrich striding toward her.

  “Shit.”

  “What’s wrong?” Lisa asked.

  “That’s Barry Ulrich,” Amy explained quietly.

  She’d filled Lisa in on the developer’s tactics over lunch and she felt Lisa straighten to her full height as Ulrich stopped in front of them. Thank God Lisa was a lawyer, too. Maybe she could stop Amy from making the situation even more disastrous than it already was.

  “Ms. Parker. I was just coming to see you.”

  “I’m afraid I have nothing to say to you, Mr. Ulrich,” Amy said coolly. “My lawyer has instructed me that any and all correspondence be directed through him.”

  Ulrich pulled an envelope from the leather portfolio he was carrying.

  “I’m withdrawing the suit, so you can call off your guard dog, all right?” he said abruptly, offering her the envelope.

  Amy stared at the letter but didn’t take it. This had to be some kind of trick. Some ploy to get her mad enough to say something else stupid and destructive.

  “Are you deaf or something? I said I’m dropping the action,” Ulrich said impatiently.

  No wonder she’d felt compelled to assault the man with a muffin—he was a rude butt-head.

  “Let me,” Lisa said, and she took the envelope. There was a rustle of paper as she unfolded the letter. After scanning it briefly she met Amy’s eyes.

  “It’s true. He’s filed a motion to drop the suit.”

  Amy felt a little dizzy. How…? Why…?

  “I’ve done my bit, now it’s time for you to do yours. Call off your guard dog,” Ulrich said.

  Amy shook her head, hopelessly lost and overwhelmed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Don’t play games with me, missy. I’ve had two calls from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission this week already.”

  Amy opened her mouth to deny whatever he was accusing her of again but Lisa’s hand suddenly clamped down on her shoulder.

  “I assume this means Amy won’t be having any more after-hours visitors at the theatre?” Lisa asked silkily.

  Ulrich made a big deal out of straightening the cuffs on his shirt. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Lisa smiled thinly. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to do better than that.”

  Ulrich glared at her for a long moment. Then he cleared his throat. “As far as I’m concerned, the Grand project is defunct. Ulrich Construction is no longer interested in the site.”

  Amy sucked in air to speak but Lisa’s hand tightened on her shoulder again.

  “Excellent. Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Ulrich. Have a lovely day,” Lisa said.

  Amy gave in to the insistent pressure on her shoulder and started walking up the street, away from the Larder.

  “What was that all about?” she asked when they were out of earshot. “Has he really dropped the suit? Is he trying to trick me or something?”

  Lisa passed the letter over. “Read it yourself. He’s acknowledged in writing that no material harm has come to him or his business as a result of your statements. Even if he wanted to, he can’t sue you now. With that letter on record, it wouldn’t get past a first meeting.”

  “But…why? I don’t get it. He had me over a barrel. Quinn said he could keep me in court for years.”

  “One of the great things about being at law school with a bunch of other lawyers is the friendships you form,” Lisa said. “All those study hours and parties after exams are great for bonding. Then you all graduate and go out into the big wide world. Some people end up in private practice, others go corporate. Others work for the government.”

  Lisa was walking so quickly Amy was struggling to keep up. In more ways than one.

  “Okay, clearly I’m very thick, but I still don’t get it,” she said.

  “One of the guys we studied with is at the Securities Commission,” Lisa said. She shot Amy a loaded look.

  Finally the pieces fell into place. “Quinn asked him to do a favor, and his friend turned up the heat on Ulrich,” Amy guessed.

  “That’s right.” Lisa’s lips were thin.

  A terrible thought occurred to Amy. She stopped in her tracks and grabbed Lisa’s arm, forcing her to stop, too.

  “What Quinn did…it’s not going to get him into any trouble, is it?”

  Why else would Lisa look so worried?

  “I’m not going to lie to you. He’s an officer of the court, Amy. If Ulrich makes a complaint saying that Quinn coerced him with the threat of reprisals, he could be disbarred for unethical behavior.”

  Which explained why Lisa was looking so grim.

  “Oh, God.”

  What had Quinn been thinking? What kind of super-strength crazy pills had he been on to risk his entire career for her?

  “Don’t freak just yet, Ames. From what I saw back there, Ulrich’s got too much to hide to risk putting in a complaint. Quinn’s probably in the clear.”

  “But he should never have even thought about risking himself like that. I can’t believe he would be so stupid.”

  “Yeah, well, there is that,” Lisa said tightly. “If I thought he’d listen to me, I’d kick his ass from here to Melbourne and back for being such a cowboy.”

  Amy started walking again, head high, stride long. Lisa might hesitate to kick Quinn’s ass, but she had no such compunction.

  None at all.

  Beneath her anger was a knee-knocking fear over what he might have brought on himself in her name.

  “What are you going to do, Ames?” Lisa asked warily.

  She was the one puffing to keep up now.

  “I’m going to kill him,” Amy said between gritted teeth. “Then I’m going to resuscitate him and do it all over again.”

  QUINN WAS ON THE PHONE in the balcony section when Amy barreled through the archway from the upper foyer. Her face was set, her color high as she marched straight up to him, planted her hands on his chest and shoved so hard she knocked him off balance and forced him to take a step backward.

  “You idiot!” she said, eyes blazing.

  He blinked at her, vaguely aware that Lisa had followed her into the space.

  “Listen, Justine, I’m going to have to call you back,” he said into his phone. He ended the call and Amy took a threatening step toward him again, her index finger aimed at his chest now.

  “How dare you take such a risk! How dare you do that in my name and not even consult me about it!” She punctuated each word with a painful stab of her finger into his sternum.

  He grabbed her hand and held it immobilized between them.

  “Will you calm down for a minute, you psycho chicken, and tell me what the hell is going on?”

  Amy used her free hand to draw an envelope from her back pocket and slap it against his chest.

  “This is what’s going on. I cannot believe you did this and didn’t even tell me about it.”

  Quinn saw the Ulrich Construction logo across the front of the envelope and went very still.

/>   “What happened? What’s he done now?”

  “It’s not what he’s done, it’s what you’ve done. He’s withdrawn the suit. But you, you big bloody idiot, have risked your career to make it happen,” Amy said, her voice strident with emotion.

  The muscles in his belly and chest relaxed. “Thank Christ. You had me scared for a moment there.”

  “Don’t you dare stand there and smile about it. Do you have any idea how furious I am with you right now?”

  He caught Amy’s other hand as she made a fist and aimed it at his chest. Any second now she was going to try to kick him in the shins.

  His gaze found Lisa’s over Amy’s shoulder. He’d forgotten she was there.

  “Would you mind giving us a bit of privacy?”

  Lisa looked startled, as though she’d momentarily forgotten she no longer had front row seats to the big events in his life.

  “Of course. Actually, Ames, I’ve got some calls I need to make…”

  “No problem. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Amy said, even as she tried to jerk her arms free. “Will you let me go, please?”

  Quinn waited until Lisa was gone. “If I let you go are you going to hit me again?”

  “What do you think?”

  “Then I’m not going to let you go.”

  She tugged on her arms one last time then gave up, glaring at him instead.

  “I’m so angry with you. You have no idea. Why on earth would you risk all those years of study—your partnership, for Pete’s sake—for something so stupid?”

  “The Grand isn’t stupid. It’s your dream.”

  “My dream, not yours. Where do you get off putting your life on the line for mine?”

  He could hear the fear trembling beneath the indignation in her voice and he drew her closer.

  “Ames. You’re freaking over nothing. Ulrich’s withdrawn the suit. Whatever worst-case-scenario you’re imagining is not going to happen. It’s okay.”

  “No, it’s not. You shouldn’t have done that without talking to me first. No way would I have ever asked you to take that kind of risk for me. You could have been disbarred!”

  “Is that what Lisa told you? She’s exaggerating.”

  “Look me in the eye and tell me it couldn’t have happened.”

  He took a moment to compose his answer and she shook her head.

  “Don’t bother. I already know you’re about to lie. You’re the worst liar I ever met. It’s a wonder you ever made it as a lawyer.”

  “I don’t do a lot of trial work,” he said, aiming for a humble, penitent tone. “Cuts down on the lying requirement.”

  “Don’t try to weasel out of this by being cute. You think you did good, don’t you? You think you’re the champion of the hour.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far. But you’ve got to admit, Ulrich dropping the suit is pretty good news.”

  “It’s amazing news. But I’d rather lose the Grand altogether than have you get in trouble. You worked so hard to get that partnership. What were you thinking?”

  “It’s fine. I took a tiny risk, but it paid off. It’s okay.”

  She stared at him for a long moment, then looked away.

  “You could have at least told me what you were going to do. I should have had a vote on whether you threw away your law career for me or not.”

  “Next time. I promise,” he said.

  “There isn’t going to be a next time. I’m never speaking to you again after this.”

  But she was smiling.

  “Don’t ever do something like that again, okay?” she said. “I want you to promise me.”

  Half her hair had escaped from her pigtails to bounce around her face. She looked incredibly pretty and fierce and dear to him as she waited for him to comply with her demand.

  “I’m not going to lie to you, Ames. You’ll only call me on it. If I had to do it again, I probably would.”

  A frown wrinkled her forehead as she gazed into his face. He reached out and rubbed his thumb along her cheekbone. Her skin was so soft.

  “I’d do anything for you, Ames. You know that.”

  Something flared in her eyes, hot and needy, then she looked down. A muscle flickered in her jaw. When she looked up again the heat was gone, replaced with a wry expression.

  “I should probably get that in writing. Could come in handy someday.”

  He frowned. Two days ago, he wouldn’t have understood what had just happened. Wouldn’t have had a clue that that little duck of her head had been about anything other than her ducking her head. But he knew how she felt now, what she wanted, and he knew he’d just witnessed her pushing all of her most private, passionate, secret emotions into a closet and kicking the door closed.

  How many years had she been doing that? How many times had she swallowed the words she really wanted to say and replaced them with something funny and smart and completely not what was in her heart?

  Too many.

  Suddenly he saw the future stretching out in front of them, full of moments like this. Amy hiding her feelings, him pretending he hadn’t noticed. Playing it safe. Hurting her because he was too scared of losing her.

  It wasn’t going to work. No way was it going to work. They couldn’t pretend none of this had occurred. He couldn’t even stand to be in the same room with her and not want to touch her—he’d proved as much in the past five minutes. They’d let the genie out of the bottle, and there was no way to stuff it back in. And as much as it scared the hell out of him, he didn’t want to.

  “Don’t do that, Ames,” he said quietly. “Don’t hide from me like that. I can’t stand it.”

  Her eyes were wide, startled. “Wh-what?”

  He closed the distance between them and reached for her face, cupping her jaw in both his hands. He stared into her eyes, brushing his thumbs across her cheekbones. Then he lowered his mouth to hers.

  For a long, hot second her lips softened and opened under his. He tasted her sweetness and had to fight the primitive, carnal urge to drag her to the floor. Then she tensed in his arms, arching her upper body away from him, pulling her face from his grasp.

  “Quinn. Stop. What are you doing?”

  “Kissing you. What does it look like?” He tried to kiss her again but she held him off.

  “I thought we weren’t doing this. I thought we’d decided it was a mistake.”

  “I know. For two smart people we can be pretty dumb sometimes.”

  He didn’t give her a chance to say any more, simply lowered his head and kissed her. After a tense second her body softened and she made a small, helpless sound as her mouth opened beneath his.

  Desire ripped through him. She felt so good. So right in his arms. Madness to think he would ever have been able to resist doing this again. Sheer madness.

  Her hands clenched into his shoulder muscles and her whole body trembled as she strained closer. She wrapped a leg around his hip and rubbed herself shamelessly against his hard-on.

  He wanted to push her against the wall and take her standing up. He wanted to tear her T-shirt off and lick and suck her breasts until she screamed for him to stop. He wanted to fulfill every one of the dirty, horny fantasies he’d forged in the darkened quiet of his bedroom when he was fourteen years old.

  “Yoo-hoo! Anybody home?”

  The sound of Mrs. Parker’s voice echoed all the way up the staircase and across the upper foyer. Quinn closed his eyes and swore.

  “You have got to be kidding. What the hell is with your mother and the drop-in visits?” he said.

  Footsteps echoed in the main theatre as Mrs. Parker went on the hunt for them. He figured he had about sixty seconds before she came charging up here at exactly the wrong moment all over again.

  He looked into Amy’s face. “We need to talk.”

  She nodded. Then she licked her lips, a nervous little dart of her tongue that made him want to drag her to a cave.

  “I’ll come over tonight, okay?” he said.

  She nodd
ed again. The dazed look had left her face and caution was creeping in to take its place. He kissed her again, hard.

  “Don’t worry.”

  He told himself it was a good thing that Mrs. P. had arrived as he walked away. If she hadn’t, he wouldn’t have been able to stop. And Amy deserved better than the cold, hard floor of the balcony section.

  If they were going to do this, they were going to do it right. And if they weren’t…well, that was a conversation for tonight, as well.

  AMY HEARD Quinn greet her mother on the stairs. Her heart was pounding so loudly it was a miracle it hadn’t jumped right out of her chest. She pressed her hand over it, just in case.

  Quinn had kissed her. And he was coming over tonight. To talk.

  “Oh my God,” she whispered. “Oh my God.”

  Her mother’s footsteps sounded across the upper foyer and she made an effort to compose herself. If she kept standing here gaping like a stunned mullet her mother would take one look at her and know, same as last time. And there was no way Amy wanted to talk about Quinn right now. Not while she was still trying to come to terms with his kiss and what it meant.

  She turned and picked up a paint roller and started ripping the protective plastic sleeve off it.

  “Mom. Hey,” she said supercasually as her mother walked beneath the archway a few seconds later.

  “There you are. I came to tell you that your father got you a good deal on two-pack polyurethane for the floors. He wanted to know how much you thought you’d need so he can put it aside.”

  “Yeah? That’s fantastic. What sort of discount are we talking?”

  It took an effort to put her business cap on, but Amy managed it. She talked sensibly and rationally for twenty minutes. She nodded and commented in all the appropriate places. Then she locked the door behind her mother and it hit her all over again.

  Quinn.

  The kiss.

  Him coming over tonight.

  Her knees turned to jelly thinking about it. After sixteen years, was it possible that he was going to…? That they were going to…? That this was real?

  She closed her eyes, sending up a little prayer to whoever oversaw these kinds of situations.

  Please, please, please let me not have the wrong end of the stick. Please let this be what I think it is.