“You know what I mean,” Ty said, placing an arm around Lacey’s shoulders and kissing her on the cheek before turning back to Hunter. “You’ve been burying yourself in work and women to forget Molly and it hasn’t helped. Now she’s back and she needs your expertise. That’s two things you can’t resist, so—”
“She dumped me and disappeared for almost a year. Not one word—”
“I’ve heard from her,” Lacey reminded him.
He cleared his throat. “Like I said, I haven’t heard from her until now when she needs my help, pro bono I might add, and she calls on me. Hunter, the sucker. Hunter, the one who can’t resist her. Uh-uh. No way, no how. I am not helping her.” He slammed the empty bottle onto the table for emphasis.
“Pro bono is what you do,” Lacey said in her sweetest, most cajoling voice.
Best friend or not, he was going to strangle her, Hunter thought.
“Besides, you owe Molly,” Lacey said.
“I what? ” Hunter hit the side of his head with his palm to clear his hearing.
“You owe her. Last year when everything went down, I thought Uncle Marc was the one who wanted me dead so he could claim my trust fund. And instead of taking Molly’s side, you backed me up. So you owe her, Hunter, you really do.”
Ty leaned closer to Hunter. “It’s a female thing,” he explained. “Just look at her and smile like you agree. Trust me, it’s easier than arguing.”
Hunter opened his mouth, then shut it again. But in the end, he couldn’t resist. “I apologized to Molly,” he reminded his best female friend. “And I proposed to her. Not just marriage, but I said I’d pick up my life and move wherever she wanted so we could have a chance at a real future together. I hardly think I owe her,” he said through clenched teeth.
Just the memory of that time had the power to send him reeling all over again. He’d thought Molly understood and accepted him, past and all, but he’d been wrong. He’d learned then that all the refinement in the world wouldn’t change his destiny. When Molly rejected him, she’d proved that hard work hadn’t altered the fact that he was what his father had claimed, someone who’d never amount to anything. Someone not worth staying around for.
Everyone left Hunter eventually. Molly’s betrayal had just hurt the most because he’d taken a risk and opened his heart.
Never again.
“You’ll help her,” Ty said right before he bit into his burger. “It’s what you do.”
Lacey nodded. “It’s who you are.”
Hunter slid the bottle across the table, his annoyance and frustration growing. “Neither of you listened to a word I said.”
Lacey took a sip of her soda from a straw, and met his gaze. “As long as you don’t listen, that’s all that matters, because Molly needs you.”
Hunter swore and glanced toward the ceiling. “What about what I want and what I need?” he asked.
Ty slapped a brotherly hand on his shoulder. “When it comes to women, it doesn’t matter what we want. It’s all about what they want.”
Lacey grinned. “He learns fast.”
“Married men have no choice,” Ty said.
“But marriage does have its perks, doesn’t it?” she asked, playfully sifting her hand through the back of Ty’s hair.
“As thrilled as I am that the two of you are disgustingly happy, I have to get back to work.” In truth he was thrilled that his best friends had found the happiness they deserved, but he couldn’t stand to be around their marital bliss.
He pushed his chair back and rose. “I’m out of here.”
Lacey frowned. “Don’t go running away just because we’re hitting a nerve. Stay for dessert.”
He shook his head. “Can’t.”
“Won’t,” Ty countered. “PDA isn’t his thing. He’d rather bring home women who don’t mean anything to him and make sure they leave before the sun rises.”
Lacey winced. “Do you have to be so blunt?”
“Did I mention last night’s didn’t leave before Molly showed up?” Ty asked.
Lacey’s eyes opened wide. “Tell me he’s joking,” she said as she met Hunter’s gaze.
He shook his head. He could still vividly recall how the color drained from Molly’s face when she’d realized he wasn’t alone, and he let out a slow groan. “I wish he was kidding, but it’s the truth.”
In the condemning silence that followed, Hunter wished he’d left when he’d had the chance. “It’s not like I knew she was coming,” he muttered, wondering why he’d become the guilty party.
“He’s got a point,” Lacey said.
“It’s time to give you a kick in the ass. Get your life together,” Ty said to Hunter. He then turned to his wife. “And do you always have to take his side even when he’s wrong?” he asked, disgusted.
Lacey merely laughed and hugged him until he relented, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
Hunter, Ty and Lacey had played out similar scenes before. The three friends went back a long way. Ty’s mother was Hunter’s last and best foster parent, taking in Hunter and Lacey both. From the beginning, Lacey had sensed Hunter needed a friend and heaven forbid Ty ganged up on Hunter, Lacey jumped in as his defender. She’d always been someone who believed in him when no one else would. Just as Ty always ended up doing the same.
Lacey had a big heart, which had been the reason Hunter had fallen in love with her when they were kids. Through the years, he’d realized those feelings had morphed into brotherly affection. A good thing since Lacey had always been head over heels for Ty, the dark-haired rebel, as she used to describe him to Hunter.
And Hunter had known the difference between caring and love the day he’d met boldly dressed, outspoken Molly Gifford. Hunter and Molly’s chemistry was undeniable, but from the beginning there’d been so much more between them. In Molly, he’d found his intellectual equal. Hell, she’d beat him out for valedictorian of their law-school graduating class and he’d admired her for it. He’d also sensed an emptiness inside her that he understood because he felt the same way. He believed they’d fill those needs for each other.
He’d been wrong. Thinking like a character from Jerry Maguire had cost Hunter emotionally.
He was still suffering the aftershocks, but he couldn’t say that Lacey and Ty were incorrect. They’d made some valid points, damn them, and their words crowded his brain, outweighing his selfish emotions.