Her Best Friend by Sarah Mayberry Read Free Book Online Page A

back to the night before the wedding, to the things he’d said to her down on the dock at the lake. They’d both had enough drink to be feeling no pain. Quinn had been sitting opposite her leaning against a pylon, his long legs bent at the knees, his bare feet planted on the deck.

    “I’ VE BEEN THINKING about this for a long time,” he said as he looked out over the dark water. “Getting married. Buying a place of our own. Starting a family.”
    She smiled, even though her grip tightened on her beer bottle. “Always were a big planner, Whitfield.”
    He shook his head. “I don’t have it all mapped out. I know stuff will go wrong. But I also know we’ll make it work. Because we love each other, and we know each other.”
    She nodded. Mostly because she didn’t trust herself to speak.
    “What about you, Ames?” he asked suddenly, nudging her bare foot with his. “You think Aaron’s going to pop the question?”
    She’d been going out with Aaron Reid for over a year.
    “I don’t want to get married yet. I’ve got the Grand to think about first.”
    “You can get married and still restore the Grand.”
    “I’m not ready yet.”
    “You’ve missed your big opportunity, you know. We could have had a double wedding if you’d played your cards right.”
    “Aaron and I aren’t like you and Lisa,” she said. It came out more sharply than she’d intended and Quinn took a pull on his beer before responding.
    “I just want you to be as happy as I am, Ames.”
    “I know. Sorry.”
    He shifted one of his feet so it rested on hers, big and warm, letting her know without words that she was forgiven. He smiled at her, his eyes heavy-lidded from all the alcohol.
    “Tomorrow’s going to be a great day. The best day of my life,” he said.
    Her heart ached with sadness and happiness as she looked at him, the two emotions so hopelessly mixed she knew she’d never get them untangled.
    “You’re going to be a great husband.”
    “I know,” he said. Then they both laughed at his shameless arrogance.

    S HE TWISTED in bed, rolling over onto her side. God, how she hated the idea that he was in pain, that all that hope and happiness had gone up in flames. Worse, that she hadn’t been around to comfort him because she’d chosen to push him out of her life when he’d needed her the most.
    How could Lisa have done this to him? Amy could still remember the way her friend had glowed on the morning of their wedding. And the way Quinn had looked at Lisa when she’d walked up the aisle toward him. A match made in heaven, everyone had said.
    And Lisa had thrown all that away. Amy simply couldn’t comprehend it.
    She was drifting toward sleep when an insidious little thought weaseled its way into her mind: now that Quinn was getting a divorce, he was free again. Available.
    Her eyes snapped open. Her heart kicked out an urgent, panicky beat.
    Don’t. Don’t even think it. Not for a second, you idiot.
    But she was wide-awake, and the thought was lodged in her brain, glowing like neon.
    Quinn was free to love again. If he wanted to.
    “Don’t be an idiot,” she said out loud.
    Because she’d been waiting for Quinn Whitfield to notice her since she was fourteen years old. A full sixteen years of yearning, longing, jealousy and heartache. Long enough to know better.
    She closed her eyes and pushed the weasel words down into a deep, dark corner of her mind. Because she did know better. Even if some aberrant, hope-springs-eternal, deluded part of her psyche refused to lay down and die, most of her knew the truth: Quinn had never seen her as anything other than his good friend. And nothing she ever did would change that.

    S HE SLEPT BADLY and woke early. Her first thought was that Quinn was getting a divorce, her second that she now owned the Grand.
    Great priorities. Not.
    She lay in bed reviewing the evening’s momentous events, then started to formulate plans for the day ahead. The way she saw it, she had two