What Friends Are For by Lacey Thorn Read Free Book Online Page A

text.
    Running late. Be there soon.
    His reply was almost instantaneous. Can’t wait.

Chapter Seven
     
    Her brother pounded on the door when he got there. She’d changed
her mind almost as soon as she’d received Jonas’ text but Jack hadn’t answered
the phone when she’d called him back. She’d seriously thought about just
leaving but she had little doubt that her brother would just hunt her down
until he found her.
    “What happened?” were the words her brother greeted her with
as soon as she opened the door. He stomped inside and immediately started
looking around. “Is he here?”
    “Who? What?” Jacey asked, shutting the door.
    “Whoever made you cry. I’ll kill ’em.”
    “I’m fine, Jack,” she shook her head and laughed. “But it’s
nice to know you’d kick ass for me.”
    He turned and looked at her. “So what’s up then? You don’t
usually call me. I hear from you less now that I’m home than I did while I was
gone. I have to pry info out of Dee to know what’s going on.”
    “Hmmmm, so what did she tell you?”
    “Nothing,” he said staring at her intently. “And I’m
beginning to think I should have made her talk before I headed over.”
    “I’m surprised she isn’t with you.” Jacey laughed.
    “She was in the shower when I left,” he said, and when Jacey
lifted her eyebrow he laughed. “I told her I’d be right back.”
    “You love her,” Jacey said.
    “Hell yeah, I do,” Jack said, dropping to sit on her couch.
“What’s not to love about her? I’m an incredibly lucky man.”
    The way he said it. So easily. As if saying it once opened
the door and made it easier to say it again.
    “What’s going on, Jacey?” He interrupted her thoughts.
    “First off, promise me you won’t go crazy or do anything
stupid,” she said.
    “Fuck, I hate it when you start out with shit like that,” he
groaned. “It means I’ll probably do both.”
    “Promise, Jack,” she said.
    “Fine.”
    “I spent the night with Jonas.”
    Jack surged to his feet, fists clenched tightly. “I’ll
fucking kill him.”
    “He’s your best friend,” Jacey said with a laugh.
    “You’re my sister.”
    “You can’t beat up Jonas.”
    “I’m pretty sure I can take him.”
    Jacey remembered Jonas’ body, every delicious naked inch of
him.
    “And I don’t even want to know what you’re thinking right
now with that sappy look on your face. Did he hurt you, Jacey?”
    “No.” She shook her head but she felt the tear slip down her
cheek.
    Jack walked over to her and used a finger to wipe it away.
“Then why the tears? What happened?”
    She walked away, paced around. “Jonas and I have been friends
for a long time.”
    “I know.” Jack nodded. “He kept me up on stuff with you
while I was gone.”
    “He’s always been like a best friend to me, the guy I could
go to and talk to about anything.” Jack nodded and sat back down, listening
quietly to her. So she kept talking. “I don’t know when things changed for him.
But they did. At some point he…” She stumbled over the words. “At some point he
fell in love with me.”
    Jack laughed.
    “What?”
    “You say that like you’re surprised,” he said. “Jacey you’re
an incredibly sexy woman. Hell you’re almost as gorgeous as me.”
    She shook her head and laughed.
    “Besides, honey, Jonas has been in love with you for a long
time. Remember the summer we went to the beach?”
    She nodded. Jonas had brought that time up too.
    “He could barely take his eyes off you. I had to remind him
that you were sixteen and my sister several times. He started calling you
princess that summer. Did you ever wonder why?”
    “I…” She shook her head.
    “He said you reminded him of royalty, a princess. So
confident and sure on the outside with all your emotions locked away, just
waiting for the right prince to come along and awaken you.”
    “He said that?”
    “Yeah, and I laughed my ass off and told him he was a