Dylan nodded.
Problem was, Boomer and Sabrina hadn’t talked it through. Hell, they hadn’t talked. He’d been so mesmerized by her, so enthralled with her energy that he hadn’t asked the questions he needed answers to. But making sure they were on the same page where sex was concerned? No way. Not even close.
Closer. Harder. Faster.
Those were the words they’d said to each other.
“By the look on his face, they already hooked up. Good for you, man.” Dylan slapped him on the back.
“She’s not a hook up kind of girl,” Boomer muttered and took a long drink from his bottle.
“She shot you down?”
Bless Teo and his incredulity.
Boomer shook his head. “Didn’t say that.”
“Okay,” Teo leaned forward. “What’s the deal with you two?”
Boomer shrugged, not sure he was ready to talk about Sabrina and their history.
Both men stared him down.
Boomer sighed. “I’ve known her since we were five.”
“Holy shit.”
“How come you never mentioned her?” Dylan asked.
“Wasn’t worth mentioning.”
“That’s bullshit. Obvious.” Dylan glanced at Teo.
“She’s the one who broke your heart, isn’t she?” Teo asked.
Boomer gave him a long look that said it all.
Teo let out a long, soft curse.
“Did you know she was in Roseville?” Dylan asked.
Boomer shook his head. That’d been the shock of a lifetime.
“Dude. You need to stay away from her.”
Didn’t he know it. “I’m trying. She’s persistent.”
“What does she want?” Teo asked, getting them another beer.
“A second date.” Boomer stared out the window, his mind replaying their first date.
“Seriously?”
“So, you guys dated in the past…” Teo left the question open ended.
Boomer took a deep breath.
“We’d been best friends, next door neighbors since we were five. Eventually my mom remarried, and we moved across town. Sabrina and I didn’t talk as often and we started hanging out with different people.” He took a sip. “That’s not entirely true. She was so shy back then. Like a one eighty from who she is now. She didn’t have many friends. I guess it was me who changed. But I always saw her as the sweet, funny girl I’d known my whole life. And I kept seeing her alone in the halls and it was killing me. So, I took her out and that night, something… happened.”
It was hard to explain. How did one put words to such a feeling? Rightness, completion, it’d been like coming home.
“It was like all the space was gone and I had my friend back. Only, now she was a woman and when she smiled up at me, I felt ten feet tall. I’d always loved her, as a friend. But that night…”
“You fell for her,” Teo filled in.
Boomer swallowed the lump of emotion.
“Yeah. We had a great time. Better than any date I’d gone on with the popular girls. She was so carefree with me. But by the time we got back to school, she was a different person. Cold. Shuttered. Avoiding me at all costs. I saw her walking down the hall, she saw me and raced out the door into the rain.”
His friends glanced at each other in disbelief.
“There’s a story there.”
Boomer shrugged again. “Too late. Doesn’t matter.” The damage was done. He just needed to remind himself that she was the type who ran when the going got tough.
“I think it does,” Dylan said. “This woman has a lot to answer for.”
“We were there, remember? We’ve known you for years. Something had to have happened to splinter a friendship like that.”
He’d thought that too. He’d asked. He’d prodded. But eventually he’d let it go, as painful as it’d been.
Boomer crossed his arms over his chest and fought the onslaught of old emotions.
“You deserve answers,” Dylan said.
“And maybe,” Teo said with a lift of one shoulder, “there’s something still there.”
That’s what Boomer was terrified of.
11
David woke the following Saturday morning with a pounding headache. He mentally called his supervisor every name in the book. He hadn't gotten to bed until two in the morning.
He glanced at his watch. That was only six hours ago. Almost.
And while late nights weren't unusual on a movie set, the fucker’s incompetence was costing everyone time and money. Last night had been the last straw and he’d sent off emails to several people, including their director.
With any luck, Toby’s head would be rolling by lunch.
He sat up and the pounding increased.
Someone was knocking on his door.
“Coming,” he grumbled as he threw back the sheet. If Seamus was bothering him at this time of morning, they were going to have to have a serious talk.
Not bothering to pull on jeans, he answered the door in his boxers.
Sabrina leapt back as the door swung past her nose.
“Sorry.”
“Good morning,” she said, sounding cheerful despite the hour and almost needing a nose-job.
David crossed his arms over his chest, mentally willing his cock to stay down. How he'd managed to not wake up sporting wood was a mystery, considering the very hot dreams he'd been having about the woman on his doorstep.
He couldn't let himself be swayed by her. No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't talk to her or touch her or kiss her again. Dylan and Teo were wrong.
He'd been far too enthralled with her that night they’d spent wrapped up in each other. Lord knew he didn't need any more headaches right now. And she had the potential to be so much more than a headache.
Teo and Dylan thought he should explore what could have been, what might still be between him and Sabrina. What they didn’t understand, couldn’t understand, was that she was the one person on earth who could finish him. Who could destroy what was left of his heart and soul.
She’d seen him at his best, worst, during his formative years, through temper tantrums and finding his spot in the food chain. She’d been there for him as he’d battled with feelings about his step dad and the uncertainty of losing
