Make It Last (Friends & Lovers 1)

At six feet, he towered over Briana, and his unruly blond hair and self-assured manner always drew her to him.

“Not much, Kent, just getting the party started.”

She and Kent enjoyed each other when neither of them was in a serious relationship. Briana hadn’t had one since Colin broke up with her in high school, so she was always ready to enjoy Kent.

Sometimes he tried to get too serious for her, and that was when she would tell him it was time to get him a girlfriend.

They weren’t an item, and they weren’t exclusive, but he was the only guy in this town with whom Briana knew she could enjoy an uncomplicated relationship.

“You here alone?” she asked him.

“Not anymore,” he replied, taking her hand and leading her into the kitchen, where he made himself a drink.

Once Kent had his Captain and Coke mixed, he leaned down to give Briana a quick kiss before they headed back into the living room.

“That’s a promise of things to come,” he whispered against her lips.

Briana mingled and got caught up on all the town gossip. She was going back to fill up her glass when she caught site of Kara going into her room with Pete.

“Well, that’s new,” she thought with a smile.

As she was filling her glass, the girl she had been talking to earlier when Kent interrupted, came into the kitchen.

She couldn’t for the life of her remember the girl’s name. Kendra or Kylie, maybe. She’d just think of her as Kendrie.

“Hey, Bree, I didn’t get a chance to tell you earlier because that gorgeous guy pulled you away, but I’d wondered if you’d heard the news.”

“What news?” she asked absently.

“About Colin.” Kendrie seemed unable to control the glee that came out with that statement.

Briana ran into this a lot. In high school, most of the girls were jealous of her because she was dating Colin. Once he left for school, dumping her in the process, those same girls pretended to feel sorry for her, but she could tell that they really loved the fact that he’d dumped her.

Since their town was small, she knew anytime Colin came home on break. Everyone was more than eager to tell her about it.

Judging by the girl’s tone, she figured Colin must be home for the summer. It didn’t matter. She had successfully avoided him so far. She could manage to do so for another summer.

“What about him?” she asked, making her voice sound as bored as possible.

“He’s moving back for good.” Briana’s stomach dropped to the floor. She only half listened as Kendrie rambled on.

“He hurt his knee during the last game of the season and can’t play football anymore. He graduated and everything, but his dream of going on to play professional ball is over, so he’s coming back here. They say he’s going to work with his dad or something. I think he got in last night.” Kendrie continued to prattle on, not realizing that Briana was no longer listening to her.

Briana topped off her drink and walked out of the kitchen, leaving the girl to stare after her, her words still hanging in the air.

She walked in the opposite direction of the crowd in the living room, down the hall and into her room. She didn’t bother to shut the door, but opened her window and crawled out onto the roof. She sat down and leaned back against the roof tiles, looking out over the lights of her town.

She drank from her glass as she thought about Colin.

How dare he come back here permanently? This was her town. Sure, he’d grown up here, but he’d always planned to get out and never look back. He wanted to

go off to school and play football, then make it big and move off to a city somewhere. He’d always planned to visit once he’d left, but he’d never planned to live here forever.

She’d taken comfort in that fact, and now he was coming back to stay.

Well, things had changed, and Colin had better watch his step where she was concerned. She had no plans to welcome him back with open arms.

Chapter Two