Soaring with Fallon (Big Sky 4)

“Well, exactly.” She sniffs and smooths her hands down her dress. “Who does that? Who thinks it’s okay to tell the man their friend loves that what they feel is wrong?”

“What did you say?”

She looks up with a confused frown. “What?”

I move to her and pull her against me, my eyes glued to her face, longing to hear the words again.

I feel like I’ve been waiting a lifetime.

Suddenly, her face softens in understanding.

“I love you, Noah King. I think I’ve loved you since you stood in my living room, ankle-deep in water with me. I’m just not good with words, and I—”

I crush my mouth to hers, swallowing the words. She buries her fingers in my hair and holds on tightly, pressing herself more firmly against me and turning me the hell on.

I want to carry her out of here and have my way with her, show her all the ways I love her.

But we have a birthday party to get back to.

“She was never going to ruin this,” I say against Fallon’s lips. “You can’t ruin something so right with some careless words, Fallon. Let her talk. You and I know the truth.”

“We do.” She drags her hand down my cheek, her face soft with a loving smile. “I’m sorry she did that to you.”

“I’m sorry she did that to us.” I kiss her once more and then take her hand, leading her inside. “Now, let’s go enjoy the rest of your party.”

* * * *

“You look sad.”

Fallon’s just returned from taking Claire to the airport. It’s early morning, the day after her birthday. The party wound down around ten, and when we got home, Claire went straight to her room and didn’t come out until this morning when it was time to leave for the airport.

“I don’t know what I am,” Fallon admits as she puts on a pot of water to boil and gathers a mug and a teabag.

“Are you sad she’s gone?”

“No,” she says immediately. “I think I’m relieved that she left. I’m sad that things have changed so much.”

She turns to me, leaning on the counter as she waits for her water.

“We met at the accounting firm I used to work for. She was actually on my staff, and we got along well. We became friends outside of work.

“After Grandma died and I moved on, we stayed in touch, stayed friends. That doesn’t happen often when people move away.”

“You’re right,” I reply, watching her.

“I guess this visit just hammered home how a friendship that’s solely based on phone calls and text messages is so different from one in person. She’s not the same girl I knew back then, and I guess neither am I.

“I hated that she ogled you that first day. It sounds stupid—”

“Not stupid.”

“But I wanted to tear her eyes out. And it occurred to me, I wouldn’t do that to her. If I was meeting someone important to her, I wouldn’t check him out like that.”

“I might have a problem with it if you did.”

She smirks and turns to make her tea when the kettle starts to sing. She carries her mug to the table and sits across from me, cupping the ceramic between her hands.

“It was an odd visit. Sometimes, it would be like old times, easy and fun. Other moments were just uncomfortable. She enjoyed poking fun at Cunningham Falls, and she said she was worried about me, but that’s not true at all.”

“How do you know?”

“She apologized in the car,” she says and sips her hot tea. “She said she was sorry, and that she was jealous of me, of what I’ve found here with you. I know she’s been looking for a relationship. She’ll take anyone home with her and tell me about it the next day.”

“She’s not going to find a relationship like that.”

“That’s what I told her. I don’t think she heard me.”

“Does this mean your friendship is over?”

Fallon shrugs one shoulder, her expression miserable. “I don’t know. I told her I forgave her, but I’m still mad, and I don’t know if I can forget it. I mean, how do you move on from that? Your good friend trying to drive a wedge into something really beautiful.”

“I don’t know.”

“Me either.” She sighs. “I guess we’ll just see what happens. I know that it won’t ever be the same as before. I feel like I’ve seen how Claire truly is, and I don’t really like it. What did you think of her?”

I just grin and shrug, not wanting to say what I really think.

“You’re the bluntest person I know, and you’re not going to say anything?”

“I may be blunt, but I don’t want to be an asshole.”

“Did you think she was a bitch?”

“Oh, yeah.”

She laughs and takes another sip of tea. “Well, she kind of was to you. I’m sorry about that.”