It was the truth as far as he knew, and her one attempt to change that had blown up in her face.
“How can you not like dancing?” Jessie asked.
“I like dancing just fine. I just prefer to be comfortable while doing it. No pointy-toed shoes that break my feet. No panty hose. None of the torture device trappings that go along with dressing up.”
Leo pulled out his phone and stabbed a few buttons. Music spilled out of a speaker by the cooler—something with a beat that made her hips twitch. “No time like the present.”
More appreciative than she could express, Lexi tipped back the rest of her beer, then set the bottle aside. “You, Mr. Hamilton, are on.”
Over the next few hours, Zach watched Lexi unwind, losing herself in music, memory, and more than a little bit of alcohol. Why not? He was driving, and he suspected she cut loose little enough in her day-to-day life. It was the reason he’d brought her, hoping to coax her into relaxing and remembering the easy friendship they’d all shared for years. That and he’d wanted to spend time with her. As if in one night he could make up for years of distance.
But the night hadn’t done for him what he’d wanted. It hadn’t reminded him that they were friends. Hadn’t neatly nudged her back into that box and locked any kind of a door. Because he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Couldn’t stop soaking in the sound of her laughter and the way the firelight illuminated that gorgeous, bronzed skin. Skin his hands itched to touch, to see if she was as soft as those pictures had made her look. She’d let her hair down. The heavy mass of waves spilled down her back, bouncing as she swayed to the beat. What would they smell like? Feel like against his fingers? They’d danced together in packs, as friends were known to do. But he’d never danced with her. He found he wanted to.
So, of course, he kept his ass parked in a camp chair on the other side of the fire, well out of touching range, since he’d lost his damned mind.
“Earth to Zach.”
He blinked, realizing Leo had been talking to him and he hadn’t heard a word. “What?”
“Dude, what is up with you?”
“Nothing.” First line of defense, always denial.
“I’m calling bullshit on that.” Leo looked across the fire to where Lexi danced with the other girls to somebody’s Girl Power playlist in a sort of tipsy, tribal display of the modern feminine. “It’s not exactly like old times, is it?”
Uncomfortable with where that question might lead, Zach jerked his shoulders. “We’re not in high school anymore.”
Leo lifted his beer. “That’s for damned sure. You never looked at her like this in high school.”
“Like what?” But he knew.
“Like you want to take a bite out of her. When did that happen?”
Zach rubbed a hand over his face, as if he could scrub the image of scraping his teeth down the long, lovely column of her throat out of his mind. Wonderful. Now he had new fantasies to add to the ones she’d inadvertently planted in his brain herself. But it hadn’t just been the boudoir shots. Things had felt different the moment he’d laid eyes on her in The Daily Grind. “Hell if I know.”
“What are you gonna do about it?”
“Do?” He skewered Leo with a look. “Not a damned thing. She’s one of my best friends. I’m not going to fuck that up.”
Leo studied him for a long moment, like he knew the truth—that Zach and Lexi hadn’t been best friends for a long time. And maybe he did. Maybe they all knew what he hadn’t been able to admit to himself.
“So you’re just going to…what? Hope this goes away?”
Yeah, that’d be good. He’d go home, get a good night’s sleep, and when he woke up tomorrow, he’d be sane again, and they could resume working together with that easy, uncomplicated friendship they’d always had. “Sure. Why not?”
Leo snorted. “Good luck with that, brother.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just that there’s a reason the opposite sexes rarely make it long-term as platonic friends. Somebody’s feelings always change. Hell, I had a front-row seat to that most of my life with my brother and Autumn, and look where they ended up.”
Married with a baby and blissfully happy.
“That’s different.” Everybody knew Judd and Autumn had been in love with each other since they were six years old.
“I’m just sayin’.” Leo stood, finishing off his beer. “I need to be getting on. The work day will start way too soon.”
“You good to drive?”