Page 169 of Never Not Friends

Emma notices.

Her lips part.

And every instinct screams to kiss her…to know if kissing Emma feels the way I remember.

But I won’t kiss her.

Not here.

Not like this.

“You’re giving me way too much credit.” She smiles between us. “Someone would definitely notice if you were naked.”

I laugh. “Fine. Sailboats it is for our second date.”

Her lips move into a satisfied smile before she turns and heads back to the fitting room.

And although this shopping game has strong-armed her into agreeing to a second date with me, I don’t even care. Because I want the second, the third, the fourth, and everything after that.

We’ve already lost twelve years.

I’m done wasting time pretending I don’t want more.

EMMA

By the time we make it to Joe’s Farm Grill, the sun has disappeared, taking the worst of the heat with it. We sit across from each other at a picnic table outside, burgers and fries spread between us.

This feels very much like me and Vinny.

Casual and comfortable.

Vinny reaches across the table and steals one of my fries. I slap his hand away, but he eats it anyway.

“I told you to order the sweet potato fries.”

He grins back at me as he chews. “I didn’t need to. I knew you would order them.”

“You didn’t know that. We’ve never been here together.” I pause my eating and glance up at him. “Are you purposely taking me places that we’ve never been to with Juliet?”

His expression changes. “Maybe a little.”

And suddenly, the vibe shifts.

I think about two weeks ago, when I stood behind my best friend while she was supposed to marry the man currently stealing fries off my tray.

“Why didn’t you marry Juliet?” Vinny doesn’t move, his reaction making my stomach knot. “You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s fine. We should talk about it.” He looks down at his burger before starting. “I thought my problems with Juliet were because of my commitment issues and how everything went down with my dad. But the closer the wedding got, I felt so unsettled that I couldn’t just blame my hesitations all on my dad leaving.”

I don’t say anything, just give him room to talk.

“Even though I loved Juliet, something was always missing, and I ignored it for a long time because staying in that relationship, and not hurting her, seemed better. Made me feel like I was a better man than my dad, who walked out on us. I mean, I saw what his leaving did to my mom, and so somewhere along the way, I decided that I wasn’t going to be like him. I was going to stay in relationships no matter what.”

“Stay,” I repeat as the word reshapes how I view his history with Juliet all these years.

“Yeah.” He shrugs. “I thought that’s what good men do. You don’t leave when things get hard. You don’t hurt people just because you’re confused. You make a choice and stick with it.”

My chest aches.