“You look like a ghost,” Rose said.
“And you look like a boy.”
“I was under strict orders to dress in a tux and comb my hair in a low chignon. Your wife-to-be was worried I’d ruin the visual equilibrium of the ceremony if I were to stay by your side dressed like a girl.”
“What?”
“Interpreting Georgiana’s thoughts with some liberty, I think she wanted me to look as ugly as possible.”
“You’re never ugly, not even when you dress like a boy.”
“Well, I wasn’t forbidden from wearing makeup at least. How are you doing?”
“I want to throw up.”
“That good, huh?”
“Yep. Where did you leave the old guy?”
“Ethan’s outside helping his father welcome the guests. Your parents are doing the same. It’s a funny mix… You can spot the Texans from a mile away, even if they can’t wear hats inside the church!”
“Bet you can.” Tyler chuckled. “How was the big dinner last night?”
“I suspect my mom has a crush on Ethan. As for my dad, he couldn’t understand how someone could not want to be a lawyer, but he and Ethan had plenty of topics to discuss, and they hit it off pretty well…”
“Uh-huh.”
“You asked,” Rose said, straightening his bowtie.
“I’m a masochist, didn’t you know? Why else would I be doing this right now?”
“Because you’re a good man, because it’s the right thing to do, and because despite what you might think, deep down you care about Georgiana. A lot. And, I had a little peek at the bride; she’s going to take your breath away,” Rose said, smiling.
She was trying her best, but seeing Tyler marrying someone else wasn’t the piece of cake she’d expected. Seeing Georgiana resplendent in her white gown hadn’t helped, either.
There was a knock on the door. Ethan came in.
“How’s everything going? Gigi wanted me to check that everything was in order… You’re a little on the pale side,” Ethan added, looking at Tyler.
A gasp caught in Rose’s throat. Ethan in a tux was something else. She was melancholic about Tyler and everything, they had a lot of history that was hard to let go of, but Ethan was her future. Of this, Rose was certain.
“You try the ‘getting married’ thing, and then we’ll see how you look,” Tyler retorted.
The two men still didn’t like each other. But they were coming to terms with the fact that, for better or for worse—literally—they were about to become family.
“You sound like my mother now! Anyway, I come bearing gifts.” Ethan removed a flash and three plastic shot glasses from his jacket. “Here,” he said, filling each with a transparent liquid and then passing them out. “To the bride and groom—cheers!”
The three of them raised the glasses, tilted their head backwards, and downed the shot in one swig. Rose wrinkled her nose—blech, vodka. A little too strong for the a.m. hours, yet Tyler looked far happier than he had a minute ago. There was even some color returning to his cheeks.
“If we’re all set, I’ll go tell the priest we can start,” Ethan said, tucking the flask and glasses back into his jacket. “You should come out in a few minutes and wait for the bride at the altar.”
Tyler nodded bravely.
When Ethan was gone, Tyler turned to Rose. “The old guy… he’s not too bad.”
“I know.” Rose was close to tears again. Vodka was a great idea for a guy with a bad case of cold feet, but probably not the best for an overemotional friend.
“Come here,” Tyler said.
Rose went over to him and they hugged tightly. This felt like the last private moment they would ever share.
“Nothing will change between us,” he whispered in her ear.
“Nothing,” she said, repeating the lie.
Tyler let go of her. “Let’s go do this,” he said. He straightened his jacket and then marched out of the room.
Rose watched him go, knowing that in many ways she was letting go of him, forever. When she came out of the small room, she was just Rose—there was no more Tyler and Rose.
***
“I’m not sure if the fact that I find you hot while you’re dressed like a boy should scare me or not,” Ethan teased as he and Rose waltzed across the dance floor—a platform that had been set up in the middle of the Smithson’s family home garden.
“I’m about to cut into your dilemma,” Rose said. “Do you think the style-gestapo will flay me if I let my hair loose? This chignon is killing me. And the bow tie is strangling! How do you guys wear these around your neck every day?” She started pulling some pins out of her hair.
“Here, let me help…” Ethan pulled her to the edge of the garden and started working his fingers into her hair.
When the last pin came loose, Rose shook her head and let her hair cascade down onto her shoulders. Ethan was already undoing the bow tie.
“I have to stop now, or I’ll end up undressing you completely. It wouldn’t be very proper.”
“No, it wouldn’t, especially not with your mother staring at us. She’s been watching us like a hawk all day. What’s up with her?”
“Ah, my dear.” Ethan grinned. “I’m afraid that with my sister’s nuptials, I remain the sole Smithson sibling yet to be matched. I’m pretty sure my mother has designs on you.”
“Aren’t two weddings in six months enough for her?”
“Is the thought of joining yourself to me in holy matrimony so unappealing to you, Miss Atwood?”
“What? No, I-I mean…” Rose was stuttering, her face searing red. “Are you serious?”
“Why not?”
His stare was like burning ice.
“I thought you w-were against getting married.”
“I’m against girls shopping for rings after one date; I’m not against getting married to the woman I love.”
“Are you proposing?” Rose’s heart was beating way too fast.
“Now, don’t go getting a big head, Miss Atwood…”
She swatted him playfully. “Jerk.”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her into a kiss.
“I love you,” Ethan whispered. “One day, I want you to be my wife. What do you say?”
“One day.” Rose couldn’t help but smile like an idiot. “I love you too.”
“Now that my noble intentions are in the open, can I bring you to my room?”
Ethan and Rose discreetly disappeared behind a bush and ran across the lawn toward the house, holding hands and laughing like a pair of kids. Never, not even in her wildest dreams, could Rose have imagined the day Tyler married another woman would end up being the happiest of her life. But life held many happy surprises in store, and running free on the grass holding the hand of the man she loved, Rose felt exactly that. The happiest she’d ever been.
To Be Continued
###
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed Let’s Be Just Friends. If you loved my story, please leave a review on Goodreads, your favorite retailer’s website, or wherever you like to post reviews (your blog, your Facebook wall, your bedroom wall, in a text to your best friend...). Reviews are the biggest gift you can give to an author, and word of mouth is the most powerful means of book discovery. It helps readers find new authors to love and it helps the authors you love stand out.
If you’d like to discover what happens next to Rose and Tyler, and if you’d like to meet new exciting characters, keep reading for an excerpt from the second novel in the Just Friends series Friend Zone. Or you can join my Readers’ Group and get the second book for free at once. Tap here to learn how.
Thank you for your support and happy reading!
Camilla, x
Friend Zone Excerpt
One
Rose
Now
Inside the Smithson’s country house, Rose followed Ethan up the stairs and down a
corridor with too many white doors to count. He stopped in front of one toward the end, pausing with his hand on the handle. “You’re about to have a glimpse into my teenage lifestyle,” he said, and flung open the door.
Sprawled on Ethan’s bed was a bulging middle-aged man, fast asleep and snoring.
“Rose, meet Uncle Frank.”
Rose giggled, taking in what she could of Ethan’s room before he closed the door. As it clicked shut, they tiptoed away, careful not to wake the sleeping man.
“We’ll have to take one of the guest rooms.” Ethan turned on his heel and headed back toward the beginning of the hall.
He opened a random door. Before Rose could get a peek inside, a roar of rage escaped his lips and he rushed into the room. Rose made to follow him but stopped dead on the threshold. She raised a hand to cover her mouth as she stared at the scene before her eyes in shocked silence…
Two
Alice
Seven Months Ago
Jack had beaten her to the library. He was waiting in the small reading room, head bent over his laptop and a cute frown on his face. He hadn’t spotted her yet, so Alice paused and studied him through the glass door.
Even seated, it was easy to tell Jack was tall; all basketball players had to be. Not to mention playing varsity sports gave him a lean, flat-muscled body all too visible under his tight T-shirt and faded jeans. Dark eyes and hair, high cheekbones, and a straight nose made her best friend dangerously gorgeous. And his mouth… it was made to keep girls awake at night, which unfortunately it did—too often.
As Alice leaned closer to the glass, a dark lock slipped out from behind her ear, startling her. She still wasn’t used to being a brunette. What would Jack say? Would he like it? Only one way to find out. Alice grasped the door handle and her chest tightened. He would reject her. Telling Jack the truth now was a bad idea; she should wait. Yeah, definitely wait. Today was a regular work-on-your-group-project-and-not-tell-Jack-you-love-him day.
Alice pushed the door open. “Hey,” she greeted Jack.
“Hey, Ice.” Jack looked up from behind his laptop. “Whoa!” His dark eyes widened in shock, and his gaze made Alice’s stomach flip. “What’s up with the hair?”
“Change of style.” She dropped her messenger bag on the floor and sat in the chair next to him. “Ethan dumped me.” Alice pretended the news was trivial as she set up her laptop on the table.
“So you dyed your hair black?” Jack tousled his fringe, perplexed.
It was a habit of his, one that made Alice want to run a hand through his soft curls every time he messed them around. The gesture exposed more of his biceps, too, making Alice wonder what kissing him would feel like if she were free to lock one hand in Jack’s hair, pull his lips to hers and wrap the other hand around the marble-like smoothness of his arm.
She mentally slapped away her hands, and said, “I was tired of the fake blonde. Like it?” Alice hoped the makeover would stir something in Jack, but he ignored her question point-blank.
“What happened with the dude? You’ve been dating him for what… three, four months now?”
“Remember when I told you about the night of Georgiana’s birthday party?”
“Your former sorority big sister?”
“A big sister is for life, even if she graduates and moves on to grad school. But, yes, her.”
“She’s hot.” Jack smirked. “You should introduce me.”
“Can’t do. She’s in Paris with her boyfriend until next semester.” Alice rolled her eyes, and Jack laughed.
“So? What does Georgiana have to do with Ethan dumping you?”
“Well, he’s her brother, for one—”
“Seriously?” Jack made a mind-blown gesture.
“Yeah. We were at that hip sushi restaurant downtown for Georgiana’s birthday and Ethan ditched me at the table to go flirt with this other girl. But then he showed up at my place later and apologized, and I thought we were okay. It was business as usual—and then he ghosted me for a month straight.”
“That’s awful.”
Jack was clearly trying and failing to keep his lips from twitching. Ghosting was his favorite breakup strategy.
Alice ignored his distracting lips, and said, “The radio silence was driving me mad, so last night I confronted him. He didn’t even try to deny it.”
“The ghosting part, or that he’s seeing someone else?”
“Either. Both,” Alice admitted. “At least he was honest.”
“Do we know the other woman?”
“No, but she’s a grad student, too.”
“Hot?”
“Yeah, she’s hot.” Alice swatted him playfully. “You’re not helping…”
Jack waggled his eyebrows. “Want me to seduce her for you?”
Yeah. Just what I need. “I doubt she’s into college juniors.”
“You never know,” Jack said, focusing on his laptop screen. With a few clicks of the mouse, he opened the 3D model of a complex molecule they had to design for their Organic Chemistry group assignment. Jack started to rotate the model but stopped to regard Alice with a suspicious air. “Wait, is this girl… What’s her name?”
“Rose.”
“How sweet,” Jack said. “Is she a brunette?”
Alice’s cheeks burned. “Yep.”
“Hence the hair change?”
“No. Ethan made it clear I got a one-way ticket to the dumpster. Dark brown is actually my natural hair color. I’ve decided I want to be truer to myself from now on. Starting with my hair, I guess.” And my feelings for you.
“If it’s any consolation.” Jack knocked twice on the table. “Lori and I are over, too.”
A melting started in her stomach. Jack’s low voice did weird things to her. Especially when he was saying he was single. Alice had feared Lori would become a long-term problem. And now, poof, she was gone. Was it a sign she should talk to Jack today? And say what? I love you? Nah, maybe a physical approach would be better with Jack. She should just grab his face and kiss that mouth. How will he react if I do that? The thought made her cheeks flame red, and Alice decided to take it slow. She didn’t have to kiss him right now. Better to hear about the breakup first.
Alice pursed her lips, schooling her face to appear concerned instead of elated as she spoke. “Why? I thought your bio major was a keeper, what with all her talk of med school and her short skirts.”
Jack snorted. “Until she went from super fun to a clingy nightmare in the space of five dates.”
“I wasn’t the only one who had a bad night, huh?” Alice suppressed a satisfied smile. Her plan to make a move on Jack had just become much simpler.
“Mine was horrible, trust me.”
“Worse than mine? At least you did the dumping.” Jack hated confrontations, in particular with the girls he dated. Hence the ghosting. “What happened? Lori a crier?”
Jack scowled at her. “It’s not funny. She’s a kidnapper. Batshit crazy.”
“A kidnapper?” This was a new one. “What did she do?” Alice was genuinely curious at this point.
“She picked me up after school because we had a date.” Jack abandoned the 3D model and turned toward Alice. “So I naively got into her car.”
“Wait—to dump her?”
“Yeah, my plan was to tell her and leave.”
“Wow, no ghosting?”
“Nah.” He shook his head. “I’d run into her too often to pull that off. She’s taking pre-med Chemistry, remember?”
“No, I’d forgotten,” Alice lied, and gestured for him to keep talking.
“So I got into her car and she drove away. I asked her if we could go talk somewhere quiet, and she told me I’d just read her mind.”
“She was expecting the ‘Sayonara’ speech?”
“No way. This is where my tale gets interesting.” Jack grimaced as if in pain. “I noticed she was heading out of town toward the middle of nowhere,
so I asked her where we were going. ‘A special place,’ she told me.”
“Oh gosh.” Alice put a hand to her head. “This story is about to get dreadful, isn’t it?”
“In a second. The best part is coming.” Jack winced. “I tried to tell her I didn’t have much time, and that we needed to talk. She ignored me and kept driving, insisting I had to see this place, no matter how many times I asked her to pull over.”
“But couldn’t you make it clear you didn’t want to go?”
“Believe me, I did. At that point, I had two options: either keep sitting in the car, or grab the wheel and make her pull over by force.” Jack frowned at the memory. “Lori literally kidnapped me.”
“How long were you in the car?”
“Close to an hour?”
Alice let out a low whistle. “Where to?”
“This is the worst part.” Jack groaned. “She took me to this scenic viewpoint on top of a hill and timed it so we would get there at sunset.”
Alice almost felt sorry for Lori, except that her total fiasco served Alice’s cause too well.
“My day is improving,” she said. “Now I can cross myself off the most-humiliated-girl spot. What happened when she stopped the car?”
“I tried to speak first, but she wouldn’t let me.”
“Of course not.” Alice chuckled. “What did she say?”
“She told me she was falling for me, that I was the only guy she’d cared about in a while…” Jack paused. “Her speech ended with the L-word.”
“Oh gosh, poor girl. And that’s when you told her?”
“Yep.”
“And what did she do?”
“Let me just say the one-hour drive back to the city was… awkward.” Jack sing-songed “awkward.”
“Well, at least she didn’t leave you stranded on the hilltop.” Alice’s mouth trembled with the effort of not smiling. “I would have.”