Always You: A Lilac Bay Novel (Friends with Benefits) (26 page)

“I—I don’t know. I think so?”

He smiled. “I’m pretty sure that’s when I fell in love with you.”

“What—Andrew, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that I’ve loved you forever. I loved you when we were kids. I loved you when you left to go to school. I loved you when you came home. You’re the only thing in my life that I’ve ever really wanted, Riley.”

“But—” I couldn’t seem to make sense of his words. “But you
left
. We slept together, and you took off.”

He shook his head, his face so miserable I thought he might actually cry. “I panicked. Do you have any idea how many times I dreamt of that happening?”

“I don’t understand.” There was something about this that was wrong, something that didn’t make sense. “I’ve seen the way you are with women, Andrew. You go after what you want. You don’t run away.” A tear slipped down my cheek. “But you ran away from me.”

“I thought…I don’t know. I guess I thought maybe it was time to prove that I could be reliable, that I had a little ambition of my own. Maybe if you saw me working for my dad, having some responsibility, you might change your mind about me.”

“I’ve never wanted you to work for your dad, Andrew. And why in the hell would I need to change my mind about you?”

“Because I know I don’t deserve you, Riley! I’ve never deserved you. Why do you think I didn’t do anything about it all these years?”

“Andrew, that makes no—”

“You ask anyone on this island to describe me, and they’ll tell you the same thing.” His face twisted in a grimace. “Andrew Powell. Good for a laugh, good for a game of ball. Not much ambition. Not a lot of drive.” He shook his head. “That’s the opposite of you, Riley. And you deserve someone so much better than me.”

“I can’t believe this,” I whispered. “Is that seriously why you never told me how you felt? That’s why you left?” He started to answer, and I pushed him again, even more pissed than before. “How about this, Andrew? How about you ask the only person on this island whose opinion matters, huh? How about you ask
me
to describe you?”

He looked like he wanted to argue, but I barreled ahead.

“Andrew Powell. Always there when I need him. Makes me laugh. Makes me feel safe. Never lets me win, because he knows I hate that. Takes my cat to the vet. Loves my sister. Loves his family. Works hard at anything I ask. Takes care of me.” I was really crying now, and he was just staring at me like he’d never seen me before. “Best kiss of my life. Best friend I’ve ever had. My very favorite thing about this island.”

“Don’t cry,” he whispered, but there were tears in his eyes too.

“I can’t help it. I love you so much and you can’t see it.”

There was a pause during which I don’t think either of us breathed. “You do?”

“Seriously?” I cried, throwing my arms up. “Did you listen to any of that? Of course I love you, you idiot—”

I had a few other choice insults I would have liked to have thrown at him, but I had to stop—because he was kissing me, lifting me straight up off the ground, the only guy I knew tall enough to pull that off, holding me so close I almost thought I could melt into him.

“Do you really love me?” he asked against my mouth.

“Of course I do. You’re my—you’re—” I struggled to put into words exactly what he was. My best friend? My family? “You’re everything,” I finally said. “You’re just everything.”

“Riley.” He kissed me again and again, gentle little flutters over my cheeks and deep, curl-my-toes kisses against my lips. He kissed me until I was dizzy and laughing and holding onto him for dear life. I would have been happy to stay in that little foyer for the rest of my life, kissing Andrew, but a roar of noise from the square brought us both down to earth.

“What the—” he began, looking out the glass.

In the square, people were cheering, hugging, clapping. For a crazy second I thought they were responding to us, and then I remembered—

“Oh my God, the show.”

“I completely forgot,” he said, shaking his head. “Do you think we—?” He trailed off, eyes wide, and I felt my stomach lurch with nerves.

“Let’s go see.”

We made our way to the square, and as the projection screen came into view I could see that the people in Jackson were celebrating too.

In fact, they seemed even more excited than this crowd.

“What’s going on?” I asked Jerry Brooks, who was high-fiving the people nearest him. “Did we win?”

“Nope,” he said happily. “Second place!”

“We’re freaking out for second place?” Andrew asked.

“Well, sure! It’s a big honor. Second place in the whole country! I’d say that’s something to be proud of. And it sounds like we still get a few nice grants and prizes.” He grinned at me. “We appreciate all your work, Riley. You really came through.”

I stared around at the crowd. Everyone seemed so happy. For second place.

“They’re crazy,” Andrew muttered next to me.

“No,” I said, feeling like I might cry all over again. “They’re perfect.”

We partied in Town Square well into the night, long after Heather Dale and her crew had gone. Gina hugged me on the dock, thanking me for my hard work on her first real project. “I hope I hear from you,” she said. “I mean that.”

“Thanks, Gina,” I said, stepping back to take Andrew’s hand. He didn’t mention her comment, and I wondered what he was thinking. But then there were too many people surrounding us, the path back to the square like a gauntlet. Everyone wanted to rehash the entire series, and a few of them even noticed that we were holding hands.

“Well,” Rose said when she passed us, her eyes on our hands. “It’s about time.”

Andrew laughed. “Thanks, Mimi.”

“We’re still having lunch,” she reminded me before turning to her grandson. “And no, you’re still not invited.”

We ran into Edward and Zane next. “Oh, thank, God,” Eddie said. “I told him he was being stupid after you guys finally did it.”

“I’m very happy for you, Riley,” Zane said, kissing my cheek. “These Powell men are pretty useful to have around—even if they could use some work on their eloquence.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

I saw Jenny across the square, dancing with a man I’d never seen before. She gave me a thumbs up and broke her own promise by mouthing,
told you!

Then there was the mayor, Andrew’s mother, Posey, and at least three of the Libbies, all wanting to know what had happened between the two of us. I felt a little nervous when Jill danced by in the arms of one of the Big Hotel staff, but she merely grinned and gave me a thumbs up, mouthing the words
totally hot
at me.

When Sherry declared I’d finally seen the light after his performance in tights, I pulled Andrew away to the dance floor for a little privacy, figuring he was about at the end of his rope. To my surprise, he was still smiling broadly.

“I thought you would hate that,” I told him.

“It wasn’t so bad.”

“But you can’t stand people getting in your business!”

In response, he kissed me right there on the dance floor, dipping me back over his arm, making a huge show of it. “Let ‘em watch,” he whispered in my ear, and then kissed me again.

The only time he seemed to get nervous was when Rebecca and Jake danced by a few songs later. “Be nice to my sister,” she instructed, in her old track captain voice. “The two of us have each other’s back, buddy.”

“She’s not kidding,” Jake said, winking at me, before spinning her off into the crowd.

“So,” Andrew said, once they were gone. “What do you think your sister would do to me if I tried to convince you to move to Boston?”

“Boston?”

He shrugged. “We visited when I was little. I liked it. There’s an associate producer job open at Heather Dale’s network, and I figured since you have an in now—”

“You’ve been looking up jobs for me?”

He looked uncomfortable. “I just wanted to know where you might go. How far away it would be.”

I felt a little sick. “Do you still want me to leave? I thought—”

“No,” he said quickly, bringing a finger to my mouth. “I meant for both of us.”

“You want to move to Boston?”

He tilted his head. “I could root for the Red Sox. I draw my line at the Bruins, though. I don’t think Gordie would be cool with that.”

I shook my head, having no idea how to respond to that, and he closed the distance between us, bringing his forehead down to touch mine.

“I meant it, Riley. I’m not going to hold you back. I’ll go wherever you want.”

“What about Traverse City?”

He pulled back, surprised. “Traverse City?”

“There’s an assistant news director job at one of the networks. I thought I might go for it.”

“In Traverse City?”

“Sure. It’s close, you know? Then we could still live here, at least in the summer, and if you were really serious about this working for your dad thing—”

“Riley, aren’t you hearing me? You don’t have to stay here for me.”

“I know.” I kissed the side of his mouth. “I want to stay here for
me
.” I looked up into his eyes. “This is home, Andrew. It’s where I want to be. It’s where I want our life to be, together.”

He watched me for a long moment.

“Where we start our family?”

My breath caught in my throat, but there was no fear in my chest at the thought.

“Yeah,” I said. “Our family.”

Once again he gave me that cocky little smile, clearly satisfied with himself. He kissed me, his lips trailing over mine.

“I have one condition,” he whispered.

“Name it.”

“You have to make lunch.”

“So long as you bring me dessert.”

He laughed, the sound a low rumble in his throat. “I’ve got your dessert right here.”

I kissed him back, grinning, my heart bursting with happiness.

I hadn’t known it could be like this, my life. That it could be so full, so happy. I wondered what my dad would think, if he could see me now. He would be happy, I thought, that Rebecca and I were still here, on this island, together. And he would be happy to see me with Andrew. I was sure of it.

It was a little scary, thinking about how different things would be now. But I knew if I just held onto Andrew I would be fine. Besides, I was never one to back down from a challenge. The most competitive girl on Lilac Bay, that’s what everyone always said.

I’d never wanted anything more than this. Andrew was the biggest win I could possibly imagine. And I had every intention of playing for keeps.