Kissing My Best Friend: A Friends to Lovers Romance Read online

  Kissing My Best Friend

  A Friends to Lovers Romance

  Piper Sullivan

  Copyright © 2019 by Piper Sullivan

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  DESCRIPTION

  1. Bo

  2. Jase

  3. Bo

  4. Jase

  5. Bo

  6. Jase

  7. Bo

  8. Jase

  9. Bo

  10. Jase

  11. Bo

  12. Jase

  13. Bo

  14. Jase

  15. Bo

  16. Jase

  17. Bo

  18. Jase

  19. Bo

  20. Jase

  21. Bo

  22. Twenty ~ Two

  23. Bo

  24. Jase

  25. Bo

  26. Jase

  27. Bo

  28. Jase

  29. Bo

  DESCRIPTION

  Everyone leaves. That’s the hard and fast rule I’ve built my life around

  Then my best friend and a fake summer relationship changed everything.

  Jase. My best friend. My confidante.

  My family.

  My fake boyfriend for the summer, emphasis on fake.

  Until one little kissing booth ruined everything. Made me see Jase as a man. A gorgeous, funny, kind, and did I mention gorgeous, man?

  But it can’t work because everybody leaves.

  And just when I’m starting to think otherwise, life proves me right once again.

  I’m not averse to a long-term relationship, I just haven’t found the right girl. Yet.

  But the busy and meddling matchmakers in town have other ideas.

  The kind that start and end with a wedding dress and a baby carriage and I wasn’t ready for all that.

  So I enlisted my best friend to pretend to be my best girl, just for the summer.

  Only I started to notice that my best friend’s legs were smokin’ hot, that her lips were beyond kissable, that I wanted to kiss her.

  As summer nights grew hotter things got more confusing, real or fake, I didn’t know.

  It took almost losing her to realize that our fake relationship wasn’t fooling anyone, but us.

  Bo

  “That guy is totally checking you out.” Jase Callahan, also known as one of my best friends, took the chair beside me and nodded towards the blond lawyer who worked with Walker, sitting at the bar. “He looked over here three times already.” His lips twitched in amusement until finally that dimpled smile appeared.

  I rolled my eyes at his attempt at matchmaking, a new hobby for the whole town it turns out. “Maybe he’s checking you out. Ever think of that? Some people actually find you attractive.” Jase was, objectively, attractive. His flop of thick black waves gave the rugged boy edges of his jaws and cheekbones a boyish appeal. Mossy green eyes took his looks from boy next door to magazine cover, or maybe Times Square billboard would be better. Either way Jase was attractive and it was just as, okay more likely that the hot lawyer was checking him out, not me.

  He shrugged his broad shoulders and took a sip of his beer. “He could be because I am a masterpiece after all, but despite your scowl you’ve got his attention.”

  No offense to the hot lawyer but Black Thumb on trivia night didn’t really leave a lot of options. Most of the women here were spoken for or not interested in a fling and the guys were, well guys like Jase who we’d grown up with our entire lives. To say dating options in a small town like Tulip, Texas would be a massive understatement. “It’s not like he’s got a lot of options, besides he’s looking for a wife and I ain’t interested in being anyone’s wife.” I didn’t know what the lawyer was looking for but he looked like the kind of guy who wanted a pretty, docile wife and two polite children and that held no appeal. People in my life had a bad habit of leaving and I preferred to be the one doing the leaving these days.

  “Why not?” Jase’s thick black brows dipped in genuine confusion, another reason he was a true friend, he didn’t let my snarl bother him. Much. “You’d make a great wife.”

  “You don’t believe that.” I didn’t believe it. I couldn’t get my own damn mama, Dorothy Jean, to stick around. My daddy, BoJack, stuck around but he was more stuck to the bourbon than to me until all that was left was the bottle. Mama was an only child who lost her parents long before I was born and Daddy’s Daddy, Beauregard, died about two years after he did. Leaving me alone. Moderately wealthy and completely alone.

  “I do believe it. You’re a good cook, nice to look at and sometimes you even have good manners.” Those damn mossy eyes lit with amusement and I refused to take the bait.

  “That’s what I love about you, Jase. You don’t see too well.”

  His laugh drew the stares of almost everyone inside Black Thumb waiting for trivia night to officially begin. It had become a weekly event with genuine team rivalries and everything, which no doubt thrilled Nina, the brains behind this new Tulip staple. Jase snatched my beer and drank down half. “Thanks.”

  “Hey, I don’t know where your mouth has been!” I could guess though, if I had to. But sweet lord I didn’t want to.

  He leaned forward, eyes shining with mischief. “Want to know?”

  “Ugh, no thanks, I left my antibacterial gel at home.” I managed a shudder that only make him laugh louder and harder before he took another sip of my beer. The brown liquid slid down his throat and I noticed more than a few pairs of eyes on him, but Jase, for all his swagger and bravado, rarely notices the attention.

  “I’ll buy you another.” He winked and sat up straight, making me turn just as Betty Kemp and Eddy Henderson came to a stop in front of us.

  “Hello, you two.” Betty smiled, damn near glowed really, probably because she now had Penny’s little boy to spoil, officially since she married Betty’s son, Ry.

  “Hey Betty. Eddy. You girls here for trivia night?”

  Eddy nodded, her silver curls flying in all directions. “You betcha, so get ready to lose little girl.”

  “Bring it, old lady.” Eddy was one of my favorite people in town, never once looking at me with pity. And the old girl gave as good as she got.

  The gleam in her brown eyes changed, transformed to something more mischievous and I felt goosebumps prickle my skin. “You two make such a lovely couple. I always knew there was something goin’ on but you two hid it well.”

  I opened my mouth to tell her just how wrong she was but shock had stolen the damn words right out of my mouth. All that came out was a few stammers and parts of words. “No.” Succinct but not as explanatory as I was hoping for.

  “She’s right,” Betty added, “about what a striking couple you make. All fit and outdoorsy, you’ll produce some good photos. Ow!” Betty glared at Eddy who had just sent one of her elbows into Betty’s side.

  “You talk too much. Go get us a pitcher of margaritas before Nina gets started, I don’t want that sharp tongue aimed at me tonight.” Betty tittered at that because it was one of the most anticipated parts of trivia night, who would come in late or talk while Nina asked a question, earning her wrath.

  Betty shuffled off, but before one last hope filled look that would have sent alarm bells sounding in my mind if it wasn’t well known around town that Bo Mahoney didn’t date. Not anyone from Tulip anyway. What they didn’t know was
that I didn’t date period, unless internet hookups counted, and they didn’t. Especially not the disappointing ones and most of them were, which is why I’d given up the pretense more than a year ago.

  “You okay?” When I finally pulled myself from my own thoughts, I noticed his skin had gone pale, making his green eyes darker and his black hair starker.

  “Uh, yeah. Sure.” He was lying and I didn’t call him out on it. The old ladies had spooked him because with three Hometown Heroes now living in wedded bliss, the matchmakers were out with a rabid vengeance to claim the next couple as their own. “Better get going before Nina does.”

  Before I could ask him again if he was all right, Jase grabbed my reclaimed beer and joined his brother Nate and his boss Rafe, along with Nina’s husband, Preston, which made up the Tulip’s Heroes team. It was a table filled with more good looks than your average red-blooded woman could handle. They were all gorgeous, but to me, they were just the dumb guys I did stupid teenage stuff with a million years ago.

  Tulip was as small town as small towns got which meant the matchmakers had their hands full. Thankfully I was nowhere close to being on their radar.

  Jase

  “Get your own damn onion rings, Nate.” For the third time since we sat down at a booth in the back of Big Mama’s diner, I had to smack my brother’s hand away from my plate. “Next time you get the fork.”

  “Somebody’s cranky,” he laughed, somehow managing to steal an onion ring anyway.

  “Dick,” I muttered and yanked a strip of bacon off his plate. “Now we’re even.”

  The sound of Nate’s low, rumbling laughter had me looking up at his smug smile. “Not yet.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  My brother produced a tablet from his Tulip Search & Rescue duffel bag and tapped the screen a few times before sliding it my way. Now we’re even, little brother.”

  One look at the screen and the familiar blue and white logo at the top told me I was on Facebook, specifically the Tulip page that was dedicated to all things related to the Hometown Heroes. There were photos of Nina and Preston on their wedding day, Ry and Penny and Mikey playing in the park like a happy little family, even a photo Elka and Antonio had uploaded from their honeymoon. Then I saw it, the newest updated. It was another photo of a Hometown Hero, me, and Bo. We were staring at each other like a couple in love. I’m looking at her like she’s Heidi Klum in an edible bikini and she’s laughing like I’m Kevin Hart. We look perfect. We look happy.

  Like a real couple.

  “See? That face right there is how I know that now, we’re even.”

  Bo wouldn’t be happy when she saw this, I just hoped she didn’t blame me. “Why would they do this? Who did it?” Neither question mattered at the moment but it was all I had as my gaze drifted back to the screen, to how much of a couple we looked like in that picture.

  “Now you have a reason to go for it.” Nate said that like he knew what he was talking about when I knew he didn’t. We were brothers, sure, close even by most people’s standards. But we didn’t talk about our feelings or who we liked because we were men, not teenage girls.

  Before I could tell him to keep his damn opinion to himself, I heard my name. “Jase Callahan, just the man I was looking for.” Elizabeth Vargas, Antonio’s mom, sauntered towards me, a force of nature with perfectly coiffed blond hair and fiery hazel eyes.

  “Yeah? You have a fire emergency you need some assistance with?”

  She laughed as I knew she would, gripping my shoulder just a bit tighter than necessary to show her disapproval of my smart ass remarks. “You’re such a funny boy, which is good because the girl I have for you loves a funny boy.” She turned and waved to a decent looking blond who looked young. As in her license needed a thorough check because she might not be legal to drink, kind of young. And her skirt would have made more sense as a headband. “This is Becca. She’s the new first grade teacher over the school. Maybe you could show her around a little?” Hope mixed with mischief filled those hazel eyes and I knew I was doomed.

  The good southern boy in me knew that ‘yes ma’am’ was the only acceptable answer, but the grown ass man in me knew if I said yes to Elizabeth, I’d have a string of blind dates lined up for me from now until the end of time.

  Nate hid a laugh behind a cough and I felt my skin start to warm, heating with anxiety and anticipation. It was the same feeling I had before entering a burning structure, except then I had the knowledge, the expertise and the skill to handle the fire. A matchmaking woman I respected and a perfectly nice and innocent woman, was way out of comfort zone. Then my gaze landed on the screen.

  Me and Bo. Looking like a couple.

  I knew she would kill me the first chance she got, but in that split second it seemed like a better option than a year filled with matchmaking attempts. “I would like that very much, Elizabeth, but I’m afraid my woman my get the wrong idea about it. Maybe we can both show Becca, was it, around?” Even as the words were out of my mouth, as Nate stopped trying to conceal his laughter, I could feel the hit my balls would take.

  Blond brow arched in suspicion, Elizabeth folded her arms and smiled. “Yeah? I hadn’t heard you were dating anyone. Anyone I know?” I read the dare in those hazel eyes, in the way she notched her arms up, defiantly.

  There was no way out of this date with Becca without a name. One final look at the screen and our laughing, love filled faces and I turned to Nate who only shrugged, unhelpfully. Elizabeth’s gaze never strayed from my face and I stalled for time, hoping another genius plan, one that would keep my parts where they were, would come to me. “You know Elizabeth, Nate is also single and a Hometown Hero.”

  As if suddenly remembering he was there, she turned her gaze to Nate. He’d inherited our father’s red hair but our green eyes were identical. Where I was lean and muscled, Nate was a tank. His scowl though, was mostly what set us apart.

  “I’m not looking for anything serious, sweetheart,” Nate said, directing his words to Becca. “A night with me is just that, a night.”

  Her gaze flashed surprise, either at his forwardness or his actual words, I didn’t know. But both women deflated and turned expectant gazes back to me.

  My shoulders fell too. “Bo Mahoney.” There was no way out of this conversation or the confrontation I’d have later. “I’m seeing Bo Mahoney.”

  Elizabeth gave one short nod and a genuine, satisfied smile spread across her pretty face. “Good for you too.” Then she moved on, Becca all but forgotten as she toddled after her.

  Nate laughed and shook his head when we were alone again. “You just put yourself in the middle of trouble, but don’t worry Jase, I’ll lead the search to recover all the missing pieces of your body. I hear Bo is handy with a knife.”

  I wished I could smack the amusement off his face, but Nate, for once, wasn’t wrong. Bo was skilled with nearly a dozen different styles of knives and when she was angry that number doubled. “I’ll find a way to break it to her.” As soon as I found a way to make this up to her, to make doing what I would ask her to do, worth her time.

  “Good luck. I’ll keep some ice chilled for your nuts.” He laughed again, but it didn’t last long when I stole another slice of bacon. “Or maybe you two can stop dancing around each other and get it on already.”

  Nate made her seem like a ball buster, and she wasn’t. Sure, Bo could be difficult, but she had an emotionally difficult life and I didn’t blame her. She was kind and always willing to help, even if she didn’t smile about it. She was also my best friend who had always been there when I needed her, and now I needed her. “We’re friends.”

  “If you two saw you how the rest of us did, you’d stop telling yourself that lie.”

  Was it a lie? There was a brief moment in time when I entertained the possibility of something more with Bo, but the moment passed, life went on and our friendship remained. It was our friendship and only that friendship that gave me a chance in hell in getting
her to agree to my crazy scheme.

  Bo

  Being inside my store was my second favorite spot to be, next to my oversized cabin in the woods. Bo’s General Store was started by my great-great-granddaddy, Beauregard Mahoney, maybe there was another great in there, I didn’t know, what I did know was that this store had been here nearly as long as Tulip Worthington. No one talked about the Mahoney’s though, not anymore and not in anything but hushed tones.

  Not that any of that mattered to me. I preferred it when people didn’t talk about me because it was always, Poor Bo, such a shame her daddy couldn’t get off the bottle. That was the worst, but not as bad as, Her poor mama took off and didn’t even take her, can you imagine? They were all reminders of what I knew well, everyone left. In time, they all did.

  One way or another.

  That’s why I loved this store. It provided the town and its tourists with essentials and it gave me a chance to scope out everyone who came into this town. Like the two guys who’d just pulled up in a tricked out luxury SUV that was sleek and black and big as hell. The truck told me all I needed to know about them, they had more money than sense. But when they ambled in, legs and backs stiff from hours of driving, I smiled.

  Everyone’s money spent the same which meant even douchebag city boys got excellent service in my store. “Hey guys, welcome to Tulip. What can I get for ya?”

  The dark haired one barely spared me a look. “Bathroom?”