Page 22 of Crossing the Line

Leanne frowned. “Are you sure you just want to give up on him? You and Damien… I always thought you’d end up together.”

The laugh that escaped me was humorless. “So did I.”

An attendant came in to tell us that we had ten minutes left in the mud bath. When we were alone again, Leanne looked serious and thoughtful.

“Can I tell you something that I’ve never told anyone?”

“Yes.” In fact, I hoped whatever she had to share would take my mind off Damien.

“I broke up with Ryan when we’d been dating for about three months.”

I didn’t expect that. Leanne and Ryan seemed to have a fairytale romance. They met through me, since Ryan and Damien were friends. When Damien moved into his apartment about eighteen months ago, he threw a party to celebrate, and I brought Leanne along. She went home with Ryan that night and they had been inseparable ever since. At least, that was what I thought.

“I was crazy about him from the moment we met, you know that. And I thought he felt the same, but I found out that he was already seeing someone when we started dating.”

“You were the other woman?” I asked, shocked.

Leanne cringed. “Not really. It was more of a we never said we were exclusive sort of thing. But at the time… let’s just say that I was devastated. It didn’t matter that he’d already ended things with the other woman by the time I found out. I broke up with him and tried to close my heart to him. I thought I’d be safer that way.”

“But you took him back.”

Leanne looked around the room. “I did. And now we’re here.”

“I’m guessing there were a lot of steps between those two points.”

She nodded solemnly. “There were. But what really mattered in the end was that we loved each other. Ryan proved himself to me, and I put the whole thing behind us, so much so that I never even told anyone.”

“What’s your point?” I asked. “My situation with Damien is nothing like yours. You said it yourself. You love each other. Both of you. Damien doesn’t feel that way about me.”

Those words carried my grief, and Leanne looked at me with profound sadness that stung.

“I just hate to see you give up hope,” she said softly.

I cleared my throat and forced a smile. It felt stiff, but damn it, I wasn’t going to let my melancholy mood put a damper on Leanne’s spa day. In two days, she was marrying the love of her life, and I didn’t need her worrying about my broken heart.

“I’m going to be okay,” I said, and I almost believed it. “And I’m glad things worked out for you and Ryan—so glad. That’s what really matters this week. Let’s just focus on your happy ending. Okay?”

Leanne grinned slowly, the spark returning to her eyes just the way I hoped it would. As I guided the conversation toward what was planned for the bachelorette party tonight, I was more grateful for her than ever before. I might not have had a solution for the pain of rejection but sharing it with Leanne made the burden just a little easier to bear.

Chapter Nine: Damien

Istared at my phone, where I had my text thread with Kelsie open. I’d sent her about a dozen messages throughout the day, and she’d only responded to about half of them. I knew she was at the spa enjoying herself for most of the afternoon, so I tried not to take it personally, but there was no denying that the texts she sent were different from what we’d shared before.

Scrolling up on my phone, I saw dozens of messages exchanged between us in just the last couple of weeks. Shared memes and inside jokes and random thoughts. The proof of our deep friendship was right there on the screen. But today’s messages were also proof of the way that things were different now. Her responses today were short and to the point, telling me that she felt fine but nothing else.

“What are you looking at?” Ryan asked, sitting next to me at the tall table in the lounge of the resort.

Nearby, Jake and Ford were playing a game of pool, money sitting on the side of the table where they’d bet on the game. It was amusing that they’d put down cash on it like that, considering that they were both terrible players. The shots of Patrón they both did before the game started probably weren’t helping with their skillset.

There was a band playing in the lounge tonight, locals of the island who created music with a deep bassline and relaxed tempo. It wasn’t overpowering the room but providing a soothing background rhythm that complemented this laid-back bachelor party.

Ryan didn’t want to get too wild tonight, so he chose to celebrate here at the resort even though there was probably a strip club on the mainland, which was only a short boat ride away. He’d sowed his wild oats before he even met Leanne, never quite the playboy that Jake was but still always up for a good time with a woman.

All of that changed when he fell in love with Leanne, and he didn’t feel the need to revisit that time by watching women spin around half naked in a club with over-priced drinks.

I wasn’t sure what exactly the girls were up to tonight, but I knew that they’d rented out one of the resort pools. It was the smallest one, indoors with a swim-up bar and a baja shelf. I figured they couldn’t get up to too much trouble there, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a lot of intense hangovers tomorrow on both sides of the wedding party.

“Hello? Earth to Damien,” Ryan said, nudging my shoulder with his own. I tucked my phone into my pocket and picked up my beer. We’d been here an hour, but this was only my second drink. Most of the others here for the party were well on their way to being trashed, but I wasn’t interested in getting fall-down drunk tonight. I could party just as hard as anyone with barely any negative lingering effects when I was in my early twenties, but I was going to be thirty in a few weeks, and my body didn’t bounce back from heavy drinking the way it used to. I drank a little more than usual the night of the bonfire in celebration of being on this beautiful island, and I’d been paying for it since.