Page 40 of Falling for the Enemy

“Greyson!” Wren called for her husband. “Logan’s picking on me.”

“You big baby.” Logan relented the second his older brother stormed into the dining room.

His gaze went to the crumpled napkin and scowled. “Did you make my pregnant wife cry?”

“No, that was me,” Jocelyn said, finishing off the second bottle of wine.

Greyson growled. “Knock it off. Both of you.” He glared at Logan. “Let’s go. We’re still not done out there.”

Once the boys were gone, Wren gave her a sheepish look.

Jocelyn shook her head. “Tattletale.”

Wren giggled, not denying the accusation. “So, what happens now, Joce?”

“Now?” She shrugged. “I continue doing what I always do. Write books, live my life, show up for Town Hall meetings, go to signings, and move on.”

“No. There has to be more.”

“Why? Maybe this was all it was ever meant to be. Or maybe it was never meant to happen in the first place. Soren’s always had big plans, and those plans never included me.”

“Plans change.”

As much as she loved Wren for being the kind of best friend that would take her personal life so personally, her refusal to let this fantasy go was complicating Jocelyn’s own position. She had to stay grounded in reality and know where to draw the line.

“You know the kind of women he likes. I’ll never be like them. I’m never going to change, and neither is he. Why should either of us have to settle?”

“But on some level, don’t you care about him?”

Jocelyn lowered her gaze to the table and twirled the stem of her once again empty wine glass. Her mind went to that first night. Not the funeral, but the night of the lobster trap tree lighting.

Yes, she cared. Probably too much. That was the problem.

“I need to be realistic here, Wren.” Otherwise, she could get hurt.

Wren, reading her mind, reached for her hand and whispered, “Soren would never intentionally hurt you, Joce.”

“I know. But I also don’t want to hurt him. I don’t want to get in his way and I…” She thought about the way they bickered and how they constantly needed to get the last word in on each other. “I don’t want him to hate me.”

“Deep down, Soren loves you. How could he not? You’ve been his friend since grade school.”

But they both knew that kind of platonic affection was not the same as real love. It wasn’t the kind of love to build a life around.

She pulled her hand free. “We’re never going to be compatible that way. And I have to pee.” Pulling back her chair before Wren could say more, Jocelyn escaped to the bathroom.

As she washed her hands, she stared back at her reflection as if looking at a different person who knew all her secrets and silently called her out on the lies. But that person also knew why she needed to let this go.

Instead of returning to the dining room, she went to the barn to see what the boys were doing. The wine had gone to her head, so when it came time to leave, she thought it best to walk home.

“You’re walking home in the dark? Let Grey drive you,” Wren argued.

“It’s a beautiful night. I’ll be fine.” Honestly, she needed to clear her head.

“I’ll walk with you,” Logan volunteered, and that seemed enough to curb Wren’s worry.

“Thanks.” She kissed Wren’s cheek and thanked her for dinner. “I’ll be back for my car in the morning.”

Logan had moved into Magnus’s estate where the boys had grown up, and it was somewhat on the way to Jocelyn’s house, so she understood why he offered to walk with her, even if she hadn’t felt the need for a bodyguard. It was Hideaway Bay after all.