Free Fearless by Cheryl Douglas

sleepless nights since the night at his cabin and still Josh was no closer to moving on. He told himself it shouldn’t be this hard; they weren’t in a relationship, had never even slept together. Yet he felt a vital part of his life was missing.
    He’d come to rely on the daily phone calls and regular text messages. Hell, he’d come to rely on her.
    “Hey, you okay, Josh?” Trey asked.
    Trey and Sierra were back from their brief honeymoon, and he had invited Luc and Josh to Jimmy’s to see a new singer his record label had their eye on. He had tried to beg off, but Trey told him if he didn’t want to go as his friend, fine, but he had to go as his bodyguard. That was a crock since, as his head of security, Josh wasn’t obligated to act as his personal bodyguard unless the situation was considered high risk, but he had been too tired to argue the point, so he just hopped in the car, closed his eyes, and pretended to be asleep to avoid conversation.  
    “Yeah, just tired,” he said, not bothering to open his eyes.
    “That would explain why you look like shit,” Luc said, nudging his knee with the heel of his boot. They were travelling by limo tonight, which meant they had too much space and too little to occupy their time.
    Josh scraped his hands over his face. “That must be it.”
    Trey laughed. “You sure it doesn’t have something to do with my sister-in-law?”  
    He knew the inquisition was coming, had been waiting for it. Whoever said women liked to talk an issue to death hadn’t met these guys. When they wanted information, they were relentless.
    “Can we talk about something else?” Josh asked.
    “If you messed things up with sexy Lexi, I’d like to take a shot at her,” Luc said.
    Josh opened one eye to glare at him. He knew his friend wouldn’t cross that line, but he wasn’t in the mood for his tasteless jokes. “How ‘bout I kick your ass right here, man?” Taking out his frustration would feel good, but he knew better than to use his fists as weapons.
    He had spent years earning a third-degree black belt, and if there was one thing he had learned during that time, it was to practice restraint. Unfortunately, he’d been holding on to his control by a tether for the past week, and he feared if someone looked at him sideways, it might snap and all hell would break loose.
    Luc laughed. “Relax. I’m just messin’ with ya, Josh.”
    “So this is about Lexi?” Trey asked. “Why don’t you just talk to her, work it out?”
    He shook his head. If only it were that easy. How could two people agree to disagree about whether they wanted to spend their lives together? “We’re just not on the same page, Trey. It doesn’t matter how much time we waste talking about it; it’s not gonna change anything.”
    Trey scanned his phone. “That’s a damn shame. I think you and Lexi would be great together. She needs someone like you in her life, someone she can count on.” He sent a text message and set his phone on the seat beside him.
    “Yeah, well, she only wants me in her life as a friend with benefits.” He leaned his head against the headrest. “God, I hate that term. What the hell does that even mean?”
    Luc chuckled. “In guy speak, it means you’ve hit the jackpot.”
    Josh laced his fingers behind his head and stared at his friend. “I may have agreed with you twenty years ago, but I’m not a kid anymore. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life alone. Do you?”
    Luc shifted in his seat, looking uncomfortable. “I like my life the way it is. If you wanna get hitched, be my guest, but it’s not for me.”
    Trey tossed a bottle of water at Luc, catching him in the chest. “That’s because you’re too stupid to know a good thing when you’ve got it. Trust me, when you’ve lost it, you’ll kick yourself in the ass.”
    Luc shrugged. “Marisa says she’s through with me, but I’m not buyin’ it. Give her time, she’ll be back.”
    “What if she doesn’t come