Free I Saw Her Standing There by Marie Force Page B

no longer naked, he washed up and got out to grab towels for both of them.
    Lucy combed her hair and secured it in a ponytail.
    They got dressed in silence. Colton wished there was something he could say that would make her laugh the way she had last night. He wanted to let her know everything was going to be okay, but he wasn’t sure of that himself. They’d been living in their own little bubble, going from weekend to weekend and holding the outside world at arm’s length.
    Now their bubble had burst and they were forced to confront realities they weren’t quite ready to face. He took her hand and gripped it tightly. “It’s all good, okay?”
    “Sure,” she said with a distinct lack of conviction. “Let’s get this over with.”
    They opened the bedroom door and were hit with an ambush. Cameron stepped between them, edging Colton aside with scary agility. He had no choice but to release Lucy’s hand or risk losing his own hand as the door slammed in his face and the lock clicked into place.
    What. The.
Fuck?
He turned to find Will leaning against the wall, arms folded and lips tight with displeasure and maybe pride at what his girlfriend had managed to accomplish.
    “You’ve got some serious explaining to do, little brother. And there’s no time like the present.”
    *   *   *
    Lucy had never been scared of Cameron before. She’d never had reason to be. Until now. Her best friend was probably furious—and with good reason.
    “So,” Cameron said.
    Lucy sat on the edge of the bed. “So.”
    “Were you going to tell me?”
    “Eventually.”
    “
When?
And how long has this been going on?”
    Lucy wished she could find a way out of this mess of her own making. If only she’d shown some restraint where Colton was concerned none of this would be happening. “Um, since the night I met him.”
    Cameron’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “The night you went to dinner with him and his parents?”
    “That would be the one.”
    Cameron came and sat next to her. “Tell me everything. Don’t leave out a single detail.”
    Lucy sighed and tried to figure out how to explain something she didn’t quite understand herself. “As you know, he’d come down from the mountain to hear the website proposal,” she began haltingly. A big part of her wanted to tell Cameron to go to hell. It was none of her business. Except . . . She would never say that to Cameron, of all people. They’d been through everything together, and she owed her best friend the truth.
    “Right . . . And?”
    “We went to a place in St. Johnsbury.”
    “The locals call it St. J. I just heard that. If you’re going to hang with the locals, you should speak the lingo.”
    “I’m not going to hang with the locals. I’m not you, Cameron. I’m not uprooting myself. I’m simply enjoying some fun. It’s nothing like you and Will.”
    Cameron swept that comment away with her hand. “Back to the night you met. You went to dinner and then what?”
    “We had a lot of fun. He’s funny, as you’ve probably noticed, and his parents are . . . Well, I don’t need to tell you.”
    “No, you certainly don’t. They’re amazing.”
    “Yes. There was a lot of laughter at dinner. I can’t remember the last time I had that much fun with people who’d been strangers a few hours earlier.”
    “They have that effect. I’ve experienced it myself.”
    “When we got back to Butler, Colton told his parents he’d see me back to the inn, so they dropped us off in town and headed home.”
    “They just dropped you off. They didn’t say anything?”
    “No, not really.”
    Cameron tapped her forefinger against her lip. “That’s surprising.”
    “Why?”
    “Never mind. Keep talking. You went back to the inn, and then what?”
    “There was a guy playing the piano in the lounge, so we went in and had a drink. Well, a couple of drinks actually . . . Too many for him to drive home, so he came upstairs with me.”
    “Did you