Free Exposed: Book One of The Love Seekers Series by Maria Vickers

didn’t think her fiancé would have appreciated it if she had tried to go further with Bryan. Luke accepted their friendship and had known them both since college. Rumor even had it that he witnessed the whole drunken vomit induced night. It never seemed to bother him when they goofed around, or when Mel pretended to dry hump her best friend to chase away the ladies. I gave him props for that, because a lesser man would have taken up residence in the middle of jealous city.
    Luke Ransom was a good ol’ country boy from Tennessee, and the moment Mel laid eyes on him during her freshman year of college, she decided he belonged to her; however, he refused to go down without a fight. At six feet, he put up one hell of a fight at that. Whenever they were around each other, he pretended to ignore her, always spoke to her as if she were a stranger, and he hardly ever gave her the time of day. If she managed to corner him, he would turn around and leave as quickly as possible.
    It sounded harsh, but a couple of his friends had warned him that she liked to play games and loved it when a man played hard to get. And Luke stupidly trusted them. In addition, at the time he was never sure of the exact nature of her relationship with Bryan. Hell, I hadn’t known them as long as Luke had, and one night of karaoke even made me question if lingering feelings existed between Mel and Bryan.
                  The two men were similar in some ways, and yet very different. Both had brown hair and muscular statures, although Bryan’s hair was a couple shades darker…dreamier. Bryan was a little taller, a little tanner, and had a deeper voice than Luke. Where Luke had brown eyes, Bryan had hazel. Okay, other than the brown hair and muscle mass, they were nothing alike unless you counted how much they both cared about Mel. And I included it because according to my granny, a lot could be learned from how a man treated his friends and family.
                  It had been one of the first things I noticed about Bryan—more like the third o r fourth—an d I found myself jealous of her and the attention he gave her. Standing next to her, supporting her, stood Luke. A great guy by any standard, and so country I came across as a city girl next to him. After my dad retired and we moved to Texas, I turned slightly country in my attire, attitude, and accent. But Luke had me beat. And then Bryan appeared and suddenly Mel glued herself to her best friend’s side and Luke let it go.
                  When I asked Luke about it, he chuckled. That chuckle grew. Throwing back his head, he laughed deep from his belly and it was loud. At the time I wondered if he had been driven mad, and placed my hand on his shoulder as a gesture of condolence. He then surprised me when he said, “The moment they start acting normal or weird around each other, that’s when I know I have problems.” My expression must have told him how confused I felt, because he explained, “Trust me. They are more like siblings than anything else. They can’t even kiss each other. The day they get over that, then I’ll worry.”
                  Scrunching my nose, I shook my head and giggled. “Okay then.” I really didn’t understand it at the time, but as I continued to watch them throughout the night, I realized that Luke had been right. Bryan and Mel were just Bryan and Mel. They acted and behaved as siblings more than friends…dry humping aside.
                  I couldn’t say for sure when I became friends with Mel. When I could work before I got sick, we always exchanged emails and talked over the phone. After I got sick and had to stop working, she kept in touch and I counted her as one of my true friends. Before I moved to South Carolina, I had never met her in person, however, unlike some friends I had around me for years, she hadn’t disappeared when my body decided to turn against me. The day I arrived in