A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(9)

But Garrett had become an expert at compartmentalizing his feelings over the years. If he didn't admit it out loud, it wasn't true. He wasn't in love with one of his best friends because he would never say that out loud.

So he went on with his life and slept with random women to chase away his feelings and everyone had a good laugh about what a player he was.

He pretended that he imagined the looks of jealousy in Parker's eyes when he brought yet another new girl into their circle, and he most certainly knew he imagined the way she sometimes stared at his lips when he talked or sighed his name when she slept on the couch in his room while she and Milo were fighting.

Garrett was fully prepared to be Milo's best man and to give Parker away at their wedding since she hadn't spoke to her dad in twelve years. He lied through his teeth when he told them he would be honored to have such an important task.

He resigned himself to the fact that this was his life, now and forever...until his best friend was killed in action.

The shock slowly wore off and Garrett and Parker started to learn how to live their lives without Milo. Garrett hated the fact that every time he looked at her, he wondered “What if?” Milo didn’t deserve that kind of betrayal from him. It was too late to go back in time and make her his.

But she was never his to begin with, was she? You couldn't take back something that was never yours.

When Garrett found out things about Milo and the Dominican mission weren’t adding up, and that there were rumors his death wasn't an accident, he knew he had no other choice. As much as he didn't want to leave Parker so soon after Milo's death, he had to do this. For both of them. They needed closure.



His best friend had been gone for a month and Garrett still struggled every day to believe it was true. The past four weeks he’d spent every waking moment waiting for his phone to ring and to hear Milo’s boisterous laugh on the other end telling him it was all one big misunderstanding. But that call never came, and Garrett realized he couldn’t sit around waiting for it to happen. He reported back to work a few days earlier than planned because Parker threatened to beat the crap out of him if he didn’t. Under normal circumstances he would have laughed at her for thinking she could even attempt something like that, but her face was entirely too serious when she said it, and Garrett was a little worried she might actually attempt it and hurt herself.

Since Garrett never took a day off, he had accrued enough time to be able to take at least six weeks off. After two weeks he was climbing the walls. But he refused to leave Parker’s side, and even with her continued reassurance that she would be fine, he stuck by her like glue for another two weeks before she finally put her foot down.

“Garrett, you need to go back to work,” Parker told him one night over dinner.

It had been twenty-two days, two hours, and forty-seven minutes since the knock on her door informed Parker that Milo was never coming home. It had been twenty-one days since Garrett had slept in his own house, preferring to sleep on Parker’s couch instead. And it had been fourteen days since Parker hadn’t been irritated with him at one point or another for hovering over her like she was on the verge of suicide or a nervous breakdown.

At first his concern was sweet, and she was grateful to him for helping her pick up the pieces and figure out how to live without Milo, but now he was just getting on her nerves. He refused to take his own advice of moving on and living again. She could see it in his eyes. He’d lost someone too, but he acted like she was the only one hurting. She was tired of him keeping everything bottled up inside. She knew he was avoiding the grief and the sadness just to make sure she was okay. She would never be okay again. She’d lost her best friend and a huge piece of her heart when Milo died. She was slowly coming to terms with that and trying to live one day at a time, just like everyone told her to do. It was time for Garrett to do that as well. He couldn’t stay home from work and sleep on her couch forever. She needed to figure out how to do this on her own, and she couldn’t do that with Garrett keeping track of her every breath.

“Seriously, it’s time for you to go back,” Parker repeated as Garrett sat across the table from her not saying anything.

He gently set his fork down next to his plate and looked at her face, studying it to see if she was serious.

“I still have another two weeks before I need to go back, don’t worry.”

Parker sighed in exasperation.

“I’m not worried about your time off. I’m worried about you. You’re going insane sitting around here day in and day out.”

Garrett shook his head and tried to laugh it off, but Parker knew him too well.

“You need to move on too, Garrett,” she told him softly. “I’m not the only one who lost someone. I know your work is therapy to you. It clears your head and you love doing it. I’m not going to let you put your life on hold any more for me. I’m going to be okay. It’s time for you to go.”

As much as it pained Garrett to leave Parker, he knew she was right. Neither one of them could move on if they were sitting around her house lost in memories.

Two days later, Garrett went back to work.

An hour into his day and he was still busy going through the emails he missed while he’d been out when a Navy messenger came up to his desk and set down a bin full of mail.

Garrett looked up from what he’d been doing with a confused look on his face.