Best Friends Don't Kiss(22)

Ava: You know that’s because I don’t like to feel the weird, squishy ground between my toes when I’m in the water. Boats are a totally different story.



Ha. She’s right, I guess. I type another message quickly.



Me: You’re right. The problem with boats is motion sickness.



She gets motion sickness if she even glances at her phone on the subway.



Ava: It doesn’t matter. I’ve already scheduled a date with Brian. Tomorrow.



I sigh. Fucking Brian the Boat-Lover. I don’t even have to meet the guy to know Ava is too good for him.

“Everything okay, bud?” Thatch asks, and I glance up to find everyone at the table staring at me.

“Yeah.” I swallow, tucking my phone into my pocket and screwing my face back into my best professional smile.

“You sure?” His smirk quirks up the corners of his mouth. “Because that was a lot of sighs for one man to release in the span of two minutes.”

“It’s nothing, really,” I assure everyone. Ava and her antics are nothing new in my life.

“Luke, my man, I’ve seen that look a hundred times before, and it almost always revolves around lady troubles. Possibly a little lovers’ quarrel?”

I laugh outright. “It’s nothing like that. Just some questionable decisions by my best friend Ava.”

“His best friend who might as well be his girlfriend,” Trevor adds, and I roll my eyes.

“Come on, man, not this song again. Ava and I have been friends since college. Just friends. That’s it. Just like you and me.”

“Uh-huh. Sure. You and Ava are not friends like you and I are friends, bro.” Trev grins. “I’ve watched you walk away from at least a hundred hot-as-hell women over the course of our friendship, and every time, it was because you were too worried about Ava.”

I wish I could refute his claim, but honestly, there have been a lot of women over the years I’ve ignored because I was preoccupied with something Ava-related. But that’s just what being a good friend is. Right?

Cap tilts his head to the side. “So, let me get this straight. You’re having best friend problems…” He pauses and searches my eyes. “And your best friend is a girl named Ava?”

“Yeah?” I respond, perplexity apparent in my voice. “And?”

Theo smirks over his glass of whiskey. “Well, in my experience, the male-female friendship dynamic rarely, if ever, stays just friends. It almost always leads to more.”

Cap snorts. “Yeah, especially when you’re just friends with someone’s fucking little sister.”

“What?” Trev questions, and Theo lets out a half sigh, half chuckle.

“Cap is referring to the fact that I married his sister.”

“My baby fucking sister,” Cap interjects.

“Jesus, you guys have quite the stories, you know that?” Trev retorts on a laugh. “Every time we hang out with you, I find out all sorts of new, interesting shit.”

“When it comes to these bastards, I have stories for days, son.” Thatch winks. “But we’ll have to save those for another time. You know, when we’re not so focused on trying to figure out why Luke is pretending he’s not in love with his best friend Ava.”

“Oh, come on!” A wolflike, incredulous laugh jumps from my lungs. “I’m not in love with Ava. It’s not like that with us. Like I said, we’ve been friends since college. Damn near fifteen years of just friendship.”

“Oh, okay. That explains everything.” Thatch nods, but I can tell he’s still not convinced.

“Trust me on this. Ava and I are just friends.”

“Okay.” Cap shrugs it off. “So, if you’re just friends with her, what has your panties in a bunch right now?”

“My panties aren’t in a bunch. Ava has officially entered the wild world of dating in the TapNext realm, and I can tell it’s heading for disaster. I’m preparing to clean up the mess. That’s all.”

“Did you hear that, Kline?” Wes responds in amusement. “His best friend is using your little dating app.”

Kline smirks, and I cringe. Shit. I don’t know why I forgot that TapNext was his company’s app, but I did. I hope he doesn’t take too much offense and, you know, fire me.

Thatch rubs his hands together with a smile, and Kline shrugs. Thankfully, it seems he doesn’t care about my less-than-flattering take on his life’s work. He’s maybe a little annoyed that he’s going to have to listen to Thatch and Wes volley back and forth about it, but that’s it. “What’s the situation?” Thatch questions. “Drug dealer? Pedophile? Who’s she matching with, dude?”

Kline shakes his head and takes a swig of his drink before muttering, “We background check, T. Don’t be ridiculous with this shit.”

Thatch laughs and turns back to me. “So, what is it? Why is this going to be a disaster?”

“She’s going on a date with some guy named Brian. His profile is full of popped-collar pictures and waxing poetic about his boat.”

Trent snorts. “Popped collars? Have we gone back in time fifteen years?”

“Yeah,” I huff out. “It’s like reliving all her douchebag college boyfriends all over again.”