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Her fingers loosened on my arms with the small distance I’d created between us, a slight frown marring her beautiful, clueless face.
I shoved down the irritating feelings that buzzed within me, keeping my mask of indifference firmly in place. “You’re amazing, Trissabelle. It’s time for you to find someone who sees that, who cherishes every little thing about you, not someonewho forgets your biggest fear.” The truth sat like glass in my throat, sharp and painful. I wanted her to see reason. To realize what she had so callously thrown away so long ago.Me.And yet, I didn’t. I steeled myself, knowing my heart didn’t need to be broken unintentionally by her again.
She shook her head, not noticing my turmoil. “He’s just not himself lately.”
I hated how she made excuses for him. “I’m not sure how much I know him now, but I tend to doubt it.”
“He’s still that same guy underneath it all. He just lost his way.”
“Tink—”
“Please, Killian,” she pleaded. Her blue eyes beseeching me, filled with a mix of hope and desperation that tugged at my heartstrings. “I need my friend. I know it’s a lot to ask, probably too much after all this time, especially with how things ended between you and Peter, but I need your help to get Peter to notice me. I need you to teach me to attract him. I need you to be my–my love coach.”
Well, fuck.
How the hell was I supposed to respond to that? Anger surged through me directed at both myself and Tris. I should’ve told her all those years ago that I was in love with her, because if she’d known she would never ask this of me now.
“You know him best,” she continued on. “And I don’t know what else to do.” Her heartbreak was evident by the lines etched in her face and the tear tracks down her cheeks.
I shook my head, battling the urge to tell her to fuck off. This was Tris. She had no idea what her request was doing to me. Or that my innate desire to give her everything she wanted was at war with my common sense.
She misinterpreted my headshake. “You do. You know who Peter is at his core. I need you to teach me how to get Peter tonotice me. Help me become someone he’d ask on a date. A real one.” A frown tugged at her lips. “Even with everything that’s happened. there’s still good in him.”
“I’m probably not the best person?—”
“You are. You knew us before he became famous. Before the drugs and partying.” Her fingers dug into my shirt, holding tight. “He and I have a soul connection. I can’t just give up on that. And I need to try one last time to get him to see me in a romantic light before I give up for good.”
With every syllable of her request, my heart squeezed tighter, sharp pain lancing through it. I wanted to shake some sense into her. To get her to see that Peter wasn’t the right guy for her and never had been. “I don’t know, Tink,” I said. My throat was so tight I could barely choke out the words. To buy myself time, I scrubbed a hand down my face, focusing on how the stubble roughly scraped the palm of my hand.
Tris’s teeth sank into her bottom lip, and her chin trembled. Gently she let go and brushed her hand at the crumpled fabric created by her grip. “No, I get it. It’s too much to ask. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
I stood there, torn about how to respond. The logical part of my brain screamed at me to walk away, to protect myself from the inevitable heartache that would come from getting involved. But my heart, the treacherous thing that it was, urged me to stay, to help her, to be close to her.
“It’s okay, Killian.” Her soft hand cupped my cheek, the gentle touch sending sparks across my skin. “It really is. And I mean it when I say I’ve missed you. Maybe next time we won’t wait ten years to say hello.”
She was too damn understanding.
The smile on her face wobbled. “I hope if I don’t see you again though, that you know I think of you. I want you to behappy.” She lifted on her toes to brush a kiss across my cheek, and then she turned away.
My skin burned. Instinct drove me to reach out for her, to grasp her wrist tight enough that she had to turn back. The second it hit me what I’d done, I dropped her hand.
I’d never hurt her. Not willingly.
The words tumbled out of me. “Give me a few days to think about it.”
She nodded and threw herself at me. Her arms wrapped tight around my waist in an exuberant hug. With her face nestled into the crook of my neck, her breath feathered across my skin, sending shivers down my spine. “Thank you. You won’t regret this.”
Now I’d fucking done it.
As I held her, a sense of foreboding washed over me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that this decision would lead to unforeseen consequences. Although, if I did the unthinkable and agreed to help her, maybe I could work Trissabelle out of my system once and for all. If time and distance hadn’t broken the love and desire I felt for her, then maybe helping her win the one person I hated the most in the world would.
Just then, a waiter bustled past us with a tray full of champagne flutes, forcing us to press closer to the wall. The brief moment of additional contact sent a jolt straight through my body to my dick.
As we pulled apart, our eyes met, and for a split second, I thought I saw a glimmer of desire in her gaze. But it was gone as quickly as it had appeared, leaving me to wonder if I’d imagined it.
Tris smoothed her hands over her dress. “Let me give you my phone number.”
“Is it the same?” I’d kept her number in my old phone even when I deleted Peter’s.