Page 68 of C*cky Best Friend
Chapter Thirty-One
Logan
The coffee table is littered with an abandoned board game and beer bottles.
Lexi can’t stop checking her phone. “Unbelievable,” she keeps muttering under her breath.
Ryder is engrossed in telling a story about snow-skiing in Nevada. “The beginner slopes are at the top, Zoe. You would love it because they go on for days and it’s like you’re flying. Most other resorts have beginner slopes where the hill just ends after about two seconds and then you have to go back up, which makes it boring.”
“I guess that would be pretty boring,” she offers, but she’d agree with anything he said.
Samantha glances to her sister. “He’s not coming?”
“He hasn’t returned the last text. I assumed he would be here, to surprise me or whatever, but apparently not.” Lexi reaches for a potato chip, crunching loudly as she glares at the phone like Brad is in it, flipping her off.
Oblivious, Zoe asks Ryder, “How many times have you been?”
“Countless. Jimmy and I would make the drive every weekend in the winters. Some of our other friends came along sometimes, but he and I went every single weekend.”
“I bet you miss him.”
“He just got engaged. I’ll be going back for the wedding.”
Samantha tells Lexi, “He might still show.”
“Brad loves to get a rise out of me. I’m going to pretend like it doesn’t, and the next time I talk to him I will act as if this conversation never happened.”
It’s nearing midnight. I clear my throat. “I have to go. We have a show tomorrow night.” Setting my empty bottle down, I mutter, “Shouldn’t have had this beer.”
Ryder stands up and stretches. “I’ll walk out with you.”
Zoe holds her disappointed tongue as he walks to his jacket. Samantha and Lexi rise up to give me hugs. This prompts Zoe to stand, and she smooths her hair while her pretty green eyes dart around like she wishes she could stop time and go back to where he was sitting with her, telling her stories all night, and pretty much just talking to solely her. Poor thing. I know exactly how she feels.
As we head for the door, Lexi says, “Maybe we’ll come up to New York and visit you. I’ve never seen a show on Broadway before.”
It would kill Sam to see the show she was supposed to be in, from the audience. Knowing this, I give a halfhearted nod. “You guys are welcome anytime.” My eyes lock with Samantha’s.
Zoe hugs me. “Fly high, Logan.”
“I will, Zo.”
She turns to hug her crush. He lifts her off the ground with a big squeeze that makes her laugh. I follow him out the door and reach to shut it, but find Samantha is coming with us. “I’ll walk you to your car.”
“I don’t have one.”
“Oh.”
Ryder looks over his shoulder. “I’m driving him home. Or to his friend’s place. You know what I mean.” His casual manner vanishes as he notices discomfort on our faces. “I’ll go wait in my car.” He jogs his thumb behind him and quickens his strides away.
The front of her apartment building is well landscaped, with large potted plants dotting the sidewalk. We stand by one and she leans against it as a streetlamp illuminates her almond-brown eyes. “It means a lot to me that you came down for this.”
“Does it?”
Knowing what I’m asking, she whispers, “Logan…”
“Forget it, Sam. I don’t know why I’m fishing in an empty lake.”
“Don’t put it like that,” she whispers. “This isn’t empty.”