***

Maree clinked her glass with mine and indicated for me to take a sip. “Here’s to hot sex with Kick¸” she said, laughing.

I rolled my eyes. “I should never have told you,” I muttered. But the conversation about Kick had put my worry about Dad out of mind, and that was what I needed tonight.

Her eyes twinkled with mischief. “You should totally have told me. I wanna meet this man who’s got you all flustered.”

I shifted on my stool. The humidity in the outdoor bar we were at had caused my long hair to stick to my neck. Thank god I’d worn a sleeveless dress tonight. Probably didn’t help that the conversation about Kick was getting me all hot and bothered. I eyed Maree and decided to open up to her about Kick and my family. She’d only known me for two years and I hadn’t shared much with her so far. I’d had enough alcohol tonight to spill my life story, though. “I’ve known Kick pretty much my whole life,” I began.

Her eyes widened. “Wow.”

“His family and mine lived on the same street and our mothers were best friends. Kick was a year older than me and always kept an eye out for me at school, made sure I was okay and wasn’t being picked on.”

“I’m guessing if someone picked on you, he came down on them.”

I smiled. “Yeah, he did. And he had another friend, Jeremy, who looked out for me, too. The three of us were inseparable.” The memories swirled around me, causing butterflies in my stomach.

“So your families are best friends and you two grew up thinking you’d have a happy ever after together?” she asked, a tinge of hopefulness in her voice. Maree dreamt of happy ever afters.

She was so far from the truth. “No, our - ”

A voice from behind cut me off. “No, my father fucked it all up when he fucked Evie’s mother.” The bitterness in Kick’s voice could not be missed and I spun around in shock. I didn’t realise he still felt that way about his father.

As I stared at him, Maree said, “Well, that would do it.”

He tore his gaze from mine to look at her. “Yeah, it would.”

I felt the need to put some perspective on it. “It takes two to tango, Kick. Your father wasn’t the only one at fault.”

His hard gaze met mine again. “Evie, your mother had just lost a child, for fuck’s sake, her marriage was crumbling under the strain of that as well as your father’s gambling, and she was in pain... My father knew she was vulnerable and he went after her knowing full well she wasn’t in her right mind. Don’t make excuses for him.”

I took a long swig of my drink. These memories sucked, and I wanted the alcohol to blot them out.

Before I could say anything, Maree asked quietly, “Your mother lost a child?”

I nodded, sadness enveloping me. “Yeah, my sister, Shelly...” My voice cracked and I stopped talking. Shit, this never got any easier. Not even after nineteen years.

Because the guilt still tears me apart.

“Our families were on our yearly holiday that we took every summer when Shelly fell out of a tree,” Kick explained, watching me carefully, his eyes full of concern.

All three of us sat in silence, lost in thought. Our fun night had quickly turned sombre. I stared at my glass, absently running my finger around the rim while Shelly occupied my mind. When I looked up, I found Kick watching me intently, his shoulders and body tense.

Eventually, he said, “I need a drink. Either of you want another one?”

Thank God.

We nodded, gave him our orders, and then sat watching him walk to the bar. My gaze shifted over his white t-shirt that loosely skimmed his muscles, and then moved down to the black jeans and motorcycle boots. I’d never known another man to wear sexy the way Kick did.

Maree cut into my thoughts. “Babe, he’s hot. How the hell did you walk away from him? I don’t know if I would ever let him out of my bed if he was mine.”

She was the best kind of friend a woman could have. Always able to read my needs, I knew she’d deliberately changed the subject. She’d known I didn’t want to talk about my family shit anymore. I smiled at her and then winked. “I can tell you now, if Kick was yours, you definitely wouldn’t want to let him out of your bed.”

She grinned. “You’re a dirty, dirty woman, Evie Bishop. But seriously, what happened between you two?”

I sighed and leant my elbows on the table. “We argued a lot. And on top of that, Kick’s got a darker side he won’t share with me. Like, he would just shut down and disappear for days at a time. I know he’s trying to protect me but he’s never understood that there’s nothing he could do that would stop me from loving him. He’s always been there for me, every single time I needed him, so I would always be there for him.”

“So you still love him?”

“I never stopped loving him, but I walked away because there’s no future for a couple where one of the partners won’t give themself completely.”

Her eyes twinkled again. “So a little sex on the side would be okay then.”

I laughed, the alcohol in me softening my resolve a little. “It would be a bad idea.”

“What would be a bad idea?” Kick asked as he placed our drinks on the table.

His voice slid right through me. When I met his gaze and found heat there, the alcohol buzzing through me collided with my desire for him and caused the kind of need no woman could deny. Against all my better judgements, I flirted with him. “Sleeping with you,” I said.