Authors: Leanne Davis
The Best Friend
The Best Friend
by
Leanne Davis
Sister Series, Book Three
Table of Contents:
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
The Best Friend
COPYRIGHT 2014 by Leanne Davis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Contact Information:
[email protected]
Publishing History First Edition, 2014 Digital
Digital ISBN: 978-1-941522-05-9
Sister Series, Book Three
Edited by Teri at The Editing Fairy (
[email protected]
)
Cover Design by Steven Novak (
[email protected]
)
Dedication
To the one person in the world who is forever my best friend…
My sister, Marianne Miller.
Acknowledgement:
To Teri for your amazing work editing my novels.
I could not imagine publishing without your expertise and polish.
Thank you so much!
Other Titles by Leanne Davis
The Sister Series:
The Other Sister (Book #1)
The Good Sister (Book #2)
The Best Friend (Book #3)
The Seaclusion Series:
Available from The Wild Rose Press
Poison (Book #1)
Notorious (Book #2)
Secrets (Book #3)
The Zenith Trilogy
Zenith Falling (Book #1)
Zenith Rising (Book #2)
Zenith Fulfilled (Book #3)
Chapter One
Gretchen Hendricks browsed the produce aisle of the grocery store, seeking some organic fruit that didn’t look totally unappetizing or rotten. She sorted through the pears, trying to find ones that were not too bruised or misshapen. Placing a few in her basket, she prepared to go down the next aisle to search out some hair gel. Turning the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks.
Tony? Tony Lindstrom?
Her mouth dropped open in shock. Surprise. No, in complete and utter horror. When did he get back? And when did
that
happen? She swallowed the instant lump that lodged in her throat. Will, her ex-husband and Tony’s best friend, didn’t tell her anything about it. How could he not? The tears pricking her eyes were immediate and real. She quickly backed up and hid behind the soda pop display, scolding herself for her cowardice.
She could not hide from him
, but she also could not, in good conscience, turn and ignore him after seeing him. That would be an inconsiderate, mean, and heartless thing to do. That would make her the worst person ever. But… what the hell could she say to him?
Hey, Tony. How are you? How did you lose your arm?
Of course, she already knew how Tony lost his arm: from fighting in the war. She didn’t know the particulars yet, but obviously, he got hurt and lost his left arm.
Oh, God! Not Tony. It wasn’t fair. It was horrible. He was a good, decent man. Or at least, he had been. She hadn’t seen much of him in more than five years; but had known him since they were in middle school together. He often stayed at her house after he and Will went out drinking, or just to hang out. She was married to his best friend and he was the best man at their wedding. He came over and got drunk with her after her divorce from Will was finalized, when he was at home briefly, visiting his parents on leave.
She knew soldiers went to war, and some soldiers didn’t return. Or they returned irrevocably changed. But Tony? No. It should not, and could not, have happened to Tony. But… it did.
She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin up. If he could fight for the country and sacrifice his arm, she could muster up the courage to face him. She wasn’t an insensitive person. She should have been able to face an old friend, no matter what happened to him.
But the churning of her stomach soon had bile climbing up her throat. Her hands trembled. Could she do this? Could she face him? And finally, how could she not?
She started down the aisle, but hesitated a few feet back from him. He stood behind his cart, staring at spaghetti sauce brands. His right hand, the one that was uninjured, came up as he chose a jar and set it into his cart. She inhaled a sharp breath when she saw his shirtsleeve pinned against his chest.
“Tony?”
He whipped around. She probably should have been louder and not crept up from behind him. It had to be a common thing for any soldier not to appreciate someone sneaking up from behind. She remembered how jumpy Will often was after he returned from special missions. She hated being married to a soldier. He was gone all the time, out being heroic. And she was stuck at home, complaining and hating his deployment; and acting the complete opposite of heroic.
She steeled her nerves and clenched her teeth to keep a polite smile of greeting and her eyes directly fastened on his. She refused to look down or avert her eyes. She would not act as if she and Tony didn’t share twenty years of history between them. Losing his arm didn’t change that.
He was almost unrecognizable. His hair was long and pulled back into a rubber band. He used to be clean-cut, sometimes even shaving his head for cleanliness. He had a full beard now that changed his looks completely. It made him look older, harsher, and more sinister. His hair and beard were light brown and his brown eyes had a small scar over his right eyebrow. She remembered how he and Will were playing in the woods near their houses when he fell and cut himself on a wayward piece of barbed wire left over from an old fence. She knew a lot of personal things about Tony. Just not how he lost his arm.
He looked much older now. Harder. More uncompromising. Wearing a flannel shirt over a t-shirt and gray sweats, she recalled how meticulously dapper and well put together he always was in the past, so unlike now. His expression didn’t change although his eyes widened barely a millimeter in reaction to seeing her. Did he not recognize her? She hadn’t changed all that much. She used to have long hair and now it was short.
“Hi,” she said directly to him.
Brilliant.
She was handling this with total class and dignity.
He didn’t answer her. Did something else happen to him? Were his mental faculties still intact? Did he suffer from a traumatic brain injury or something?
Finally, he nodded and said, “Hello Gretchen.” His tone was deep and low. She recalled that about him. His voice reminded her of an announcer on nighttime radio. Kind of hypnotic, almost sexy.
Her relief was swift. Okay, he could still speak and he remembered her name.
“Uh, hi. It’s been a long time. I didn’t know you were back home.”
His piercing, brown eyes drilled into her. “Yeah.”
Oh God
, her eyes kept wanting to dart down.
To look.
It was excruciating to resist. It was like having a fully-grown elephant sitting between them. The absence of his arm was so obvious, but how could she mention it politely? She had no clue. She bit her lip and smiled. “Will didn’t mention you were… back.”
He raised one eyebrow. Gretchen was never able to do that, raise one eyebrow, but not the other. She felt like she was losing her mind, grasping at straws, or anything else to
not
stare, to
not
let her gaze fall down to his amputated arm. She could not do that without being a complete and utter heel, as well as every other awful cliché out there. It was just really hard for her not to steal a glimpse. But that was as gauche as asking someone at a funeral if he or she was feeling better.
“Will doesn’t know. I haven’t spoken to him in several years.”
“What? Since when? Why? Why haven’t you stayed in touch? You two were the best of friends. Brothers in arms, soldiers…” Gretchen stopped mid-sentence, wishing she hadn’t mentioned “arms.”
He shrugged, turning his body so his right arm was toward her. “Things change.”
What could have changed? How could Will ever turn his back on Tony? It was
Tony,
for God’s sake. Will and he were best friends since… forever. Long before Gretchen entered the picture, as well as after she exited.
“Holy crap, is that Gretchen Moore?”
Gretchen turned, surprised. There, walking towards her, was Donny Lindstrom, Tony’s younger brother. She smiled and allowed Donny to lean down and kiss her cheek while hugging her. Wasn’t that how Tony should’ve greeted her? He used to. He used to smile and crack jokes with her, teasing her mercilessly. He used to be fun and charming. But that was all before he lost his arm. “I can’t believe it’s you. It’s been years. Way too long, in fact.”
Donny was three years younger than Tony and she. He was always the smiling prankster in high school, evoking laughs from all, but never unkind or malicious. He was probably the nicest person Gretchen ever knew.
Still smiling, she stepped back from Donny’s enthusiastic embrace. “It’s Hendricks now.”
“Ahh, shit. That’s right. You went and married the bastard. He was the crazy SOB who let you go, huh? Why’d you keep his name?”
Tony shifted uncomfortably, and Gretchen saw him in her peripheral vision. She felt odd discussing Will in front of him, which was ironic. Tony was the one with whom she used to regularly discuss Will. He gave a heart-wrenching speech at their wedding reception. He was the one they first called to announce their engagement. And the first to take them out for a beer and toast their upcoming nuptials.
Now, he scowled at merely seeing Gretchen’s warm, affectionate greeting toward his fun, harmless, little brother?
“I kept his name because it’s legally my name now. He and I have long since buried the hatchet.”
Donny nodded. “That’s because you’re the nicest person alive, and the only one I know who would want to remain friends with an ex.”
Maintaining a friendship with her ex was the least of it. She also helped treat Will’s second wife, Jessie, for sexual abuse, and his sister-in-law, Lindsey, for domestic abuse. Lindsey even lived with Gretchen briefly while fleeing her husband. So it was in Gretchen’s nature to be nice. But no, that was so not true. Look how hard she found it to just look Tony in the eye and say:
What happened? Are you okay? I’m so sorry that you lost your arm.